 And I live here, revolution in my blood. And after college, I decided that I wanted to make a life in the professional theater, so New York, right? I chose to move back home to Boston in part because of the wealth of talent that I knew was here, incredible actors, designers, directors, but more important, the thriving and engaged audiences that eat up Boston arts and culture. I knew I could make great theater here. So in the 25 years or so since I've been back, I've seen a lot of changes. When I used to come to this neighborhood in the late 80s to work, it wasn't exactly a destination spot. And in fact, where I'm standing right now used to be a parking lot. I don't know if anyone remembers that. $9. It seemed like so much money at the time. So in 2004, my play, Sonia Flu, was selected to inaugurate this beautiful new theater. It was the first play in this theater, which was the first theater built in Boston in over 75 years. Since then, this building, the Calderwood Pavilion, has become an anchor in one of the city's most thriving and interesting neighborhoods. We have great shopping galleries, the best food in the city. And this block alone has six venues for theater, as well as probably twice as many theater companies that call this neighborhood hall. Last month, my play, Becoming Cuba, also ran right here in this theater. And I want to talk to Justin Haslid, our Associate General Manager, to get some statistics for you. We employed one playwright, one director, two stage managers, eight actors, 34 scenic artists, 21 costume people, 14 backstage crew. The list goes on and on. It's quite long. It takes a lot of people to bring a play into production. We employed 103 people that came to work, 103 of them, while my show was running. Working artists, crafts people, designers mean that our young graduates who are completing their programs at Emerson and Boston Conservatory and BU, more and more of them are choosing to stay in Boston and start their own theater companies, their own bands, because they know they'll work. And because they know that their families will have access to not only the best medical care and schools in the country, but their kids will grow up going to the theater. They'll go to museums and the symphony. They'll eat up every bit of culture and art that Boston has to offer. I know that's true for them because it was true for me. The arts make a city into a home. And so on behalf of all the working artists who call Beantown home, I'd like to welcome you today. And that's my arts factor. Thank you. Good morning. And welcome. I'm Stephen Roth, board chair of Arts Boston. I'm very pleased and really excited to welcome you here today. But first of all, Melinda, thank you for that wonderful storytelling. It's a privilege to follow you on this stage. I'd like to give you a little history of art journey to the arts factor. In 2005, the Arts Boston board held a strategic planning session. One of the topics raised was leveraging the data that we have to benefit the sector as a whole. Now, let's back up for a second. Back then, the concept of big data didn't exist. Back then, the concept of big poppy barely existed. We've done a lot with data over the past 10 years, including launching the Arts Boston's Audience Initiative in 2012. And as you'll see this morning, the arts factor is a new, innovative, powerful way to demonstrate cross-sector impact using arts-related data. For those of you who may not be familiar with Arts Boston, here are a few of our data points. 39 years of arts and cultural sector support, 175 performing and visual arts member groups, $55 million reinvested into the regional arts economy, and we've reached 20 million residents and visitors in the greater Boston area. I want to thank our generous host this morning, Michael Masso, managing director of the Huntington Theatre Company, and formerly a longstanding board member at Arts Boston. And Veronique Lamelle, president and CEO of the Boston Center for the Arts, we're really grateful to be in this perfect setting to tell you this story. Before we start, I want to thank the Arts Boston staff for all the effort they put into bringing our data vision into reality. Today's event would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our executive director Katherine Peterson, deputy director John Beck, and marketing director Jen Falkin. Can we give them a round of applause? And now it's my pleasure to introduce Katherine Peterson, Arts Boston's executive director. Thank you. I'm so happy to be with you here today. And how fabulous is it to be able to stand on the set of Lydia Diamond's smart people, which just had its world premiere last week? Isn't it fabulous? Just great. The Arts Factor 2014 is having its premiere today. And you're the very first people that we're sharing this information with. And we decided that it wasn't enough to just send out a printed report with the Arts Factor. We decided that this research deserved a live audience. And so we decided to throw a party for some really good data. Now, I know that it's early in the morning for our party, so we're going to take it easy with you. We gave you some good coffee, but we don't want you to get too excited. So let me tell you exactly what we're going to do. We're going to share with you the key findings from our research. We're going to have you here for wonderful stories about the impact behind those numbers. We're going to invite you to dream with us and think about how you can use this information in your own work. And we're going to send you out to have a fabulous day. So as I said, this is new research for us most of it. We've never had access to it before. And it's