 Hi, everyone. My name is Micah. I use they, them pronouns. I'm a poet and organizer based in Roslindale, ancestral lands of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket peoples. And I'm so grateful to share some time and space with you all and offer language into the way that I see arts building our futures every single day, every moment. This is a poem I just wrote titled Invocation to Together Breath after Arundhati Roy and M. Jackie Alexander. On a quiet day, I can hear another world breathing, another world not only possible, I feel it in the subarbeat, rhythming feet to the streets in the circle we carved together. Spirit, she answered the shapes we make for her. So let us free geometries of our liberation, across our cities and murals that chart tomorrow. Out of puzzle piece yesterdays, we are still reclaiming for each other. For our futures, I see us seeding every day in the community gardens, green spaces, our ancestral forums before we white house politics and ivory towers never built to build tomorrow for the people, our people, our power grow here, the grass we, we hear and we the blossom of our mothers, mothers, mothers roots in a water who know the way to thrive is public soup. Auntie Huling, brewing wellness for the block, the finest artist I don't see loved by any museum, but we've known our bodies are our own temples. And Lola, show me God is home. We hear her and every vibrato, the shimmering of a prayer's answer like rainbow. Thunderstorm teach me the blessing of a conflict cycles may not end better we get to change them. The bloom of mushrooms in summer dew, rot has never not been the beginning of a, of a resurrection. Rebirth themselves hums in our arms, the fabrics we weave the history we tell about our garments we hand down for the memories we photograph art synonymous to archival and earth revival. Let this be a poem and not a sacrifice. I yell phoenix and mean a life must never burn before a construct does. I yell dance and mean the present too precious to lose vision for meditated revolution. I yell moon and mean we are full on all 365 degrees of a year full here may we pour wholeness into each other breath by breath by. Thank you. And now I'd like to introduce Jay Cottle, Executive Director of Dynamics. Thank you so much for your words, Lanka. I'm going to sit with that for a while. We'd like to start with a land acknowledgement that comes to us from Adrian Wong of spider web show. She says, since our activities are shared digitally to the internet, let's also take a moment to consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technology, structures and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high speed internet not available in many indigenous communities. Even the technologies that are central to much of the art we make leave significant carbon footprint contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect indigenous people worldwide. I invite you to join us in acknowledging all this as well as our shared responsibility to make good of this time and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization and allyship. I'd like to welcome everyone to today's forum on behalf of the Create the Vote Coalition. The Create the Vote Boston Coalition is a network of arts and cultural leaders in Boston who work in collaboration and shared advocacy for a city where arts, culture and creativity are accessible to and representative of all residents. Boston is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic reckoning with systemic racism laid bare by the pandemic. With almost $560 million dollars in federal recovery funds coming to Boston and more engaged residents pressing for change, the next mayor will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to lead the reimagining of Boston. We know that arts and culture are key to the future of Boston, but if we do not elevate our issues and demonstrate our impact, candidates will not. With so many crucial decisions ahead, we need the next mayor of Boston who will develop policies, initiatives and programs that increase access to creative expression and cultural participation. That's why we are working to engage candidates running for mayor and Boston residents around arts and cultural issues, this election season and including today's mayoral forum. So on behalf of the Create the Vote Boston Coalition, we want to welcome the candidates and thank our co-host WBUR as well as our live streaming partner HALRA. I'm delighted to introduce Crystal Agüeta, WBUR Arts and Cultural Reporter, she will moderate the forum. Good afternoon. I am honored to be here. It's a pleasure and I admit that I was hoping that if I could do this again, it would be in person. But we will make do and we'll bring energy and we have about an hour and I think we'll cover everything that I know folks want to hear about in the arts and culture community. I have a few notes. Councillor Sabi George was invited to this forum but wasn't able to attend due to scheduling conflicts. Equally, Mayor Janie was scheduled to attend but informed us late last night that she had a city hall conflict. But both candidates sat down with the arts and culture leaders for a round table. So those conversations can be found at the Create the Vote Boston Coalition website. So I encourage everyone to go online and read those. For those that are watching through our live stream, live closed captions can be accessed using a link that I believe they're about to put in the chat. So welcome everybody. I think we'll begin with opening statements. Each candidate will be given three minutes and we'll start alphabetically. So, John, would you begin? Thank you, Christella. It is really a pleasure to be here with our creative community. I want to shout out Micah for the amazing inspirational poetic invocation. Big up to Jay Cottle. I have not heard of a land acknowledgement that is done by also acknowledging the colonization that is embedded in the technology that we use. So that was powerful. Just want to thank you for how you're hoping. And then, Christella, to you for your facilitation. This is not your first rodeo. So good to see you again in the box. And for all of the organizations and creatives that have come together to form Create the Vote Coalition. Create the Vote is an amazing effort