Consortium of Community Art Centers/New Art Center

CONTACT:

61 Washington Park
Newton, MA 02460-0003
(617) 964-3424
www.newartcenter.org

Mindy Gregory Sieber, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Community art centers exist to give art and artists greater support and visibility in their communities, to enhance communities’ quality of life. They provide art classes, child-care and youth programs, summer camps, referral services for would-be patrons, affordable studio, gallery and performance spaces, and family and social programs for their entire communities.

Almost all of them are very small organizations, and to give them greater voice and public presence a number of them have formed this Consortium, representing 11 centers, serving over 100 communities in eastern Massachusetts, hiring 400 artist-educators, exhibiting the work of 500 artists, providing studios for 200 artists, and presenting a multitude of performances annually to a combined audience of 75,000. Their unity is their strength.

Art Centers achieve significant economies of scale through cooperative planning and information sharing. The Consortium can provide services more cost-effectively than the Centers can for themselves individually. It can pool personnel and financial resources to address building, health and safety issues, seek legal advice, strengthen marketing and fundraising, provide professional development, and hire consultants. Donors supporting the Consortium of Community Art Centers achieve corresponding leverage for their support of the arts in communities. We urge you therefore to support both: one or more Centers, and the Consortium itself.

Members of the Consortium

Arlington Center for the Arts
acarts.org

The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts
Jamaica Plain
eliotschool.org

Munroe Center for the Arts
Lexington
munroecenter.org

Brookline Arts Center
brooklineartscenter.com

The Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts
Concord
emersonumbrella.org

New Art Center in Newton
newartcenter.org

Children's Hands-On Art Museum
Littleton

Kendall Center for the Arts
Belmont

South Shore Art Center
Cohasset
ssac.org

Dorchester Community Center for the Visual Arts
DotArt.org

Mudflat Studio
Somerville
mudflat.org

(2000: CULTURE: Arts: Community)