research that allows us to think about the impact that we have on our cultural identity here in Boston, the impact that we have on our economic vitality, the impact that we have on our innovative workforce, and the impact that we have on transforming our community. So that's why we're excited. And let me tell you where this data comes from. It comes from the Massachusetts Cultural Data Project, which I know my arts colleagues in the audience are very familiar with. And also, we're delighted to have many of the funders of the Mass Cultural Data Project. And I want you to know that we're in particular looking at the greater Boston region. And that's from Worcester to the North Shore, down through Boston to the South Shore. And it's for the nonprofit arts and cultural groups in that region. Now, I want to thank those funders again, and specifically the ones in greater Boston. That's the Bar Foundation. And Sonsong, can you give away? I know you're here. Thank you very much to your support. We have our friends from the Boston Foundation here, the Mass Cultural Council. Anita Walker, please, everybody. The Lindy Family Foundation. Little hard to see in the lights, but I know you're here. And also the Worcester Community Foundation. Thank you so much. I also want to thank the arts groups who put that data in. And I want to thank, again, the Arts Boston staff and our fabulous Arts Boston board. We couldn't be doing this without you. And you are always thinking about what we can do to impact the community as a whole, not just the arts community, but the region as a whole. There's one more person that we need to thank and one more company that we need to thank. And that is our presenting sponsor for the Arts Factor 2014 Report and Launch, our good friends at Bank of America. Bank of America has been a terrific supporter of Arts Boston for many, many years. And when we thought about who we would like to partner with in bringing this innovative new program to all of us, we first turned to them. And we were so delighted when they said that they'd be healthy to help us make this dream into a reality. So please join me in welcoming the Bank of America's Massachusetts President, Bob Galleray. Thank you, Catherine. It's an honor to be here. Catherine and I are a little bit on tour. We did a taping over the weekend on NECN. And that was really a lot of fun. So it's been fun. It's really an honor to be associated with this project. I think all of us have known anecdotally the impact of the arts on the economy in Boston for a long time. But this data really brings it out in some statistics that I think really proves the point that it's the creative economy is very important. So for us, our involvement in this is all about two things, economic impact and quality of life. I think you heard Wanda talking about the transformation of this neighborhood. But if you think about it, there are other neighborhoods in the city that has formed as well in the 30-plus years that I've lived here. And that's what the arts can do. I think about the history of the predecessor banks going back to Bank Boston and Fleet and Bay Bank and Shaumet and all the other companies that became Bank of America here. And we've had a long history with the arts. We continue to work with great iconic organizations like the MFA and the BSO and WGBH. I saw John Abbott here earlier. Huntington going back to its earliest days. Michael will be here in a minute. But I think Melinda talked about that transformation in the city. And that's what we think is important, to draw talent to our company and to keep them here. And I think you wouldn't be here this morning if you didn't feel the same way. Catherine asked me to tell a story in the report or versions in the report this morning. But I think Melinda alluded to this as well in terms of family experience. Jill and I used to take the girls to the MFA when they were small. Our daughters are now 28 and 30. But when they were very small, we would bribe them with pound cake from the cafe. Come on, let's go. And they'd always come. And later, I was lucky enough to be able to go through exhibits there with curators and so on and learn at a totally different level since neither Jill nor I had no idea what we were showing them. But I think now when I go back to the museum with one of the girls or Jill and I go back, I remember the girl seeing something and looking at it and saying, look, daddy. And that impact is still with me now, even though they're much older. So I guess that's my arts factor. Thank you for all being here this morning. Thank you, Bob. And I also want to thank our friends at HowlRound, who are live streaming us today. We're so lucky to have you here based at Emerson College here in Boston. Now at this point, usually in the theater, this is when that voice comes out and says, please turn off your cell phones. Please put them away. Well, I'd like to invite you to take out your cell phones. Put the ringer down, maybe. But feel free to snap pictures of the data that we're going to be sharing with you and tweet away. This is your one chance. Michael Mouse is back there, and he's probably going crazy. But this is your one chance to do this here. We'd love you to feel free to share the data that we're going to be sharing with you. And let's get started with that data. So here's where we're starting. And we're going to be bold and bodacious about this, considering this is the data we haven't had before. The cultural treasures in Greater Boston are as much a part of the identity of our region as the American Revolution and our beloved Red Sox. Yes, I know that's a little crazy for some people in the audiences, but let me