By Lucas De Oliveira.
Dorchester’s Strand Theatre served as the stage for a mayoral forum focused on arts and culture issues on July 30. The event, moderated by Jared Bowen, host of GBH’s “The Culture Show,” was hosted by Create the Vote Boston Coalition—a nonpartisan group organized by MASSCreative.
Mayor Michelle Wu and candidates Josh Kraft and Domingos DaRosa were interviewed separately by Bowen in front of an audience of roughly 300 people. Each candidate was given five minutes for opening comments, 20 minutes for questions and five minutes for closing remarks.
Questions for the forum were prepared in advance, with many of them centering on funding, allocation of resources and artist displacement in the community.
Mayor Wu, the first to appear, outlined her administration’s investment in the arts sector.
“I’m proud that we have invested more in the arts than any other administration,” Wu said. “We put $26 million into arts organizations, individual artists, trying to fight and halt the tide of displacement [by] preserving spaces like Humphreys Street Studios or Charlestown rehearsal spaces, or relocating artists to 55 Morrissey.”
The funds she was referring to came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which provided relief to address the impact of COVID-19 on “the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals and businesses.”
Roughly 4.7 percent of ARPA funding went into arts and culture, which provided grants to 11 arts organizations in the city, she said.
For Wu, a paramount issue within the arts sector is the risk of displacement for artists and creatives, calling it a space, affordability and resource issue.
She said she’s put forward an anti-displacement plan that includes specific metrics that will put a focus on the arts. Wu offered examples of these metrics, which will track how the city is doing in stabilizing art spaces, tracking arts displacement and the number of permitted art events throughout the city.
“Overall, the health of our arts and culture sector…is going to be tied to every other metric around how we make Boston a home for everyone,” Wu said.
She also said she plans to reorient the planning and development process to prioritize “community-led planning.”
Kraft offered a similar sentiment, saying anybody with the potential of being displaced should be at the forefront of the planning process.
“If we think displacement could potentially happen,” Kraft said, “we need to support them in finding a new space with resources.”
Josh Kraft, left, opposite Jared Bowen of GBH. Lauren Miller Photography
Kraft also brought forward an opt-in rent control program, which could be used to create a commercial space for artists, where landlords can participate in the program, which would limit rent increases in exchange for tax breaks.
Kraft cited a program he called “All of Our Roots” to celebrate the diversity of Boston neighborhoods while also bridging the gap between communities.
“We might have a Latino dance and music night, and the catering will be done with Vietnamese cuisine,” Kraft said. “Or we’ll do a fashion show that celebrates the unique diversity of our entire African diaspora in the city of Boston.”
Bowen asked each candidate about the Chief of Arts and Culture cabinet position. The position—which has been vacant since January—drew criticism from DaRosa.
“I mean, it’s been vacant for seven months,” DaRosa said. “How much planning do you need?”
DaRosa said he would not only implement a Chief of Arts and Culture, but also believes that each community should get its own chief.
“There’s 23 communities in Boston,” DaRosa said, “and there [are] a million in one sub-communities, and each of these communities needs to have some type of input in how we go about keeping our arts alive.”
Above, Domingos DaRosa spoke during the forum. Lauren Miller Photography
DaRosa also spoke on funding, repeatedly highlighting the Boston Police Department’s overtime budget for 2024. He said he’d work to reallocate the budget to have it go toward the city’s education.
“We budgeted for $48.5 million, and we’re at 104 million, and we continue to increase that year after year after year after year,” DaRosa said. “I don’t need six cops sitting on Mass and Cass, I need six teachers in our schools teaching art.”
In terms of federal funding cuts, Kraft said he’d look to corporate and private foundations for funds for the arts. When asked about the possibility of countering opposition from the White House, he said he would.
Wu said she’d do the same.
“We have gone to court, now multiple times—I think we’re involved in six different lawsuits with the Trump administration,” Wu said. “Issues like protecting research and funding, grant funding, but also being clear that when they award funding for a continuum of care to address housing insecurity…that those funds cannot be conditioned on being anti-DEI, anti-LGBTQ. We will refute, we will not back down from serving our trans community members and any community members who need city services.”
Mayor Wu spoke during the July 27, 2025 forum at Strand Theatre. Lauren Miller Photography
