PROTESTING THE BARBARIC Ukraine invasion by banning Russian music from orchestral concerts is shortsighted, but replacing the 1812 Overture on July 4th programs is long overdue. Tchaikovsky was born in Russia, […]
Arts + Policy
Posted inOpinion
How arts enrich the state’s civic life
LOCAL ARTS PROVIDE a wellspring for community – energizing residents and enriching civic life. Our regions benefit from the remarkable ways that arts and cultural expression help people engage, connect, […]
Posted inOpinion
As history shows, those educated in arts shape the future
THIS YEAR marks a profound milestone in how Massachusetts became a national symbol of ingenuity and creativity, leading the way in preparing new generations to take on the challenges and […]
Posted inArts and Culture
‘The Embrace’ is good art, but not good public art
I AGREE WITH those who say “The Embrace” tribute to Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King is good art. But it may not be good public art. Good public […]
Posted inThe Download
GBH host O’Donovan faces bleak prognosis with ‘poetry and prayers’
It was a moment when memories were made, beautifully, poignantly, publicly. Brian O’Donovan, celebrating the 20thyear of his annual live show “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” stood onstage at Boston’s Cutler […]
Posted inArts and Culture
GBH host O’Donovan faces bleak prognosis with ‘poetry and prayers’
IT WAS A MOMENT when memories were made, beautifully, poignantly, publicly. Brian O’Donovan, celebrating the 20thyear of his annual live show “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” stood onstage at Boston’s Cutler […]
Posted inOpinion
Focus on the building, not the ‘starchitect’ who designed it
AS AN ARCHITECTURAL historian, I’m usually delighted to learn that an architecturally significant building has been saved from demolition. But there is no avoiding the fact that the Baker administration’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Supporting BIPOC artists helps grow communities
Second in a series of commentaries on arts in community ARTISTS, AND THE cultural expression they create, are essential to the future of Massachusetts cities and towns. Communities must do […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Finding synergy between artists, innovators, developers
IF YOU THINK of some of the world’s greatest and most productive cities through history – Florence, Paris, Hong Kong, New York, and of course, Boston – there is an […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Fitchburg aims to drive back to the future
EARLY ON A RECENT Thursday morning, Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale climbed into the passenger seat of a 1914 Model T and took a ride down Main Street into the city’s […]
Posted inArts and Culture
In Hynes redevelopment, you’ve got to have arts
GENE RODDENBERY’S classic television series explored the voyages of the starship Enterprise, exploring new worlds, seeking out new lives and civilizations and to boldly go where nobody has before. We […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Street mural artists explain their craft
ARTISTS, SAID PERCY FORTINI-WRIGHT, are “documenters” of history. “Without artists, you wouldn’t know what went on in the past,” he said. “Art is what man has created up until now…It’s the […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Murals: An emerging form of community development
THE WALLS OF the affordable housing buildings in The Point neighborhood of Salem have been painted for as long as 15-year-old Bunny Spodick can remember. For a long time, they […]
Posted inOpinion
Boston’s corporate sector needs to step up on arts
WHEN I WAS a working musician, few metrics mattered more to me than my orchestra’s concert attendance. A full house has a flywheel effect where the energy between the performers and audience […]
Posted inUncategorized
CommonWealth wins six awards from New England newspaper association
COMMONWEALTH WON SIX AWARDS, including four first-place designations, from the New England Newspaper & Press Association in its Better Newspaper Competition. The awards were for articles written between August 1, […]
Posted inOpinion
Using art to address social issues
First in a series of commentaries on arts in community LeLand Gantt’s performance of Rhapsody in Black was an entry point for people in an overwhelmingly White region to talk […]
Posted inArts and Culture
New Samuel Slater Experience spotlights ‘father of American manufacturing’
AS SAMUEL SLATER traveled from England to the United States in 1789, he voiced his ambitions to revolutionize the US textile industry with knowledge he had gained in England. Yet […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Asian-American/Pacific Islander arts face unique challenges post-COVID
TWO YEARS AGO, Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy had 200 students learning martial arts in Malden and Quincy. Its performance team was hired to perform lion and […]
Posted inArts and Culture
New Bedford arts groups making connections
THE NEW BEDFORD Historical Society, whose focus is the history of people of color in the South Coast city, appears poised for a takeoff. The society is developing a park […]
Posted inBook Review
The Quabbin lesson of doing big things (mostly) together
BEFORE THE FLOOD Destruction, Community, and Survival in the Drowned Towns of the Quabbin By Elisabeth C. Rosenberg 232 pages, Pegasus Books TODAY IT MIGHT be hard to imagine something […]
Posted inArts and Culture
DCR ghosts artist group in Hull
A FEW YEARS AGO, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation put an early 1900s dilapidated, long-vacant building it owns across from Nantasket Beach in Hull out to bid for […]
Posted inOpinion
Making room for everyone in the audience
A MUTUAL COLLEAGUE of ours recently recounted for us a personal story of how a situation she would have normally loved – a classical music concert with some of her […]
Posted inArts and Culture
High school junior wows Lawrence crowd
ALLISON CASTILLO, a junior at Methuen High School, got the call on New Year’s Eve. The singer that Lawrence City Clerk Diane LeBlanc had lined up to sing “God Bless […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Michael Rodrigues takes up cause of restoring Azorean Jewish heritage
PICTURES OF THE old synagogue show a decrepit building with peeling paint, broken furniture, and rotting wood. Prayer books were ripped. There were water leaks, vermin, and structural damage. It […]
