 So this is our last poll for the day. What is an important achievement for the arts and culture in the next four years? Cultural center in each neighborhood and international arts events, like South by Southwest, based in Boston. Permanent affordable housing and art making spaces. Access for every child to affordable and high quality arts education. Living wage policy for artists. Art specialists in every city department and a platform for the arts community to regularly convene. Please go ahead. OK, I'm really nervous, but my name's Mary Hopkins. I'm an OFB originally from Dorchester. I'm also a proud member of IACI, which is the International Alliance for Theater and Stage and Police. And I have to be like someone's here. Anyways, I came to Sets. I work on film and TV here in the city of Boston. I'm really nervous. I became a member in 1991. And I didn't get my first job until 1993. But I'm very glad that I have hung in there. And now it is 2014. And there's a lot more work here now in the city of Boston. I don't have to travel all of New England. I can stay home. But there are things that I like to see. Personally, I'm a high school graduate. But I'm also a graduate of Mayor Gray Flynn's very first cycle of women in the building trades. And it was a very important program for me anyways. So that got me involved, or how to get a union job. And then, OK, and then how to get a job in the film industry while I became a member of the union. But we all work union, non-union, low budget, no budget. If we're not on a gig, we're freelancing. And we're here and we're not going anywhere. It seems like we're invisible. Everyone's talking about space. Just so I can throw these out quickly. The film Heat we did inside the Harold Travel Building just torn down. American Hustle was filmed entirely here, the city of Boston, Worcester, and Chelsea. And then at the end, and you get reading the credits, special thanks to Mayor's Office, the city of New York. There was only two days of work done there. We're here. We do the work. We're not going anywhere. So the bottom line is, tax credits or no tax credits, union or non-union, the city hall needs a specific film and television office. And make this type of work of someone like myself, not the odd ones, that I don't have a college degree, or that I'm not coming with a theater background, that I came from a labor background, and I'm blessed to earn a living wage and do this work. Thank you. My name is Ian Fall. I am a journalist and critic who writes for the arts views and the Clyde Fitch report. And I am also a former community editor for the Jewish advocate. I'm also a playwright, poet, and teaching artist specializing in physical theater. On February 14th, 2013, a number of experienced teaching artists, including myself, were asked by the city center to provide free content for a February 23rd, 2013 arts festival at the Dudley Branch Library. I had had no prior relationship with the city center beyond having repeatedly submitted my resume to the education department over a period of several years. Let me reiterate, there was neither an offer of an honorarium nor in-kind services. I declined because this request for free labor went against the recommended labor practices advocated by state agencies, including the Mass Cultural Council. The city center is not a cash strapped organization, according to the most recent tax forms that were available to me, 2010. At the time, their end of the year net assets totaled $35,586,107. Their top five compensated staff members received a total of $1,224,307 a year. Additionally, Nathan Pussy, an officer of Citibank, has compensated $1,685,240 for undefined services, even as linked in a profile silent on what he had done to earn this. In short, the city center had 2,909,547 reasons to ask artists for free labor. I request that the city review the labor practices of organizations with which it contracts for arts programs. At 26, I work with Arts Street. I've also taught at Corbett College a class called Street Art 10. I want to discuss real quick the positives and negatives of what I've observed in my students. The positives is that local citizens find guidance to band together and to collaborate in ways to beautify the city. And the negative is that the city hasn't prepared itself to embrace the pursuits of visionary artists. It's been documented in cities across the globe that criminalizing graffiti is a wonderful and successful campaign in uniting neighborhoods to solving crime. And the visual aesthetics are absolutely breathtaking. I know he's had a very intimidating word right now in front of all you very fine and respectable people in the room. And I want to bring it up now that the idea of decriminalizing graffiti is the dream that you're looking for. And the action plan is low to no cost. It starts within the existing law. And it starts with cooperating and respecting the land. Landowners possess this most valuable and sought out asset. The walls and streets of Boston have historically provided stability for economic growth. And they can do the same thing for the arts. So we're here looking for Boston's strong leaders to work towards a visible production that would be realized internationally and would, I wrote this like standing up there, and would most definitely make Boston a better place to live. Thank you. From Alston, my perspective is informed by my jobs as a seamstress for both the Boston Ballet. I'm a tutu smith. And I also work for an independent fiber artist at Midway Studios, Amy Nguyen of Designs. And also, because I live in Alston, I was once what I like to call a low-budget rock star. Let's be clear. Funding the arts creates jobs. And as many times as said today, what brings us here are matters of labor and real estate. I'm talking about having a place to be, and therefore having the ability to grow. Making art is a daily action. And musically speaking, Boston has long been known among bands around the country to be an exciting destination because it's an incubator for so many kinds of music. And