tell you why. Greater Boston has more arts and cultural organizations per capita than any other US metro area. That's more arts organizations than anywhere else in the United States. Other great cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, even New York. What does that mean? That means that, quite literally, there's something for everyone. There's so much activity that's going on that, in fact, if you wanted to go to everything that happened in a year, every exhibition, every concert, every theater performance, you'd have to go to 98 events a year. A day. A day. I was a little scared about what that would mean to me. And you know what? We're going to start counting this as my first performance so I don't get behind. But more than that, it's more than just the numbers. It's actually also about the quality of the work that we do. And what a bumper year it's been in 2013. We have had national recognition for our organizations with the Boston Children's Chorus and the Boston Children's Museum getting their highest accolades that they can receive nationally. Directly from our first lady who was so impressed, obviously, by Boston that she came up with two very different hairdos. We love that. We love that. And talk about Tony Blaine. In 2013, we not only had ART, but also the Huntington Theater bringing home the regional theater. Now these awards and accolades are great for the organizations who receive them. But I think that the kind of pride that we take when the Red Sox win the World Series and we get to chance when the trophy goes around and does its tour and we get to hold up that trophy and feel like this belongs to us. Well, I say that these awards belong to us in the same way and we can take the same pride. This is what molds our regional identity and we can be so proud of it. So in looking at that, it's not just that there are performances in the theater, in the concert hall, going to museums. We have performances in the parks and on the streets. And this fall, they were literally on the streets with Celebrity Series in honor of its 75th anniversary, bringing us Play Me On Yours, where they worked with a project that was touring internationally for the last six years. And we're so glad they brought it here to Boston, placing 75 pianos throughout the city in the most unexpected places from Chinatown Park to Franklin Park Zoo. And in each of those places, people encountered unexpected beautiful music-making from chopsticks to Chopin. And every one of those 75 pianos was designed and was painted by a Boston artist. And of the international project, we had here in Boston the 100th piano, the 1000th piano, and that 1000th piano was decorated by a gentleman who's here today, Michael Crockett, who's here to tell us about his experience. Please welcome Michael Crockett. Hello, everyone. Good morning. It's my pleasure to be here today and speak to you about the Play Me On Yours, Street Pianos Boston Project, last year. I had the honor of creating the 1000th piano. You may have seen it at Boston City Hall. It was bright pink with clouds, quite a sight to see. Perhaps. Well, how many of you have got to see any of the pianos last year? Excellent. Wonderful. Wonderful. Discovering them was such a wonderful experience in itself. I'm sure each of us have our own story to tell about the pianos that they saw. And I'm certain we all have our favorites as well. Perhaps you've heard a sweet melody downtown where you normally heard a car horn. Did you hear an echo of reverb off the walls of the crew and just discover somebody taking on their own interpretation of yesterday by the Beatles? Maybe you're just on your regular commute in the city or on your lunch break. And perhaps you were just walking through the Greenway and you were stopped by a jellyfish-inspired piano just calling you to sit down, play a few bars of lean-on meat before you went back to work. Did you witness a child prodigy playing a rockabilly version of Beethoven to over a crowd of 20 people with smiles going on their face when they realized he's no older than eight years old? I did, and it was an amazing experience to witness on my normally introverted walk throughout the city. If you were like me, you searched out all these pianos last year using the maps and perhaps you took photos and videos and shared them on their website for everyone to see. The Play Me, I'm Yours event changed the way we perceive music and art in Boston. It turned our city into an outdoor gallery and stage for personal expression. It altered our everyday interactions with each other and it allowed each of us to share a moment of creativity to fill our city with music and art. In the spring of 2013, I made a conscious effort to try my hand at collaborative art. I learned that in order to achieve this goal, I would have to put my ego on the shelf and allow another artist to interject and inspire the direction the work could take. To do this, you must believe that those you collaborate with also have a voice. Only when all of these ingredients are mixed together can you finally lose the self and the unknown will emerge. Who could have guessed that by the fall of 2013 I would have collaborated with the entire city of Boston? The Celebrity Series of Boston, Luke Jerram and the city of Boston understood the power that collaboration can have and only after all their efforts and the performances from the people of Boston was my piano a finished project. Play Me, I'm Yours brought us together to perform this final piece. It made us appreciate each other, witnessed the extraordinary talents found within us all and put us out of our everyday selves. The collaborative process between artists