Waltham Cultural Council

06/26/2024

Tonight, the Waltham Public Library hosts an exciting adult program for Pride Month: Sarah Boyer presents Coming Out, Becoming Ourselves, from 6-7:30pm in the Waltham Room!

More information can be found here:

https://waltham.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/sarah-boyer-presents-coming-out-becoming-ourselves-lesbian-stories-from-the-boston-daughters-of-bilitis-1969-1999/

03/27/2024

Grantee Naomi Westwater's event "Reclaiming Folk: Celebrating People of Color in Folk Music", featuring Grace Givertz, is happening at 6pm tomorrow at the Waltham Public Library! We're proud to have sponsored this event, and we hope to see you there!

For more information about Naomi herself, you can visit her website at https://www.naomiwestwater.com/.

03/11/2024

Grantee Karen Frostig's "Day of Remembrance" project will be held on April 9th and 10th at Brandeis University as part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.

From the artist:

"I have developed three distinctive, two-hour modules of programming that begin with my narrative as an artist growing up in Waltham, encompassing two additional historic narratives dealing with forgotten histories, taking place in Waltham. At the center of this trilogy is my father’s escape from Vienna and my grandparents’ murder in Riga, Latvia. I am developing a large mourning shroud dedicated to close to 4,000 victims of the camp that have been forgotten. Recently the camp was repurposed as a recreation park.

The 'Day of Remembrance' program is developed as an inclusive project, referencing three different narratives from three different eras. Each narrative captures a minority voice that has been marginalized from mainstream discourse. All three narratives reflect Adolph Hitler’s war on Jews and other minority groups. He incorporated Death Marches, used by white settlers on Native Americans to weaken, and eventually murder Jews. He transformed hospitals into prisons for 'feeble-minded', disabled groups, where he instituted medical experimentation, as well as mass murder."

02/27/2024

Check out this upcoming guitar workshop on Friday, February 29th, organized by grantee Kathleen Dowcett!

02/19/2024

Here's an upcoming event from one of last year's grantees, Naoe Suzuki:

Language, Like Letters

Gabriel Sosa, Naoe Suzuki, Kenson Truong
February 1 - March 3
Reception: February 22, 6-8pm
Lesley Art + Design
1801 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140
Gallery Hours: By Appointments Only

If you are unable to attend the February 22nd reception and would like to view the exhibit, please contact [email protected] to schedule your visit.

I’m thrilled to announce that my work is shown in Language, Like Letters at Lesley University. I’m showing “Extinction Studies” series, in which two works have never been shown before. I’m also excited to show “Letter to 13 year old 直江,” a text installation which came out of a beautiful collaboration with Andrew Mroczek, the Director of the Exhibition at Lesley Art + Design and eleven Lesley students. I’m so grateful for all their work.

“Letter to 13 year old 直江” was originally written as a part of Chain Letters, an online project initiated by artist Christopher K. Ho and curator Daisy Nam for CHART in 2022. I wrote about being bullied at my middle school in Japan where I experienced a number of bullying “tactics”—name calling, use of fake information against me, humiliating punishment, silence from bystanders, violence, and even restriction of movement within a classroom.

In this letter, I linked human species as bullies to the environment and ecosystems, and the biggest bullies being the global powers—acknowledging that I am now a part of this group due to living in the Global North, especially in the United States. This reality has been setting in me very heavily in the recent months and amid accelerating climate crisis. (We past 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, as reported this past Thursday.)

When Andrew invited me to be a part of this exhibition, I shared this letter with him. He asked me if I wanted to speak these words loud or in whisper. I gave a quick thought and said, “LOUD!” He suggested that we would make it as a large scale installation, and he made it happen miraculously. I believe this installation is as much as his work as mine. It was his vision and encouragement for me to let the work be as powerful as it could be. I feel extremely blessed to be working with him once again. This letter is about my personal experiences from four decades ago, but I think there are many parallel stories that speak to this moment.

I hope many of you can visit the exhibition. The works by Kenson Truong and Gabriel Sosa are fabulous! For those of you who are not able to come to Cambridge, you can still read my letter on my website. I also recommend reading other intriguing letters written by Asian American artists on Chain Letters website.

Thank you very much for reading and for your ongoing support.

Warmly,
Naoe

02/19/2024

Check out this upcoming celebration from one of our grantees!

https://www.walthamfamilyschool.org/fiesta

02/13/2024

One of our grantees, the Waltham Land Trust, has some great events coming up!

February 15th, 7-8pm:
A Valentine for Our Friends the Flies
https://secure.walthamlandtrust.org/np/clients/walthamlandtrust/event.jsp?event=2682

February 22nd, 1-2pm:
Eyes on Owls of the World (funded partly by the WCC)
https://secure.walthamlandtrust.org/np/clients/walthamlandtrust/event.jsp?event=2692

An in-person educational program featuring live owls, for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, you and the whole family!