this is a precious part of Boston's character. It tangibly builds a community. So there needs to be room for the underground. We have even fewer places. We have fewer places, ever fewer places, to play independent shows. We see practice in studio space is not to mention affordable housing be torn up to make impossibly luxurious apartments. Artists struggle to make ends meet while fulfilling their work. And additionally, the territory is inhospitable to younger people, worsening the effects of a youth culture built around socializing at the mall and worshiping screens. In a way, young folks also have no place to go. So you have to make it easier to have all ages shows. You work with the independent event bookers. You work with the Boston hair soap. You asked the Dick Boston, the very newspaper that gave Marty Walsh a winning endorsement. And I also, and also the artist that I work for at Fort Point, I think that she is doing a good, like she's a good citizen. She's created four jobs for me and one of my former bandmates. She wants to be a good boss, but she's afraid that she won't be able to keep this jobs. They do call us the hub in the city after all. I would like to say also that I'm grateful so far for the soon to be extended MBTA service, public art projects, music festivals this summer. Thank you very much. Also from Alston and I'm a musician. I moved to Boston a few months before the Avalon closed. And since then I have just seen the venues that my friends bands and bands that I wanted to see from other places play just keep closing. And with the news recently that the Middle East in Cambridge may be shutting down in the next couple of years. Yeah, yep. I've been looking at what's last. And unfortunately most of the major venues left in Boston are not venues that support local musicians. They bring in an outside band or two that plays for an hour and a half and then the show's over at 9.30, 10 o'clock. I've seen the shows ending very early lately in the past year and a half. And the bars and smaller venues that do support local bands are now becoming inundated with more and more people trying to find a place to have a show. We recently contacted, my band recently contacted a band in our, recently contacted a bar in Alston and they're booked out for nine months with shows every day of the week. So, Boston has begun lots of a place that has its own musical identity and more of a place that's importing it from out of state. Thank you. My name is David Vieira. I'm the president of the Citywide Friends of the Boston Public Library. And I'd like to say welcome to your library. In 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library sat on this stage and voted to close four of our branch libraries. And in the course of the next four months, operating with the coalition upon Beacon Hill and in City Hall, including then State Representative Marty Walsh, we turned that vote around and those four libraries remained open. Please don't make us fight for our libraries again. There's 24 branch libraries throughout our city today that are still open. But they're locked down from the second Saturday in June to the second Saturday in September. A vital time when our communities need to have a space to gather for the arts and for other things. These spaces are closed up to everybody in this room. And those of you who have performed in public library venues know that we are open and welcoming and we're ready to receive you any time that we have a space that's open for you. This particular building is also locked down on Sundays from the last Sunday in May, which would be Labor Day, until the first Sunday in October. I don't know of any other major library that has its major venue closed on a Sunday. We need to do something to fund this. The Boston Public Library budget is about 6% of the city's budget and we really need to look to see public libraries expanded through the summer months. I would also like to applaud my friends from Chinatown. Eight years ago I testified in front of the city council that I wasn't willing to advocate for a branch library in any one neighborhood, but I would advocate for branch libraries in all neighborhoods. And that includes our friends in Chinatown. David, thank you, your time is up. Thank you very much. To represent my organization, Sociola Latina, but all community-based program, it's a pleasure to be here speaking with you guys on behalf of the youth of Boston, because we usually don't get a voice like that and we usually don't ever get to show that we actually do care about these programs and that these programs do help. My experience in these art-based programs have been life-changing. It provided me with so many skills and tools for my life, like in many aspects of my life. And I came in as a troubled team whether I wanted to admit it or not. Community-based programs gave me another way to express myself other than going out and doing negative things, because I didn't really have anybody to keep me on. I have parents, but they work a lot, and so I never really had anybody to put me on the right track or tell me what to do after school and stuff. So programs like this showed me that I, I'm sorry, I'm just a little nervous myself. Programs like this helped me understand that it's better to know that you're doing better than to have other people notice that you are doing better. And I feel like these programs help because it takes away the violence off the streets, because you are more focused on doing good things. So when they're focused on doing more good things, they're prone to make more right decisions in everyday situations. And people at these programs show a true connection. They make it feel like it's not a job or a little program. They make it feel like it's a family almost. So I don't know, I really feel like they've given me a lot of support and they bring unity to the community. So thank you for your time. If you could just step down one step, that'd be great. And I'm also a music ambassador at Sociolatino. I'm here to talk about the importance