and their communities in Boston is a powerful force for good. It happens every day in our studios, in our theaters and on our stages and very soon again, it'll happen on the streets of Boston. That's my art factor. Thank you very much. Do you know that half a billion people, both residents and tourists, performed, heard, sang along with Play Me, I'm Yours? How fabulous is that? Okay, so this is the audience participation part of the program. So I'm gonna need a little help. I'm gonna ask you some questions and help me out with the answers. So we've heard about the half a million people who heard Play Me, I'm Yours. I would love your help in thinking about how many people go to our four major arts, four major sports teams every year, the Bruins, the Celtics, the Red Sox, and the Patriots, total attendance in one year here in Boston. Any guesses? Half a million, a little bit more? Two million? Two and a half. Getting close, I'm gonna take you there. It's four and a half million a year. We love our sports teams. Now, I want you to help me with how many people in 12 months went to the arts and culture in Greater Boston? Two million? One, two, three, four, five, 10. 18 million people. Yay! I'm the number of people who go to our beloved sports teams. That's enough people to fill Fenway Park when it's sold out 488 times. And that's six sold out seasons that Fenway in one year of our people play. That's a great number that we need to own here. We've never been able to talk about that before. And the people who are going to those performances, the people who are going to those museums, they are eating at restaurants, they're parking, they're spending money on transportation, they're putting money back into our economy that comes up to additional spending of $450 million, $450 million every year. In addition to that, there's a direct spending by all of our arts organizations in Greater Boston. And there are too many zeros to be able to put up here, so it's one billion dollars. We are a one billion dollar industry here for arts and culture. And that's a billion dollar industry that employs 26,000 people every year. And those are jobs that aren't going to get outsourced and aren't going out of state. So when we think about the impact that arts have on our economy, you can see that they really do factor in. In here to tell us about how they also matter to our neighborhoods and neighborhood development is a good friend of mine. Now, this being a theater, there are occasional past changes and Ron Druker was supposed to be with us this morning from the Druker Company. Unfortunately, he can't be with us, but I am delighted to have an all-star coming in to take his place. And that is my good friend, Michael Masso, Managing Director of the Honey Tube Theater. Thank you, Catherine. Welcome, everybody. I love the response. Good morning. Good morning. That's fabulous. So my job here is very simple and it's just to talk specifically about the development of this building in association with a lot of great partners as an example of neighborhood redevelopment and as an example that really can be followed all over the city. This really started with the Boston Center for the Arts. This started with the BCA, which already, of course, had the Saiglorama, already had the Plaza theaters here and had, as Melinda said, a parking lot here. It was actually, before the parking lot, it was a 2,400-seat white elephant of Warfield House that had fallen into disrepair and the BCA had the political will and sophistication to get permission to knock it down and create a space of 50,000-square-foot lot here in the gateway to the South End. And here's what the BCA hooked up with the Boston Redevelopment Association and created a partnership which is one of those rare win-wins for everybody. First of all, they spent a few years in a competition so that developers could get the right and compete for the right to develop the property and, as you know, the Drucker Company, as you may know, developed the project that we're actually in. I'll tell you, 5.05, which is this condominium next door. This center, this space, the Colorado Pavilion, is actually a 35,000-square-foot condominium. And it's a pretty nice ceiling, but above us is somebody's condo. And behind us are condos. And out there, of course, is commercial development, the restaurants. And what the BCA was able to do was to bring partners to bear using the talent of the city, using the great leadership of the BRA to build, first, a partnership with the Drucker Company to build this space. And then with the Huntington, the Huntington wanted to be part of this project and we came out as a partner in order to actually design and finance the construction of the Schellen Core. What the Drucker Company did was provide $9 million of infrastructure. And the Huntington came in and raised $24 million, of which $14 million went into the creation of these spaces, the Wibberley Theater, the Roberts Theater, and the two rehearsal halls upstairs, which, in order to build the spaces, and the Huntington runs the Caldera Pavilion. And the BCA, still involved in making sure that we're serving, we're serving the companies that they care about. So we provide programming, partnership, the Huntington provides the infrastructure and the subsidy to create this space going. It costs about $800,000 a year to run this space and the Huntington has to spend about $400,000 a year in order to make that happen. We think it's a great bargain for this city. This space, we think, has become the throbbing heartbeat of this neighborhood. And we think that's a model that can be used all over this city. We'll talk, on September 