Health & Fitness
A Passion for Fostering the Arts in Dover
The importance of the local arts to our community and how the Dover Cultural Council helps to foster this.
Last week on February 8 as chairperson and member of the Dover Cultural Council I attended a program at the State House entitled Telling Our Story: Transforming Communities through Arts & Culture, at the 2012 LCC Statewide Assembly with another member Erin Gorden.
The day was truly inspiring and taught us how critical the ARTS are to our economy and culture. Participants were encouraged to meet with and share experiences with colleagues in local cultural councils across the state. We also had the opportunity to meet with our legislators, hear the Berkshire Bateria, and gather ideas from a panel discussion with Kate Burton, Roger Brown, Jon Abbott and Steven Grossman.
It was amazing to hear these speakers talk about the importance of the arts to economic development. For example in New York, 42nd Street became revitalized once the old Liberty Theater was renovated. This was an important project to help revamp the shoddy and often dangerous 42nd Street of the 1970s and 1980s.
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It is now a hub of strong economic activity and a major tourist destination. Similiarly the theater district in Boston has been revitalized since Emerson College and Suffolk University started to purchase and develop theaters such as the Paramount. (see article http://www.new42.org/new42/new42_liberty.html)
Massachusetts can proudly boast cultural and arts councils across the state from Provincetown to the Berkshires. I was proud to learn that most arts programs start at the local seed level and often are launched due to the seed money provided by the local cultural councils. The work we do to review and help fund cultural grants is very important to help provide support for the development of many of these programs.
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As chairperson of the Dover Cultural Council this year I am very excited to be able to work with a committee to review and provide input to cultural organizations hoping to launch new programs in our community. Although the majority of our focus through the DCC is the programs we fund this year I would like to invite postings on my blog to anyone who has an arts or cultural type of speciality in the Dover community. Feel free to write something about your area of interest. It would be great to learn more about the arts and culture we have in Dover. I also invite you to visit the Dover Cultural Council page on Facebook.