ECCF hosts an Essex County Arts and Culture Summit that informs and inspires
By Michelle Xiarhos Curran
ECCF Communications Writer
Dariana Guerrero, a young writer, activist and educator from Lawrence, recalled participating in open mic night at El Taller as a 15-year-old poet. Before stepping into the spotlight, her mantra, “Be Brave,” whispered under her breath, gave her courage.
“And so, I would take the stage, and I would slam my poems, and I would speak my peace,” said Guerrero. “It was one of the most encouraging and amazing spaces.”
Guerrero described El Taller as a vibrant art café where artists and politicians and grassroots leaders would gather, support and learn from one another: about life, art and how to engage in the community and in local government.
“This was just such a space where so many different demographics and diverse peoples came together to be able to share and speak their truths,” she said, adding that El Taller was, and is, a place where people could set aside their fears. “Because when you’ve been marginalized so many times, you start to think that your voice doesn’t matter. But at El Taller, our voices matter.”
“I really believe this place changed my life,” she said.
Guerrero told this story during the afternoon panel discussion that capped off the 2024 Essex County Arts & Culture Summit held September 27 at The Cabot in Beverly. The panel – which also included Brian Boyles of Mass Humanities, Emily Ruddock of MassCreative, Andrew Zitcer of Drexel University, and moderator Eunice Zeigler, a singer-songwriter and strategic planning professional – focused on the topic of Creative Democracy and Advocacy.
Guerrero’s story was one of many told during the panel discussion – and throughout the day – that connected just how vital arts and culture are to human development and belonging.
The 2024 Summit – the fourth of its kind – gathered more than 300 artists and creatives, nonprofit, community, municipal, and business leaders, elected officials, and more. It was an all-day event filled with meaningful connection, dazzling dance, spoken word and musical performances, and thought-provoking keynote addresses by Vin Cipolla of Historic New England, who spoke about the critical act and impact of preservation, and Harold Steward of New England Foundation for the Arts, who combined storytelling, philosophy, and history to talk about “aesthetics as our constant and our conscience.”
In her opening remarks, ECCF’s Creative County Program Director Karen Ristuben asked the audience to consider how a piece of art—a painting, a song, a poem, or a play—can connect people, flame the embers of democracy, create social change, celebrate place and identity, and uplift our collective spirit.
“You who create are the core cause of these effects – YOUR effects – on our lives beyond the awe and the aesthetic of your song, poem, painting, or dance,” she said. “Today is about seeing how the art you make, and that we collectively support, acts to make our lives more soulful and meaningful and beautiful.”
Inspiring and moving performances by Latin dance and reggae duo Combo Sombroso, Cultura Latina Dance Academy, singers Loida Love Dominguez and Nicholis King Joy, poets January Gill O’Neil and Dariana Guerrero, and dancer Buyile Narwele, plus live visual art by artist Claudia Paraschiv, collectively illustrated Ristuben’s point as the audience engaged, cheered, applauded, and rose from their seats to dance.
For more than seven years, with the generous support of the Barr Foundation and others, ECCF’s Creative County has worked to elevate and expand access to arts and culture and strengthen the local creative ecosystem through capacity building, convenings, cultural planning, support for local municipalities, and inclusive grantmaking.
“Through it all, ECCF has been a leader among peers,” said Giles Li, senior program officer of Arts & Creativity at Barr, during the summit. “You’ve done it all and have done a hell of a job doing it. We are so proud and deeply grateful to be your partners.”
The Summit is a chance to celebrate ECCF’s leadership and the community’s collective work, which includes the deployment of over $2.5 million through nearly 350 grants to several hundred unique organizations and artists, a positive impact on tens of thousands of Essex County residents, and the transformation from a region with a largely siloed creative sector to a place that values and seeks out innovative ways to work together.
“Each thing we’ve done has led to more things,” said Ristuben. “And now we feel it in the air that we’re collectively a stronger creative county, interconnected through more grant funding, leadership support, convenings, and many touchpoints.”
The 2024 Summit also included a panel discussion on the partnership between ECCF, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (MVPC), and Merrimack Valley Transit (MeVa). Jenny Arndt, the Merrimack Valley Arts & Culture Specialist; MeVa’s Administrator and CEO Noah Berger; and Jerrard Whitten and Ian Burns, executive director and economic development manager of MVPC, respectively, took the stage to talk about the Our Town grant the trio recently received from the National Endowment of the Arts to incorporate community-sourced artistic and design elements into the Merrimack Valley’s public transportation system.
“This is what collaboration looks like across sectors,” said Ristuben, who moderated the panel. “This is it.”
And that type of continued collaboration is what’s going to propel Creative County into the future.
“We need to be thinking about how we as a community can keep this good work going, and the unique and important role of the community foundation to empower it,” said ECCF President and CEO Stratton Lloyd, who joined Ristuben to talk about what’s to come and how to make the systems that empower creative work stronger and more accessible, resilient and equitable.
“Ultimately, systems change is about changing the way people THINK about the value of arts in their communities,” said Ristuben. “When we engage people in the holistic and healing practice of sharing the culture of each unique neighborhood, building place-based works together, we all appreciate more why it needs to last, and how to make it last.”
Lloyd said that supporting Creative County means having a regional voice and an organization that can continue to attract funding from federal and state programs, other foundations, and individuals and use that money to grant grants to the creative community.
“Sustaining Creative County means continuing this momentum, which inspires collective action and a thriving creative economy ecosystem,” he said.
Ristuben and Lloyd then announced $250,000 in seed funding for a Creative County Endowment Fund to raise $5 million to fund arts and culture work across the region in perpetuity.
“The time is now for everyone here to come into Creative County as a donor and as an everyday advocate to make sure this amazing work can be sustained,” said Lloyd. “It’s a community program; keeping it alive will be a community effort.”
For highlights, grantee spotlights, and testimonials from ECCF’s 2024 Essex County Arts & Summit, visit ECCF’s YouTube channel. Also, stay tuned to ECCF’s Grant Page for more information about Creative County grant opportunities, which will open Jan. 1, 2025. To learn more about how you can get involved with Creative County, don’t hesitate to contact Karen Ristuben at k.ristuben@eccf.org.