29th, actually, we'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Caldera Pavilion. And we're hoping that you can talk to us about that. But I think two things about it. One is that when you talk to anyone in this neighborhood, you can see the impact of the expanded arts experience building on what the BCA already had in the South End. I can tell you if there's anyone here who is a neighbor, the Warren, I can tell you the Warren Street neighborhood organization was very nervous about the impact that this space would have. And certainly, they now know that this is managed and run by the Huntington and the BCA and the city in a way that only expands the resources of this neighborhood. And as an example of the impact, I have two stories about Ron Drucker that I'll tell you. Just to give an example of how suddenly even Ron didn't quite realize the power of the arts as a centerpiece here. The first is that when we were in the middle of construction, so we have these two beautiful rehearsal halls that are right over there, upstairs on the second floor. And in fact, one of the things that happened is that when the Huntington was, when we built them, they were only supposed to be rehearsal halls, but the demand on the space was such that some theater company said, that's a nice performance space for us. We could put 75 seats in there and we could have shows. And the truth is we were nervous. The Huntington was nervous because we hadn't designed it that way. But that's been in fact something which we've now done for 10 years and it's been a great success. In the middle of the construction process, I walked Ron up to those spaces which are maybe the most beautiful rehearsal halls in the country. And he walked in there and looked around at the space and said, oh my God, I never should have let you have this. He said, I could put a restaurant right here. And the second story is that he told me this last night, he said he was negotiating with, so, you know, out here for 10 years, in addition to Pico, which is a great success, out here for 10 years was sibling rivalry, this restaurant, it's now going to be Barcelona in the fall. But when he was negotiating for a space, he was negotiating with Barbara Lynch. And was talking to Barbara Lynch about how this development was going to transform this neighborhood. And he said, he thought he had a great negotiating platform. She thought he wanted too much money for the space. So she went across the street and got two spaces and built two restaurants because she knew that this was going to be a place that drove business in the South End. This is a story that can be replicated all over this city. I'm certainly hoping that as Mayor Walsh and the city and the new VRA thinks about community redevelopment, they really make a place for the arts as a centerpiece and a driver for that kind of development. And that's my arts factor. Thank you. That's Michael. And as Michael referenced, it's not just here in the South End. It's what we've seen in the theater district already. We have Aaron Williams here from the city of Worcester and Aaron is always talking so eloquently about the impact of the Hanover Theater. Sarah Stackhouse, where are you? Sarah, based at Arts in the Armory at my hometown, Somerville, huge impact. But it's not just big buildings. It's also places like Haley House Bakery in Dunley Square with its concert that is anchored in our neighborhood. It doesn't have to be a big building. We love our big buildings, but every neighborhood can have a place like Haley House Bakery. So we've talked about places, but it's also about people. It's about human capital. And it's about the people who come and give us the workforce that we need. Oh my God, it's molecular groups. Yes, it's the battle of the biotech bands. And isn't it just like our biotech colleagues to be as innovative in their after hours work as they are here in the work day? This is actually the third biotech battle, battle of the biotech bands. And it just happened last month and they are a grooving group of people up here. Now we're laughing about this, at least I laugh about this. But actually there's a really interesting story behind it. The Knight Foundation did a study that looked at why do people feel passionate and feel loyal to the places where they lived? And there were 11 indicators that they looked at. And of those 11 indicators, it was social offerings that were the number one drivers about what led to that loyalty and passion. And of those social offerings, it was arts and culture that was number one. Now that made us think and look a little further in that report. And the reports had one other thing. That the organization, the cities, the places that have that highest sense of attachment between the people who live there also have the highest growth in GDP. Now what about that in terms of having an economic impact? So that's why when we think about the biotech battle of the bands, it's perhaps not so kind. And it's not just about the workforce in general, it's also about CEOs. The Endeavor Insight report put out a study that asked executives from the Inc. 500 fastest growing businesses in America and they asked them one question. Why do you locate your business where you do? And they got a very, very consistent answer for three reasons because they have access to customers. They have access to a talented workforce. And it's because where they want to live. And when we thought about this, we realized that a lot of those 500 companies that were looked at were here in Boston. And we heard from one CEO in general, Dave Friend. Dave Friend who's a CEO of Carbonite, the online data storage service who founded his company