01/09/2024

The Waltham Cultural Council is excited to announce our grantees for FY24!

This year we received 71 applications, requesting a total of $124,728; we approved 56 grants, awarding a total of $47,070.

The Waltham Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. Applications and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available at www.mass-culture.org. Applications are due mid-October.

For guidelines and complete information on how to apply or how to become a member of the Waltham Cultural Council, please email [email protected].
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2024 Waltham Cultural Council Grantees:

African Cultural Services, Inc.: African instruments playing, Dance and Perform Series

African Cultural Services, Inc.: Your Story Matters Magazine

Alive Dance Collective, LLC: StoryBook Movement Workshops with Alive Dance Collective and ArtRelief

Bereaud, Philip Alexander: Sing, Play, Grow! Children’s Music Enrichment

Chen, Hudson: Travel through the Art & History of the Silk Road

Community Farms Outreach, Inc.: Farm Day/Dia de la Granja 2023

Crescendo Productions, LLC: The Stones Cry Out: Grove Hill Cemetery

Discovery Museum, Inc.: Open Door Connections

Douglas MacArthur Elementary School: Science/Cultural enrichment programming for K-5 Students

Douglas MacArthur Elementary School: Lotus Lanterns with the Korean Cultural Project

Dowcett, Kathleen: Community Arts Project

Downtown Waltham Partnership, Inc.: Waltham Riverfest 2024

Downtown Waltham Partnership, Inc.: Watch City Steampunk Festival

Druyan, Ron: Tiny Tutti

Ethnic Arts Center of Somerville, Inc.: Part 3-"MANY CULTURES, ONE PEOPLE!" African American Heritage Renactment Puppetry Shows

Friends of the Waltham Family School, Inc: Music in Motion

Frostig, Karen: Locker of Memory/Day of Remembrance: Mourning Shroud for 800 souls

Gore Place Society: The Federal Period: Shaping a Nation Field Trip

Hart, Francis: The “Beat Generation” - A Cultural Review of the 1950s Through Music

Henry Whittemore Elementary School: Access Puppetry Arts

Henry Whittemore School Parent-Teacher Organization, Inc.: Cinco de Mayo celebration

Kelly, Kaye: SheGrooves; Using Our Voices for Positive Change

Lahiri, Chandreyee: We are Waltham storytelling show

Lucci, Jessica: Watch City Readers

McDevitt Parent-Teacher Organization, Inc.: McDevitt Multicultural Night

Metalwerx, Inc.: Design, Create, Wear: Stamping on Metal

MUSIC Dance.edu: I am Autistic I am Fantastic - The Musical

MUSIC Dance.edu: Hip Hop Chair Dance for Seniors! a dance series

Nath, Anjali: Khelna (Play)

Nelson, Sarah Jane: Music for Waltham Fields Community Farm

Opportunities for Inclusion, Inc.: Bringing Inspiration to Opportunities For Inclusion and Beyond

Powers Music School, Inc.: Watch City Singers at Waltham Council on Aging

Radio Uganda Boston Boston Inc: SUMMER SPLASH

Shalom-Kobii, Tal Shalom: Women for Peace and Social Justice

Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Inc.: Recovering the Stories of Domestic Workers at Lyman Estate

The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts: ArtReach: Mosesian Arts Storytime & Story Explorers Project

The Waltham Museum, Inc.: Saturday Social Series

The Waltham Museum, Inc.: Something Funny's Going on at the Waltham Museum

Thomas R. Plympton Elementary School: Penguin Palooza!

Thomas R. Plympton Elementary School: Plympton School Multicultural Night

Umbrell, Roz: Aerospace & Rocketry Club Community Launch Event

Waltham Arts Council, Inc.: Waltham Concerts on the Common

Waltham Boys & Girls Club: See ME

Waltham Dual Language School: All School Cultural Assembly

Waltham Historical Society, Inc.: Waltham Historical Society's Edmund Sanderson Lecture Series

Waltham Land Trust, Inc.: Eyes on Owls of the World

Waltham Mills Artist Association: 2024 Waltham Open Studios

Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.: Two Waltham Philharmonic Concerts including Pops with Student Soloist

Waltham Public Library: Adult Programs

Waltham Public Library Children's Room: Children's Programs at the Library

Waltham Public Library Teen Room: WPL Teen Room Graffiti Camp 2024

Waterman, Jon: Live Music Making History Live

Westwater Weekes, Naomi: The Reclamation Project: Honoring the Voices of People of Color in Folk Music

Yorick Ensemble: Yorick Ensemble Presents: Gruesome Playground Injuries

York, Matt: Matt York - Songs & Stories: Willie Nelson

Zaino, Nick: 100 Years Of Boston Comedy

10/16/2023

The deadline to apply for a grant is tomorrow, October 17th, so you still have time to finish and submit your grant applications! If you have any last-minute questions, please contact us at [email protected].