The 31-year resident of Newton, Meryl Kessler, announced her plan for the newborn Department of Arts and Culture before the Newton Cultural Council, following her appointment as Director. She discussed her goals to expand current programs, secure new funds and promote local talent.

The Newton Cultural Council will now operate under the control of the Department of Arts & Culture.

She said that she will be the only member of the department until the new budget is approved by Marc Laredo, and will use that time to set up the website, social media, and other basic operational functions. She is currently working on a map of all the arts organizations in Newton to post on the website.

She announced that her office will be at Brigham House, the former home of the senior center, before the Cooper Center was finished.

“People are very local here in Newton,” said Kessler. “Their identities are often related to their villages and often don’t really know what’s going on in their villages, and so I think we need to spread the love around.”

Once her department is set up, her first step is to build communications with the 40-plus creative organizations in Newton.

“I’m thinking brown bag lunches and invite creatives from the community,” said Kessler.

She proposed a possible creative summit, an update to the arts and culture calendar, and the addition of an arts and culture kiosk to highlight local talent.

Kessler’s main priority as department head is to establish a standard set of guidelines to partner with local groups in Allston.

“We really don’t have operating procedures, guidelines, or structures for making those ideas come to life, and that’s something I think should be a priority,” she said.

Kessler wants to tap into the local creative economy to spotlight local talent and explore additional ways to generate revenue for the city. She proposed a partnership with the Economic Development Commission and holding more performances to get residents out in the streets.

She proposed having a Newton poet laureate, which is a local poet who would serve as a representative of literature in Newton and promote it at community events.

Kessler suggested implementing a Percent for Art Program, which traditionally designates 1% of the construction budget to commission public artwork. She also suggested that they apply to be a 501 C3 fundraising arm, which would allow the department to accept tax-deductible donations.

“We certainly have a lot of domains here in the city. A lot of nonprofits that raise money and supplement the budget we have,” she said. “I think that in tough budgetary times, we need to look at all the options.”

The Council also voted to recommend the establishment of an Art Commission to ensure cross-city and departmental cooperation and cement the arts in the wider conversation, said Anne Marie Stein, the co-chair of the Newton Cultural Council.

Stein said that the idea for the commission came before the establishment of the Department of Arts and Culture, with the goal to ensure decisions do not go through a small group of people and that all choices are widely communicated. 

The council would have representatives from the Newton Cultural Alliance or Spark Newton to bring in expertise in addition to insights from the city employees.

“The idea is to hopefully set up something that can really help ensure the future of the arts in an inclusive way,” said Stein.

Despite unanimous approval from the council, Kessler did not show support due to limited resources, liability issues, and the law department’s role in city-funded creative expression.

The recommendation of the Arts Commission passed unanimously without Kessler’s support.

“The advisory role is super important, but at the end of the day, it’s often hard to implement programming,” said Kessler, “because people come into these roles, they come out of these roles, they rotate through, people have lives, and that’s why the staff ends up having front-line responsibility.”