here in 2005. He's now got 800 employees, sorry, 400 employees. They've been listed as a Boston Business Journal best place to work for the last four years. And here's what Dave, when I called him up and asked him about his experience, he told me. He said, Catherine, the arts are a major factor in my choice to start a business in Boston for companies interested in attracting smart and creative knowledge workers. Being located within a vibrant arts community is key. So for CEOs like Dave Friend, the arts are not just nice, they're necessary. And there's something that we think about not only in terms of keeping those smart people here, but also making sure that the workforce that we have here is being trained with the arts also. The arts can also be useful in that. And here to tell us his story is Dr. Neal Fleischer from the BU Goldman School of Dentistry. Please welcome Neal. So good morning. As Catherine said, I'm Neal Fleischer. I'm the director of pre-doctoral at Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dentistry. So yes, I'm a dentist. So perhaps you're thinking, what the heck is he doing here? And I'm quite sure tonight when I talk to my parents, they're gonna be saying the same thing. You were way up this morning. You weren't at work. So let me explain why I'm here and how I got here. I teach bright, dedicated, mostly young people, what they need to know to become dentists. And most people who want to be dentists are great at memorizing individual facts when they get to dental school. They take multiple choice questions on exams. They do a great job and that's how they get in. But fewer of them are naturally gifted at looking at a patient or a set of x-rays and figuring out what they're telling us, which is of course the critical component in the practice of medicine in dentistry. So three years ago, I came across a story in the Wall Street Journal that described a program at Yale Medical School that was bringing medical students into the university's museums to learn auto-appreciation skills as a means to improving patient care. Now this has spread to over 20 different medical schools since that time. So I'm thinking to myself, hmm, I don't know, maybe this could work with dentistry as well. So I spoke to the dean of my school, Dr. Jeffrey Hutter, who encourages and supports innovative new approaches to education. And then I made a couple of calls to various museums and completely locked out when I contacted the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I eventually was put in contact with Michelle Rowey, who has been an absolute pleasure to work with from the start. With her help, we bring every first year dental student to the museum to explore ways to really look at the work of art. And then, and this is the critical part, to communicate and discuss with colleagues what they're seeing through a system which has been developed that's called Visual Thinking Strategies, or VTS, the value isn't just in looking at things in a new and more detailed way. It's also in overcoming our innate fear of talking about these findings in case we don't agree with others, thinking that we might be wrong about it. Students don't like to get the wrong answers. And in the art we view, there aren't any right or wrong answers. So the students will sometimes debate it. And of course, some of them think that others are wrong anyway, and they'll talk about it. But to properly diagnose our patients, dentists need to be willing to explore all possible sources of a problem to critically analyze all the symptoms and findings and through observation, and in many cases will involve colleagues in the process. So they need to be able to communicate with each other what they actually saw. Not only making critical observations and discussing these findings in detail in a succinct manner, it's not always easy to teach in a traditional classroom. And I think about trying to get that across to your students. And it seems that utilizing the visual thinking strategies technique works very well at opening this door for our students. I know we're not the only school using this approach. Harvard Medical offers an elective course for their first year for medical and dental students. But I'm proud to say that we are the first dental school to integrate this as being required for all first year students. Our partnership with the Gardner Museum helps to change the dynamic of our dental training, allowing students to understand that they don't always have to worry about being right or wrong. More importantly, they need to make observations and then later try to figure out what exactly is going on and how it relates to a diagnosis. And this is very different from what students are used to. It takes a while for them to get comfortable with this, but they do get into it. Boston is known for the high quality of our hospitals and medical and dental schools, and the high quality of our arts community. Bringing these two seemingly different worlds together makes all of us that much better at what we do. And that's my arts factor. Thank you. I just thought that the Gardner Museum would be helping with our dental health. And as Neil said, it's not just the Gardner, it's also our friends at the MFA who I know are working with, we've been doing women's also, so it's really terrific. So we've looked at how the arts factor into our cultural identity, into our economic vitality, and into having an innovative workforce. But they also affect how we transform our communities. And we know that everyone has something in the arts that they love. I'm a Broadway musical girl. That's, you know, I first went to my first musical on Broadway when I was 12 