Northshore Magazine

Northshore May 2019

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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91 Essex County Community Foundation's Creative County Initiative supports arts and culture on the North Shore. B Y A L E X A N D R A P E C C I life, some of our richest and most heart-opening experiences come from art. Art shapes the places around us, too, making our neighborhoods and communities stronger in the process. Look no further than the city of Beverly, with its downtown arts district anchored by the revitalized Cabot eatre, or Cape Ann, with its vibrant and inspiring art colonies. at's why the Essex County Community Foundation's Creative County Initiative is such big and exciting news. Supported by a $500,000 grant from the Boston-based Barr Foundation and buoyed by another $250,000 of fundraising, the Creative County Initiative is a two-year pilot program that brings together artists, arts organizations, and community and business leaders to improve the quality of life in Essex County through art and culture. "Economic development is very integrally tied to the creative economy," says Stephen Immerman, president emeritus of Montserrat College of Art and member of the Creative County Initiative steering committee. "It's overwhelmingly who and what we are, and how we understand the world. e vibrancy of our life, and the vibrancy of our economy, is very much impacted by creativity." However, the work of the Creative County Initiative is about so much more than simply providing arts funding. It's also deeply invested in true and sustainable "creative placemaking," ensuring that arts and culture become embedded in the DNA of a community in every way. at includes everything from public arts projects to designating live/work spaces for artists to building the arts into municipal planning and budgets. "It's a road map to the real, thoughtful way ILLUSTRATION BY KAILEY WHITMAN E X P R E S S I V E

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