that's been around for a while. So it's a pleasure to be here. John Barrows. I am born and raised in Roxbury to Cape Verdean parents from West Africa. And arts has been part of my culture and my upbringing from day one. In fact, the Cape Verde Islands, which are 10 islands off the coast of Senegal, is known best for our exports of the arts. The queen of the islands is Cesadia Evera. And if you haven't heard her music, if you haven't heard her vocals, you've got to check her out. She's called the barefoot diva. And she's bad. And that's exactly the inspiration of the restaurant that I and three other entrepreneurs opened up on Bowdoin Street in Dorchester to bring Cape Verdean music and culture to our city. We're such a large population, but we didn't have a platform. And that was super important for me. The first organizing effort as a young organizer in Roxbury was a mural. The mural was called Nubian Roots. And we created that mural to bring expression of cultural value and arts to our neighborhood. Cristela, the timer's gone. Is that me? My three minutes went. I actually let me confirm that. Yeah, it looks like it. I'm sorry about that, John. I think so. So as we understand when the timer's gone, your time is up. Oh, okay. Badly, that was quick. So excited to be here looking forward to the conversation. Next that we have a city councilor Campbell, please. Thank you. Although I'm like, I don't know if your time went, John. We might have to work on that clock. Absolutely. And first of all, Micah, thank you for creating just great energy in this remote digital space. It's really important. It's a tough time right now for many. So thank you. Thank you, Cristela, of course, for organizing and moderating this again, another forum. And thank you to all of the organizers for just creating not only this forum, but also another opportunity for us to have a more engaged conversation without timers. I really appreciate it. And I'm really excited to be here to specifically talk about the issues affecting this community. And we know it's a broad one that covers so many issues, not just, of course, arts and culture generally. And we know that means many different things, but also housing, education, our schools, economic opportunity, unemployment, you name it, there are so many things, of course, that this community is dealing with. So happy to talk about the issues. I'll tell folks, you know, I deeply love this city. I grew up here. I grew up in Roxbury in the south end. I actually at one point lived across on the piano factory, where I was recently talking about issues affecting this community. I'm a BPS kid. I went to five Boston public schools, including Latin school, and then went to Princeton University and UCLA for law school. Then I came home to Roxbury, where I started my career representing students in education cases. And I've also worked in state government as an attorney for Governor Deval Patrick. But I also talk about the flip side of growing up here and the fact that my twin brother did not graduate from a Boston public high school and reach his dreams and said he passed away while in the custody of a state prison when he was only 29 years old. And so everything I do as a public servant as a city counselor now as a candidate for mayor is always about looking at how do we make sure that this city provides everyone opportunity and equitable opportunity, regardless of their neighborhood, their industry, whether they're born here, native born, or they got here this morning. I was a poor girl growing up in Roxbury, a life torn apart by incarceration, and yet this city gave me everything. I currently represent Dorchester, Matapan, JP, and Rosendale. These are the neighborhoods that are often under resourced. And with respect to the arts community, we've done incredible things. I started the Matapan Jazz and Unity Festival when folks said, yeah, we'll think about doing it. I said, no, we're going to do it. I was done going downtown for live performance. I wanted it to happen right in Matapan. And so we know we have a lot more work to do to ensure every community has access to the arts and that we make it easier for folks to be able to create events in their community. I'm activating city own lots right now. And not just for housing purposes, but mixed development, including artist housing and hopefully retail space as well, that can be coupled with the housing to allow creative space. So I've been doing the work for a long time. I'm not merely a story, I'm all about the work. So really excited to answer your questions on the issues you care about the most. Thank you for having me. So Councillor, we'll have you go and then John, we'll have you go again, just because the clock actually acted up. So why have you do your opening statements again? And then we'll go into questions. I was going to speak up on behalf of our friend here too. He definitely didn't get us whole time. So we're right there with you, Chief. Thank you so much, Christella, Micah, Jay Cottle, Emily, all the organizers here. I've been looking forward to this for I'm so excited to get the chance to really dive in and lift up, immerse ourselves in the importance and the necessary foundation that arts and culture means for the city. It is something that I feel down to my core. I think in some ways it comes from my parents, who are immigrants and arrived in this country facing tremendous language barriers, but able to connect and transcend that through the arts. I remember finding the scores of some of my mom's pieces from when she sang with the Community Choir very pretty shortly after she arrived in the United States painstakingly transcribing the English words of 40 and best into Chinese on top of it. And I just got to play piano a little earlier today at a visit to a senior home. It is the way that I find my core. And I know that these are opportunities to connect with that deepest sense of self that we need to make available at the individual level for our young people in our schools, but also for our city and the ways that we relate to each other, especially coming out of this pandemic and healing after such a time of trauma and isolation and loss. To be totally honest, the calculus and the economic situation has changed as well. We know that cities all across the country are