of arts programs. Music just, music isn't just a few songs of a priority lifeline to use to want more meaning in their lives. We're awakening our creative side and providing confidence and self-esteem for all youth in Boston. I've been in foster care for a very long time and had very low self-esteem, anxious to know if I'll fit in in society, but my program has given me very, I'm also nervous, sorry, has given me a lot of self-esteem. Community-based arts program have opened up a whole new world view, has introduced me to many youths similar to me and has developed in me a variety of skills such as being collaborative, patient, responsible, organized, and very open minded. Sociolatino, other arts programs should be funded in a way that sustains the programs itself and all the individuals involved. Arts and music has impacted in my life tremendously. In the midst of all my personal struggles, doing my involvement with this program has been changed. Has, has been changed. And I know others' lives have been changed as well. It has impacted in the community by bringing us as a whole, prevent less violence, and bring a more opportunity to our community. Thank you. I want to make sure that I did make the list, high-firm and perhaps in university, okay. Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly. On behalf of Boston University, I'd like to thank the mayor for his commitment to the arts and for you for listening. I serve as the managing director of the BU Arts Initiative, which is a new position in the office of the provost. The creation of the Arts Initiative as a priority demonstrates our commitment to the critical role of the arts in the intellectual and personal development of our more than 30,000 students in Boston. The BU has a strong history in the arts for over 60 years. We've been training some of the world's finest musicians, poets, theater artists, and more. We proudly partner with many local arts organizations, including the Celebrity Series with the Street Pianas and Boston Calling Music Festival. We provide all of our students memberships to the BSL, the MFA, and the Isabelle Stewart Art Museum. In any given week on our campus, there are over two dozen arts events that happen and virtually all of them are free and open to the public, drawing thousands of people to the area. Over the decades, the US truly transformed the former Ottawa and the Commonwealth Avenue to a vibrant cultural sector, and we have only just begun. We are looking forward to partnering with the Walsh Administration and offering our resources to keeping the innovation district model while firmly positioning artists as a high priority within that framework. Implementing a Mayor's Arts Council that includes arts leaders from colleges and universities where we can participate in discussions around supporting, sharing, and benefiting from the cultural assets of the cities and our institutions, and dreaming up new ways to partner and support the development of new arts spaces in Boston that will make our region even more culturally vibrant. Thank you guys, our last testifier, testifier today. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for adding me. I wanted to make sure that the hip-hop voice was heard today. Thank you. My name is Cindy Diggs and I'm the founder of Peace Boston, which is a hip-hop peace movement that we started back in 2005 with members of the former music industry. When the industry began to crash, those of us who worked in the 90s decided to give our experiences to the young people and that's where hip-hop was created to stop the violence back in 1973. And when put in the proper hands, it can be done again. We have so many people that use hip-hop for negative means and we see people using it for commercials to sell cars and we wanna use it to save lives. Thank you. Thank you. One of the things that we've always had a problem with is space because everyone fears us. But it's something that if you have, those of us who are the leaders, there's nothing to fear. I was asked to be a part of the, actually asked to form Mayor Monino's hip-hop round table and we helped to put on the Peace Boston Hip-Hop Festival for many years at Government Center until they took it away from those of us in the hip-hop culture and brought in people from the suburbs to put it on and then there was violence that pursued because they brought in young artists rather than bringing old school because the young people love old school as well and their parents and they're not gonna act up then. So the one thing that I would like to see happen with the arts is that we have more art space and there are 35 Boston Centers for Youth and Families that are underutilized where we could have simultaneous talent shows that are happening so that kids aren't coming to the one talent show that's put on by people in the industry so that we can have a lot less violence because imagine never being able to dance or perform because you're a young person and now these young people put on their own events and their own houses and that's when the violence starts. So if you'd like to support our efforts we just started the Peace Collaborative and we have a fundraiser on March 1st we're bringing Mardi Gras to Boston to the Harborside and Lounge. So join us there, we're gonna build a youth activities fund and support the youth in hip-hop. Thank you. One, I just wanna thank everybody for their time your passion and please stay involved with this process. If you didn't give us your emails when you signed in please do that so we can make sure that we know how to contact you. I'll also give a shout out to Matt Wilson at Mass Creative who signed up with us. If you wanna know what's going on in the arts community. Here's our final poll. If you did not have an opportunity to testify if you have more to say you can feel free to give us your testimony in writing. We'll be here for a couple minutes afterwards if you have another meeting after this but please talk to us individually as well. So thank you again for your time and have a good day.