Julie Burros, Boston’s new Chief of Arts and Culture spoke to neighborhood residents at the North End / Waterfront Residents’ Association (NEWRA) meeting held on August 13, 2015. Speaking on how arts and culture play in our lives, Burros discussed her role as a way to help shape the vision for public arts in Boston.
Explaining how art can affect quality of life in the city, Burros touched upon the importance of arts education in Boston Public schools. In addition to the need in schools, the city of Boston overall is “underfunded” compared to other major US cities. In fact, Boston funding for arts and culture is lowest of all major US cities, but a commitment to increase funding for arts has been upheld by Mayor Walsh, who doubled grant money for art in 2015.
Despite the lack of funding for art in Boston, the popularity is certainly there. The statistics below illustrate that Boston residents attend art events more than the national average.
Average number of cultural events attended by citizen per year:
1.42 National
1.79 Boston
Burros moved to Boston from Chicago and is hoping to help develop arts and culture within Mayor Walsh’s agenda while bringing values through art that can help shape city life.
View more segments from the NEWRA meeting, including zoning requests and Jerome Smith.