having to think about a new value proposition because these days when we will still continue to see remote work and you don't have to live where you work anymore and you can't just keep residents and businesses by having the companies and people being forced to come in to live near them. When you can choose to live anywhere you want, cities need to give people a reason why they can't miss out on being there in person. That is the essence of our arts, culture, restaurant scene. And I'm excited that we have always had this in Boston, but what we need to do a better job of is ensuring that the leadership to connect, invest in, create space for, and most of all, lift up as absolutely fundamental to our city in every possible way. So I'm excited to dig more into the plans around that, around housing, around facilities and education. And most of all, how the intersectionality of all this means that we should be infusing arts and culture and the artist's perspective into every single other policy issue that we are talking about for our city. So thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much. And John, please, your opening statements. And then I will move into the first topic. Thank you, Christella. Just wanted to, I'll pick up where I left off and won't take all three minutes because I took some already. And first, let me just shout out the tech team behind the scenes. This is amazing. The box is amazing. The accessibility here is fabulous. So thank you. But I did want to talk a little bit about, you know, after that first mural at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, once I became executive director, I was proud to be part of the neighborhood revitalization effort that put arts at the center, foundational to how we create, strengthen communities. And I've been doing that work for very long time. As chief of economic development for the last seven years, I helped to advocate to increase the budget of the Boston Cultural Council, which provides grants to community based arts organizations. I helped to support the creation of the first percent of arts program, making sure that our arts programs have money is critical and something that I will do as mayor. I worked with the mayor's office to support local arts through the awards and fellowships program. And it is also critical that arts is part of our workforce. And so this is work that I've been doing, work that I'm excited to be doing, both in my personal life as a small business owner and as a city official, really excited for this conversation. Thank you for the time just to kind of spell that out a little bit. Looking forward to getting into it. Thank you so much. So there'll be four questions. We'll deal with four topics that are really meaningful to the community that have been brought up often. I think you all probably discussed it in the round table you had previously. It's been a hard year, especially for the arts and culture sector as a journalist who covers race and equity within arts and culture we've covered it. And more often than not, we'd hear artists talk about the amount of money that they've lost during the pandemic, six to eight months a year of income because everything shut down. So we'll begin with data from the Boston Foundation and Arts Boston that it's clear that Boston is a city where arts and culture is historically underfunded compared to other major metropolitan areas. Individual creatives living in Boston lost nearly $9 million in income and countless opportunities over the last year and a half. Solutions need to go beyond what's always been done. They need a nimble imagination. What are some unique ideas that you have to really bolster this sector and how will your administration accomplish them? Again, we'll go in alphabetical order. So John, I will open with you. Thank you, Christella. Yes, this is a super important conversation. I talked a little bit about some of the work I did in terms of increasing the budget for the Boston Arts Council, the creation of the percent of arts program as part of the administration. It is critical that we continue to see the arts not just as something nice and recreational, but the arts as part of how our economy grows. It's part of our economic competitiveness in Boston. When we think about a $25 billion revenue stream from tourism as a state, most of that is because of the arts and it's because of Boston's history. We can, in fact, reimagine our city and reignite our economy through the arts. That's why investment in the art is critical. That's why, as mayor, I'll propose a state program like the CPA, Community Preservation Act, that would tap on the real estate taxes in Boston to add a percentage that would pay for the arts. I think such a program would generate $25 to $35 million annually to invest in the arts. It is critical that we find ways like that because the arts is such an important part of who we are as a city and gives us our competitive edge. And then I will make sure that we fund up the cultural sector through the gaming revenue. Working with the state legislator advocating for a more consistent set aside for arts and culture is something that I think we can do. I'll continue to implement and invest the ambitious Boston Creates Plan and invest in all of the programming that's listed in that and then support cultural equity by making sure that we give equal weight to all kinds of cultural expressions as we raise this money and invest in Boston. Thank you so much. Councillor Campbell, please. Thank you for the question, but also sharing the data, because I think this is the community that has often been left out of the conversations, particularly when we're talking about essential workers. I mentioned the Piano Factory recently because I was at a meeting there talking to a whole host of artists who were talking about struggling. But at the same time they were struggling, they were creating space for folks to come together in the midst of a pandemic for healing to deal with mental health concerns and other concerns as well. So one, we need to start as a city of lifting up artists, and we know that includes many different types as essential workers and making sure, of course, our rental relief programs, unemployment benefits are available, but also make it easier to apply. Many are not W2 earners, right? They're independent contractors. It's very difficult to navigate these processes. All of that we can do in the immediate. The second piece is the budget itself at the City of Boston. I know this organization and many are pushing for 20 million or more at a minimum that we should do that, but I think it needs to be a lot more if we're talking about really making sure every community is a cultural district and a hub to be able to do incredible events. I live in Matapan and it's shocking to me how this community is left out of some of the place making conversations within the arts and culture community within the City of Boston. So we can do better in terms of investment and making sure every community is a part of it. The other pieces that are important are housing. I'm really proud that I started the vacant lot initiative and we're activating 30 lots right now that a city owned on Blugalab. We need to do more in terms of intentionality and creating artist housing, but couple it with a retail space so artists don't have to leave where they live to work. And of course, we know these artists and organizations create jobs. And then lastly, Boston Public Schools. Every child should have access to arts generally. I went to five BPS schools, all were excellent. And you think about the creative economy, we need to be creating pathways into these jobs and skills. All of that can happen while in school. Thank you, Councillor Campbell and Councillor Wu. Thank you. We have a city that is flowing with resources, flowing with talent and energy and creativity. And it often feels that the silos that are up mean that we are currently missing out on the whole being larger than some of our parts. And we're also missing out on the multiplicative effect of dollars that would be staying right in our communities building generational wealth. And so I'm committed to ensuring that from a pure dollars perspective that the city of Boston is upping our commitment through our local budget, through the capital budget of the city, as well as with this once in a generation federal funding that's coming for pandemic relief to ensure that that is connecting to the ways in which arts is a fundamental part of our stability of healing and creating community connection. I also want to make sure and in plans that I've put out that personnel is just as important as a form of policy. And we need to be hiring artists in the city of Boston, not only to be as artists in residence, which is extremely important to lift up our local talent and elevate that, but to hire full-time artists not for just one year at a time positions, but full-time within our departments to have arts and culture be guiding our planning conversations, for example, our outreach efforts, especially now when there's so much at stake and we need to move quickly on climate, housing, safety, health, justice. We need to reform the larger structures within our sphere. Boston is one of the few cities that is asking arts and culture organizations to give to us through pilot and I would push to ensure that we are reforming that to make investments and create open up access to all of our residents through those investments. And most of all, in the planning, in the spaces we are creating to ensure that arts is on the same plane as every other thing we're talking about, density, height, transportation, along with how we grow our city. Thank you so much. We're doing pretty well on time. Let's see, maybe we'll have more than four questions. I'm going to keep it within the financial realm. We're going to talk revenue. So you might have seen the create the vote 2021 Boston Coalition's policy platform sets a goal of $20 million of an annual allocation of city support for arts and culture by the end of your first term. What revenue mechanisms will you identify to reach and maintain this goal? Which I mean, I've heard some people say more money would probably be better, but I'm curious. Let's start with John. Yeah, Christelle, I kind of jumped the gun, right? So I talked about my revenue mechanism, which is a CPA, like sort of a state law. We've passed it the first time working with the state, and we can pass it again. And we can generate consistent revenue for the arts and culture. As I said in my first response, the arts and culture is incredibly important. And I think we can generate $25 to $35 million, but a small percent on our tax bill. I also think that we need to look at how we provide funding to artists. As mayor, I would explore a guaranteed minimum income for artists. It is important that we support arts in our city and career pathways for artists and do a better job, frankly, of auditing the kind of returns that we get on those investments. Artists are creating all types of indirect economic value in our city, and we don't do it justice enough. I think we can actually show, in fact, that because of arts organizations and because of everything from the performing arts, exhibitions, et cetera, that other businesses like restaurants, hospitality, tourism, as I said before, is in fact making money. So some kind of a percent on real estate taxes is where I would go to create the consistency in resources. Thank you, John. Councilor Campbell. So first is the budget line itself for this office. And I remember when I was fighting and working hard to create the Madapan Jazz and Unity Festival, just how difficult it was to navigate all of the institutions to get funding for that, and I was in the system and I found it challenging. And even navigating our arts and culture department, they wanted to help, but they had very limited resources. So I think the ask of this organization, this coalition, should be the minimum. I think we should explore even a higher number. I think it's also critically important that we begin to hire artists, but to strategically think about how we place folks with different backgrounds in various departments as we were planning and developing plans to respond to racial equity issues. And I'll give you an example. When I was establishing our Civic Engagement Summit, where we brought together 400 leaders from every demographic, including folks from the art community, we did it at the JFK library and the EMK Institute. And 400 leaders literally from every neighborhood in the city of Boston came