Art connecting lives right here in Adams Corner

By Dan Hunter

How do you build community? How do people bond with their neighborhood, town and city?

These are key questions for policy makers when the state faces a decline in population and devises critical economic development strategies. The dimensions of these problems are as diverse and complex as the many neighborhoods of Dorchester. Building stronger communities requires diverse strategies from the tangible like the concrete infrastructure of our streets to the intangible, the commitment and pride of neighbors working together.

You can't legislate a spirit of community - the commitment of pride that says this is my neighborhood, this is my town. But, you can find it in Dorchester.

One morning last May, I walked into Gerard's in Adams Village for breakfast with about 20 members of the Dorchester Arts Collaborative (DAC). They meet for breakfast every Friday to talk a little about their work and their lives. But, mostly they talk about Dorchester - what it's like to be an artist here and what artists can do to enrich this community.

For example, each year the DAC organizes Dorchester Open Studios as a neighborhood-wide event. This year Open Studios (October 22-23) will feature an extremely diverse group of 70 registered artists exhibiting in their own studios in Dorchester's three artist buildings - Walter Baker Lofts, Humphries Street Studios, and Pearl Street Studios, with others exhibiting at the First Parish Church, the historic building on Meetinghouse Hill.

But, how does that build community?

The DAC brings two vital boosts into Dorchester: people and media recognition. Talk to the people strolling through the studios and you'll meet people from Milton, Canton, Stoughton, Randolph, Brookline, Newton and Cambridge. These are people from the suburbs many who are visiting Dorchester for the first time. Instead of seeing a Dorchester on the nightly news, these suburbanites are seeing Dorchester as a neighborhood of art, creativity, and growth. (Many in the neighborhood come to see the open studios as well.)

In the last five years, Dorchester Open Studios has brought media recognition to Dorchester through coverage in the Globe, Herald, Boston Magazine, Improper Bostonian, Boston Neighborhood Network News, as well as on WBZ radio.

Other communities in Massachusetts have also seen the value of the arts as an economic development tool. Artists and arts organizations can be an anchor in revitalizing a community. Look at the resurgence of North Adams, Lowell and New Bedford. North Adams is the home of MassMoCa, a contemporary art museum that has drawn new businesses and thousands of tourists to the town.

Lowell opened its empty, downtown mill buildings to artists for studio lofts which combine living and work space for artists. Artists served as colonizers for an abandoned part of the town. Following the artists came coffee shops, bookstores, and gift shops. Now, there are 2000 apartments and condominiums in downtown Lowell and their value is rising. (According to the Lowell Sun, one recently sold for $800,000.)

I would like to invite Dorchester's business people to invest in the arts in Dorchester. Join Mt. Washington Bank, SBLI and the Dorchester Reporter in supporting arts programs that draw people (potential customers) to Dorchester.

Fortunately, Dorchester has legislative leaders who understand both the value of neighborhoods and the value of arts and culture. In January, Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Robert Travaglini created a new Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development to open up the opportunity that arts and culture can play in economic development and strengthening communities. Senator Jack Hart, an effective and influential senator, became the Senate Chair of the Committee. State Senator Therese Murray - a key leader in recognizing the economic value of arts and culture and the chairwoman of the Senates Ways and Means Committee - is a native of Dorchester. Dorchester's state representatives, Marie St. Fleur and Martin Walsh, have long been key supporters of the arts. And, Linda Dorcena Forry expressed strong support for the arts in her campaign.

These legislators know that building community is done one day at a time by the combined individual efforts of so many people in the community, including artists. Thanks to these legislators, Massachusetts is exploring the opportunities created by arts and culture. On Oct. 3, the DAC will host a panel discussion on the creative economy in the neighborhood with Senator Hart, Jim Brett of the New England Council, Susan Hartnett from the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events, Candelaria Silva of ACT Roxbury and myself of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, & Humanities (MAASH). Please join the discussion on October 3, at a location to be determined shortly.

And, if you drop by Gerard's restaurant some Friday morning, you'll see artists in the corner drinking coffee, swapping stories and making plans. But, you'll also see the intangible work of people joining together to build a stronger community and a stronger Dorchester.

Dan Hunter is the executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH).