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In partnership with Forecast Public Art and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s Arts and Culture Department, NEFA’s Public Art team is hosting Making it Public in Massachusetts in the Spring of 2022. Making it Public in MA is a dual-track professional development series, designed and facilitated by Forecast, to foster more equitable opportunities for public artmaking while also preparing more artists to respond to calls for public art across Massachusetts.
Mark Salinas, Senior Project Manager at Forecast shares that, “Making It Public offers a cohesive arts industry workshop approach for artists and municipal arts administrators that informs and enhances the efforts and outcomes of public art opportunities in their communities.” By training municipal staff across Massachusetts to better support public artmaking and cultivating more artists to respond to calls for public art, NEFA aims to support more diverse, inclusive, and equitable public artmaking happening in communities across the state.
Nine municipalities in MA (see below for details) have been selected to participate in Making it Public: for MA Municipalities, and registration for Making it Public: for MA Artists is now open!
Artists in MA:
Making it Public: for MA Artists – Registration for Spring 2022 is open!
Making it Public: for MA Artists is facilitated by Candida Gonzalez, and will cover practical and tactical subjects including site analysis, stakeholder considerations, community engagement, funding opportunities, contracting, insurance, and more! Sessions will include guest public art professionals, both local and national, adding a depth of knowledge about the field of public art, the profession, and its contemporary issues.
Spring 2022 Making it Public: for MA Artists will take place (virtually) Tuesdays, March 15-April 12, 2022.
Artists in MA:
Deadline for artists to register: February 18, 2022, 11:59 PM ET
Making it Public: for MA Municipalities
Through an open call for Letters of Interest from municipalities across MA, the following cities and towns were selected to participate in the Spring 2022, Making it Public: for MA Municipalities cohort:
- Amherst, MA
- Attleboro, MA
- Fitchburg, MA
- Lowell, MA
- Lynn, MA*
- Natick, MA
- New Bedford, MA
- Salem, MA
- Watertown, MA
* Lynn, MA was added to the confirmed list of participating municipalities 2/16/22.
By supporting cities and towns across MA and at different levels of experience in supporting public artmaking, we hope this cohort will create a fruitful peer learning experience.
Making it Public: for MA Municipalities is facilitated by Aki Shibata, and will provide municipal staff expanded skills and knowledge to better support more equitable calls for public artmaking in their communities. At the conclusion of the workshop series, each participating municipality will have the opportunity to put their new skills to work by conducting a Call for Temporary Public Art, with funding from NEFA and additional technical assistance support from Forecast and MAPC.
Artists in MA:
This means there may be nine Calls for Temporary Public Art in the respective communities listed above opening in the latter half of 2022!
Stay tuned and be sure you are signed up for the NEFA Public Art interest list to receive updates from NEFA’s public art team!