together. I actually went through a design process. I had never really heard about arts and design and how you use these tools to create a more engaging event. What would it mean to actually have human capital like that in our departments being a part of how we do business in the city of Boston? So really thinking outside the box on design and what this community could bring to that work, particularly policy development. Pilot, we've been talking about it. Yes, especially the meds and the eds. They need to cough up more money. That is clear when you look at the business models. Some of our cultural institutions actually are struggling right now. Baltimore is giving more money to their cultural institutions in the city of Boston, which is quite tragic. So I do make the distinctions between a hospital business model and say a museum. So I think we have to be very intentional there. And then lastly, the private sector. We have industries, life sciences, biotech, so many industries, billion dollar industries, maybe even trillion dollar industries that we need to pull on as well to invest in an expansion of arts and culture in our schools and in our communities. Thank you so much. And thank you for everyone keeping to your time. I really appreciate that. And that counselor will. Thank you. We are well trained at this point with the mute button. This is a fundamental question that comes up not only to keep pace with other cities and what's happening around the country, but we are falling short of the potential in Boston to tap into all of the amazing talent to retain our artists to invest and see the multiplying of what we have here if we just watered the ground a little bit more. So I would ensure that through our city budget, we are reaching these numbers. And that is not just on the operation side, but on the capital budget side, too, in the facilities and the development of city infrastructure that must integrate and be incorporated with the arts. We also need to take a look at the city of Boston's budget, not department by department separated from each other, but to see arts and culture interwoven throughout and have a better mechanism to understand how we can make the most of those dollars. Of course, I echo the calls from chief on ensuring that development is that we're asking more and identifying this as a source going to the state for the advocacy that would be required to change the allocation of funds and to create that dedicated sustainable revenue source for arts and culture that is at the scale that we want. We will need the partnership and collaboration with state government with the city of Boston and the mayor as a key platform for that. And then I guess the biggest piece I want to emphasize is that Boston is a city where we are not short of resources, but the role of city government uniquely is to provide the vision so that there can be an alignment across all sectors for how all of our resources can move things in the same direction. And so that vision and urgency is central to all of it. Thank you so much. So we're going to move into housing, but not just housing, you know, studio space. I can't tell you how many times we've heard there's not enough just rehearsal space in Boston across the board. But then beyond that, every time at the artery we're reaching out to folks, especially post pandemic, people are moving. I mean, they're moving to Atlanta, they're moving to Austin, artists are just leaving the region for opportunities elsewhere. So the question is, how do we keep creatives in Boston? John? Crystal, a great question. I was proud to be co-chair of Imagine Boston 2030, which was the first comprehensive planning process in Boston in 65 years, where we laid out the high level principles and framework for how we move our city forward, engage 30,000 residents in the city to do that. Out of that, I helped to place in there that the city needs to have arts and arts innovation districts and then help fund them. And a big part of those districts need to be affordable living workspace for artists. Then I led the Uppams Corner Arts and Innovation District Implementation Plan, which is what the community asked for. The community was already there in a place making effort that would increase cultural and arts space, excuse me, on the first floor of buildings, and increase affordable housing, living workspace for artists above. We've pushed for that. There are RFPs on the street right now. They're picking a developer. We can do this in every neighborhood. We can make sure, in fact, that it's not just living, but it's also deed restricted small arts and cultural space at the base of our buildings, that artists live space should be coupled with workspace that is permanently affordable. And we can do it as Boston. We have a model in Uppams Corner. I'm super proud of having been able to create that opportunity there for precedence on how we build more long-term affordable space for our artists that is tied to how the neighborhoods grow and how our small businesses are supported. Thank you so much. Councillor Campbell. Thank you for the question. And this is one, of course, that we hear quite a bit, and particularly during the pandemic. So I'm really proud that my first piece of legislation on the council was the Community Preservation Act, which is generating close to 20 million dollars every single year, including for affordable housing. And I do think there's a way to be more intentional about artist housing. We often are for seniors or veterans, but I think based on what we hear on the council side during these hearings, we could be doing greater investments and more with greater intentionality for artist housing. The second piece, I keep bringing up the vacant lot initiative because I can't tell you how proud I am of this work in my team. For years, we were looking at vacant lots that were city-owned causing blight and public safety hazards in our communities and mainly in communities of color or low-income communities. And we said enough is enough. We actually joined Wentworth Institute and residents, we brought civic leaders together to create this event called Reclaiming Space, where we listened to residents and said, what do you want these lots to be? And now along Blue Hill Lab, there are 30 being activated, including some