years old. And I've been going ever since. And a lot of them in this theater and the Roberts Next Door. But whether it's dance, whether it's theater, whether it's art of visual arts, everyone has something that they connect with. And we need to make sure that that access is available for everyone. Well, the arts and cultural nonprofit community is working hard to make sure that that access is available to everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic position. And in fact, every year, seven million people go to the arts free, to art through nonprofit arts and culture. Seven million people. That's more than the population of the state of Massachusetts. And we tried to come up with a visual to help represent it. We started out actually with the master in pipe. We thought, that might actually have bad association to sign them up against that. So we decided on the Charles River. And of course, I had to remind myself that the Charles River is actually 80 miles long from Boston to Hawkington. It's not just 26.2. You can see actually that, that is a lot of people up there who are going to be going there. In fact, they would be standing 36 deep along those 80 miles. And in addition to free access, what's equally important, if not more so, is making sure that our kids have access to the arts in school, after school. And I know that our school systems are working hard to restore the cuts that have devastated our schools over the past decades. But our arts and cultural organizations are great partners to help to supplement that as that work continues. And every year, 25,000 performances happen in school from artists who go in to give shows, to teach, to do workshops, 25,000 in greater Boston. In addition to that, there are 29,000 school groups, and that's groups, not kids, who go to arts organizations, who go to museums, who go to performances. That makes a big difference. So we need to make sure that we continue this work. There's a lot more work to be done, but it's great that we can count what we are doing and talk about it proudly and make sure that we build it so that next year it's even bigger and the year after that it's even more. It's great to look at these numbers, but it's the people behind the numbers that really count. And I am so delighted that here today we have with us a young lady who is a face behind these numbers. And her story comes from Zumix, the wonderful youth arts program in East Boston. Zumix started in 1991 as a summer songwriting program and it now is an organization that's received the highest acclaim and the highest award for national youth arts programming in the country. And it serves 1,000 students every day, sorry, every day. I'm obviously completing things with days and years. 1,000 students every year and also reaches now 10,000 adults with its fabulous new concert programs. So here to tell us about her story in Zumix is Renee Moroni. Renee. Hi everyone. Hi. I'm gonna start with a little song, but that's okay. Okay, here we go. Surprise, I see pain there When I look into your heart I see a fuzzy part That's grown sour I have to say I could scream Would you under my situation and go to express my emotions and feel a sense of release with each time that I played the song in the same way playing it now brings me back to the day I wrote it. Writing this song was the beginning but being able to express myself through music and having it help me process my emotions was the next step in me figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. There had to be a name for this thing I was feeling and I had to share it. That led me to Leslie University. There I gained an undergraduate degree in expressive art therapy. I feel lucky to have found a meaningful and rewarding path and look forward to going back to Leslie University in the fall to obtain my master's degree. Walking into the doors of ZoomX made this whole journey possible. Starting at 12 years old, I went there every day after school and got to do amazing things there. Such as voice and instrumental music, songwriting and performance as well as being trained as one of the first radio DJs. Yes, I gained the ability to play a guitar, to sing harmony and to keep rhythm but I also gained lasting friendships, a community that supports me and the confidence to know that I matter. Now 11 years later, I've come full circle. As a teaching artist at ZoomX, I channel the love, support and community that I gained as a participant and pass that on to the next generation. That's my arts factor. Thank you so much. And just over there on the bottom right-hand corner is the ZoomX Firehouse, which is now really an incredible community anchor in East Boston and was supported in large part by the Mass Cultural Facilities Fund. Thank you everyone, the Boston Foundation, Mass Development, Mass Cultural Council. Thank you so much for your support to make this building happen, not only for ZoomX but so many other arts organizations in Boston. And also let's give a hand out to our good friend, Madalyn Juzinski, who is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of ZoomX. Madalyn, we've looked at a lot of facts and figures and there's one more that I really wanna share with you that we all need to understand. And it's part of the data that we've known anecdotally as good arts professionals for a long time, especially about our own organizations, but we really haven't known on an aggregate level what it's meant for us as a community. And that's the fact that the median admission price for non-profit arts and cultural performances and also for exhibitions is $16. That's the average median price. Now the average median cost for getting people in the door, you'll not be surprised a slightly larger amount, it's $54. So you'll know doing the smart people that you are, you don't need your calculators to know that that's 30% of the total cost of what it puts on, what it costs to put on a show, to put on an exhibition. There's a gap there. 