being explored, of course, for artist housing, studio space, workspace. But we can also be creative. In future development, I'm hearing seniors say they want to, for example, downsize out of their single-family homes and stay in the city. What does intergenerational housing look like? Bringing together seniors with artist communities, really being creative about the types of the communities we are bringing together, and then that senior housing gets freed up maybe for artists and their families. So I think the city just has to be more innovative and think outside the box. We also have to make it easier to apply for housing. The application process I hear, particularly for artists, is really difficult. Given the sources of income and how artists are paid, we can make that easier, streamlining these processes. And then lastly, anything else that would ask artists to stay, it's childcare, it's wages, it's creating a community that's more accessible and integrated. Naming the fact that we can do better when it comes to being anti-racist, healthcare benefits, all of that also has to be a part of the conversation too. Thank you. And Councillor Wu. Thank you, Crisela, for the question. Housing is health. Housing is economic stability. Housing is the foundation for so much else that we are pushing to repair and transform in this moment. And LiveWork space is on one of the first types of living arrangements. We've seen increasingly gentrified out as the city has been growing. The census numbers are a clear call to action. We know that as Boston as a city is seeing more and more residents, the number of Black Bostonians in our city is less now than 10 years ago. Our families are getting pushed out. Artists, especially BIPOC artists, are often the first in an area to stabilize a community, to create and build that community, and the first to experience the impacts of being pushed out. I've been really moved to get to visit Midway Studios, to spend time walking around a space that has created that possibility, and also that stability for so many artists in our community because of the efforts led by the community to ensure that this turned into a cooperatively owned building. That is the model that we should be supporting on the community side, ensuring that that stability comes through ownership and through cooperative models. The city also should be leveraging every bit of city-owned property, municipal buildings that we can integrate the redevelopment of housing, affordable housing, and LiveWork space on top of or in with, and to actively prioritize this in our planning processes. This is why we need artists at the table, not just about so-called arts issues and in a silo department, but really at the table thinking about how we grow and plan and set the rules for how we as a neighborhood and as a city will ensure that we're planning for the best possible future. Thank you so much. We'll move into the fourth topic. You've each mentioned this art as a priority for the city, art sort of as part of every aspect of the city's initiatives versus just sort of set aside. Can you all hear me? Yes? Fantastic. Okay. I'll start the question again. Artists often feel their role is treated as a commodity and not a necessity. But as we've seen with murals in Nubian Square, the audience is for virtual programming during a very difficult time where you're home and isolated. People sought art. This includes creative expression opportunities for youth. So what does the integration of creative youth development into your policy priorities look like? And I actually feel like I need to, I said a faux pas, I said post-pandemic, we're absolutely still in the middle of a pandemic. So what does it look like in your administration? Jon? Cristela, thank you very much. It is really important in fact that arts penetrates all aspects of city life, policymaking. In fact, when we recently launched the implementation efforts in Appamsquana to do an arts and innovation district, we had artists at the meetings. And summaries often of those meetings would be some kind of artist's interpretation of what they heard and trying to capture it all. Or we'd have them open the meeting. Arts can be and creatives can be at the table for all of these conversations. That's why in fact I've asked for or actually announced that as mayor that I will create a New York style, you know, artist core program where artists would be hired by the city using ARPA money to make sure that artists is part of all of the different departments of our city, whether it's the Boston Housing Authority or Youth and Center, Boston Families for Youth and Centers, economic development, all of us could use more artists in the work that we do. I've also talked about designing a new office of workforce development program for the creative industry. This is going to be based on a feasibility study that's now underway between MassArt and Emerson College. It is critical that we continue to look at how we create and strengthen careers and career pathways for artists in all of Boston. With that, I've announced that I would do a workforce incentive program that if a business that is not a cultural business hires an artist, let's say for live performance or something like that, that the city of Boston would underwrite some of that fee by providing some kind of workforce incentive and that would be a grant to that business. We need to create youth summer jobs and a track for arts and culture. We've already started looking at this and as mayor, I would implement it. I appreciate it, John, and I specifically want to hear answers around youth development. There have been grants where the age started around 14. So I've seen Boston do it. It is something that's happening, the opportunities for artists that are younger is occurring. So I'm just curious, you know, in the first 100 days how you're going to specifically focus on youth development. Councillor Campbell. Thank you for that question and specifically the youth piece. I started my career, my legal career representing students in education cases at a local nonprofit in Roxbury for free. So most of the families fell below the poverty line. And what I loved about this work, it was in the context, you know, representing students in special needs cases, school discipline cases, et cetera. And we found that some of the solutions to many of my cases were ensuring restorative justice, arts and culture practices, and that the schools that had these measures often saw less cases. And so it really is critical to think about how we make sure that this community is made a part of every policy decision. When we talk about our police response and I'm pushing for resources from the police department to be diverted to other efforts, it really is through arts and culture that we're seeing people really deal with mental health and trauma as a way to reduce violence. And so taking this background, my very first hearing on the city council as a chair of public safety was actually on youth development. I held a four hour hearing and I had so many organizations come and participate along with a lot of young residents who said, but for this organization, I'd be dead. But for this organization, I wouldn't have reached my full potential. And what they were shocked by is that the city of Boston did not have a specific line item to fund these organizations. So we started the youth development fund. Fast forward years later, that fund is over a million dollars. It's one of my proudest achievements. As mayor, I would put more millions into that. I'm often fighting the administration to put more resources there, critically important. The other piece I do want to lift up is my uncle was my dad, he works at Berkeley College of Music. And I didn't really understand the magnitude and scope of what the arts community could do in the city of Boston. It really is essential that every single department from public works to arts and culture department, every department have that lens and perspective at the table, because it really is about something bigger in terms of creating more resilient, accessible communities. Thank you so much. And councilor. Thank you. I've been involved with the Boston public schools for a decade now. First, raising my sister as my mom was struggling with mental illness as a legal guardian. And now with my own two boys in BPS, I've served on school site councils. I've been at more budget hearings with the Boston public schools than I can count. But at the end of the day, we are still treating arts education as something that is a luxury that we can have if a school's budget spills over enough. We need to have a foundation budget and we need to have a commitment for whole child education that includes ensuring as a baseline that every single young person has access to arts education and arts opportunities right in our school buildings. And that is the starting point. The next point is ensuring, as has already been mentioned, paid opportunities, internships, connections, a pathway into the creative economy, partnering with our institutions across the city, organizations at all scales. And we also need to make sure that these efforts, if they are truly going to hit community, if they're truly going to reach our young people, they should be designed and led by our young people. These ideas need to come from the Boston Student Advisory Council, which we need to support and make sure is fully resourced. They should come from young people at the table making decisions. That is how I have created my platforms, ensuring that those who are at the forefront are contributing the ideas. And so our arts plan already encapsulates a large piece of this because I've been proud to already be in coalition and in community. Thank you so much. We got throughout four questions and we'll start with closing statements. We'll do two and a half minutes for each person and John will actually, we'll go backwards. Councilor, we'll actually start with you then Councilor Campbell and then John will end with you. Thank you so much for organizing this and for giving us the chance to dive in. I know there's so much more that that was on the list. I wish you could have talked more about in terms of facilities and geographic access and really breaking down the barriers between different segments of our arts and culture community as well. The bottom line for me is that I am running for mayor to tackle the big challenges in Boston by bringing every voice into the conversation. We have everything we need in our city, the resources, the activism, the ideas. We just need to have political will that recognizes the urgency and intersectionality of our challenges. Boston is a city that is in crisis right now. Our housing crisis and displacement that families are facing, our transportation system, barely functional in many cases. Our ideas of how we connect with safety and health for every family are far from the reality on the ground. In this moment, as we are thinking about our future, the very same steps we need to take to tackle climate justice and racial and economic justice in fact are the steps that would bring about our brightest future and grab that opportunity in front of us. And so I'm pushing for a Boston where we are connecting our future to great jobs, to building generational wealth, to ensuring that Boston is resilient and equitable and vibrant. Arts and culture have to be at the center of that. We have been in this place before as a city, so many of the examples where our history and the milestones and markers that we celebrate in Boston were examples where Boston led the way and truly had an impact far beyond our borders. And so when it comes to being the arts and culture city, I'm so excited for Boston to once again lead the way to ensure that we are not creating, because it already exists, the community and the activism, but elevating and ensuring that this is a foundation for every other bit of advocacy and organizing that we're doing with city government as a platform for it all. So I very respectfully ask for your vote and more importantly ask for your partnership on making sure that we move as quickly as we can on these issues. Thank you. Councillor Campbell. Thank you, Christella, for doing another fabulous job. And thank you, of course, to all of the organizers. I know how busy folks are and we talk about this particular community and the data you shared. It's a tough time. We are still in this pandemic. People are still losing their jobs. People are still losing their lives to COVID. And so I really appreciate the intentionality of the organizers