30% of the cost is covered by paid admission. And that's where our individual, our government, our foundation, our corporate support is so essential. We've heard today about the impact that the arts can have with our regional identity, with our regional economy, with our innovative workforce, transforming lives like Renee's. We need to make sure that we do even more. What we're doing is great. We can have a greater impact. So here's the part where I'm gonna ask you to dream with me and think about what action every single one of us can take when we leave here today. And there are four things I want you to help me think about today. The first one is share. Let's share the information that we have here today. This is our data here as a community. Let's get it out there. You're gonna be getting those printed reports that I referred to earlier when you walk out the door. You can take as many of them as you want, and if you want more, I'll send them to you. It's also gonna be available on the ArtsFalston website, so you can download it, you can send a link. We also have infographics of all the, that we have shared with you today, and you can tweet them and post them on Facebook. We'd love you to make sure that they get around as many people as possible. Let's make sure that we know this data and that we use this data. The next thing we need to do is advocate and vote. So, we're in a situation right now where the Senate and the House is in committee. Correct me, any time I get this wrong, okay, Anita? Are in committee right now. Soon we're trying to figure out the difference between what the House thinks the Mass Culture Council should be getting this year and what the Senate does. Let's make sure that we don't let them make that decision on their own. Let's make sure that today we reach out to them. We call our reps, we call our senators, we pick up the phone and we let them know how important it is that our State Arts Council is funded properly. Are you gonna do that with me? Yeah. All right. We also had a major triumph this year with a really major increase with our Mass Cultural Facilities Fund support. We went from $5 million to $15 million, three times a month. Let's give ourselves a round of applause for how many buildings like the firehouse happen. It also is supporting organizations like this beautiful building all throughout the State, all throughout our region. That money is so important so we have the infrastructure that we need to bring the art, to bring the economic vitality, to bring the innovative workforce here. We need your support because that is up for renegotiation again and I need to ask you for your support for that also. Are you gonna help me with that? And I have one more thing to ask you and that is we're gonna be electing a new governor in November. And that new governor needs to be a champion for the arts and you can help me by doing two things. You can go to the Mass Creative website and look at what the platforms are there that our candidates have posted and not all the candidates have posted them yet and maybe you wanna be in touch with them and ask them. We'd like to know what you think about what you're gonna do for arts and culture because I'd like to know that in making my decision but I also wanna invite you to come and join us on July 15th at the Hannover Theater in Booster for the Mass Creative gubernatorial forum. You can get all this information on masscreative.org. You have the ability to make a difference. You can go out there and today make sure that you send those emails and make those calls that make sure we get the funding that we deserve so we can make this a better region. Number three, invest. We need green and that we need green when I mean we need cash. We do a lot of the little but think about how much more we can do with sustained investment. When you think about wanting to help youth at risk, think about investing in actor shapes for your project and the work that they do with incarcerated youth. When you think about wanting to make a difference with workforce development, think about Zoomics, think about artists and humanities. When you think about equity for all, think about theater offensive and the incredible work they do with their two colors program. When you think about community development, think about every arts organization with perhaps unrestricted operating support because I am telling you that when you give arts organizations the ability to really think and be creative and to be your partner, we're gonna come up with solutions like the ones that Neil shared with us that we couldn't have imagined in a million years. The last thing I wanna ask you to do is something that I think is gonna be pretty easy and let's go. Make sure that you're going to see performances, trying something new and bringing your friends with you. So if we do these four things, we can make sure that Greater Boston continues to be an incredible absolute beacon for the work that we wanna have here, the people we wanna have lived here. It's gonna make a difference in terms of our identity, our vitality, our innovation and the transformation that we can work in new people's lives. I wanna thank you so much for being with us today. This is only the start. The research will continue. We need you to help us share it. So thank you for being with us and please join us for coffee outside. Thank you.