to come together as a community to create a space for us to have a pre-conversation and of course to create a space to have this forum. I talk about being an elected official and of course a candidate for mayor has always been about turning pain into purpose. You know, I talk about growing up in the city of Boston, poor and with very little a life really torn apart by incarceration and so many other challenges. And yet this is the city that gave me everything I would need not only to go up to a Princeton University, become a lawyer and come back here and serve my community, but to ensure that that girl went off into the world feeling confident, resilient and ready to fulfill my potential. And yet on the flip side, I share my twin brother Andre story all the time because he was my best friend and he did not have access to those same opportunities. And so for me, this work is very much personal. I firmly believe that everyone who is living the very issues we're talking about should be at the table and forming policy. I'm really proud that my policy on these issues including the questionnaire response was informed by folks who are doing the work currently who are struggling currently. That won't change going forward, but I often say I'm more than a story. I'm also about doing the work and I have a significant record of accomplishment on working with this community to get things done as a city counselor representing a district that is under-resourced, under-invested in. But yet we were able to do remarkable things, transform city-owned lots into spaces where art is happening, where we're literally lifting up the spirit and the talent of every resident in our district. That would continue as mayor. We are activating space for housing purposes for the artist community. We're absolutely, of course, working to expand that Youth Development Fund. We have done the work of improving our schools, particularly those in our district. And so going forward for me, it really is about ensuring that that leadership continues, that the investments are made, that we do it across every single department, and that we finally center this community in everything that we do. And I will tell you my relative and my dad would not have me have it any other way. So hope to earn your support on September 14th. Thank you, Councillor Campbell. And last but not least, John. Kristela, thank you very much. I want to thank the Create the Vote Coalition, all the artists that are on the call with us today, those who open, those who will close. The arts community in Boston is special, and I'm proud to be on this call. But I'm also proud of the work that I've done and what I have promised to do as mayor. I'm proud of the fact that as Chief Economic Development, worked with others to help increase the budget to the Boston Culture Council to create the first percent of the art program here in Boston, to support local artists through awards programs, grant programs, fellowships in Boston. I'm proud of the fact that we have the best arts high school in the Boston Arts Academy. I have led through action. I will put my track record up against any candidate in this race. I've gotten it done and will continue to get it done. And as mayor, I'm ready to lead and fund a new organization called the Boston Arts Development Agency with a $10 million fund to make sure that arts continues to be part of how we do the built environment in our city. It is critical that we help save arts organizations, cultural organizations, as Boston continues to grow. I worked very closely, most recently, with the artists at the Humphrey Studios right down the street from my home. And I'm proud that after calling publicly, writing an op-ed that many of us have succeeded, and ownership is working with those artists to make sure that those artists have a shot at buying that building. And right now they're pretty close to doing it. And I'm really proud of the efforts that we did to help organize that and make that happen. That's the kind of leadership that I will bring to this as mayor to make sure, in fact, that artists always have a place, a thriving place in our city, and that that thriving, the thriving spaces are equitably distributed to by-park artists, to those who typically don't find themselves in those opportunities. I will, in fact, as mayor, make arts a priority in solving all of the other issues in our city and helping Boston be a thriving city for all. Please check out my plan, which I'm super excited about, that was informed by artists. And I'm looking forward to continuing my conversation with artists on that plan and other ideas at Barrows4Mayor.com. And then I humbly ask you for your vote on September 14th as mayor of Boston. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. I think it's sort of known that we could have been here for another five hours or so discussing policy around arts and culture. But I'm thankful for the hour that we had, and I think we covered a lot of ground. I have a few final just notes and reminders for folks. So the preliminary mayoral election is Tuesday, September 14th. So mark your calendars and make your voting plan today so that you don't forget. When we show up at the polls, we can make a difference for more creative and just Boston. And I really believe that. The Create the Vote Coalition invites you to Creating Boston 2021, Celebrating Creative Joy and Community Engagement. It's going to be a live stream presentation of Boston artists voting information and information on each candidate's vision for arts and culture in Boston. HowlRound will once again broadcast the program. So bookmark their page and we'll see you next Thursday at 6pm. And September 9th, city space at 7pm WBUR, the Boston Globe UMass Boston School of Policy and Global Studies and WCVB will host a live debate between candidates for mayor of Boston. So you all are busy. You have a lot more of these. You can learn more and register to attend on WBUR city space site, which I think we'll probably put in the chat. And in closing, you know, on behalf of WBUR and the Create the Vote Boston Coalition, thank you for joining today's forum. And I want to thank the candidates who were able to attend John Barrow's, Councillor Campbell and Councillor Wu. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.