The City of Boston‘s recommended fiscal year ’23 budget includes significant investments in arts and culture in Boston. Some highlights include:
- $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to support the arts and cultural activities in Downtown and in neighborhoods across Boston
- $800,000 in the Mayor’s Office of Housing’s Operating Budget to support repairs and improvements to the historic Strand Theatre in Upham’s Corner
- $200,000 increase in the Office of Arts and Culture’s operating budget for new staff to support community engagement and developer review, and a Director of City Hall Plaza
- $15 million allocated to City-led public art projects as part of the Percent for Art program through fiscal year ’27
- $3 million to fund new public art projects, including a Chinatown Worker Statues in Chinatown, Emergent Memory (Cocoanut Grove Memorial) at Statler Park, The Legacy of Frederick Douglass in Douglass Square, and Edward O. Gourdin and African American Veterans Memorial in Roxbury, as well as new signage for existing projects
The National Endowment for the Arts has released its new Equity Action Plan, which was developed with staff member input and works to ever increasingly high standards of diversity and inclusion in its programs and practices. Listening sessions on implementation strategies coming soon!
Boston Ballet has dropped a new conversation series on video, Together We Move, and in the first one Alicia Greene, Tito Jackson and Ashleigh Gordon discuss inclusive arts education. Watch anytime!
Head to Providence on Wednesday, April 20th from 3-4PM for a Turkish Folk Dance Show and Workshopfeaturing Mavi Dance!
Boston Conservatory dancers perform Spring Dance Concert: Limitless featuring an incredible lineup of masterworks by Victor Quijada, Murray Louis, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Arthur Saint-Leon, as well as a world premiere by Jennifer Archibald. Thursday, April 21st at 8PM
Celebrity Series of Boston presents a screening of PBS documentary, American Masters: Ailey, at Black Market Nubian. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Roxbury International Film Festival Executive Director, Lisa Simmons and Boston dance luminary and friend of Alvin Ailey, Adrienne Hawkins. Thursday, April 21st from 7-9PM.
Immerse yourself in a dance event which celebrates the contributions of activists and non-profit leaders and reclaims space by eliciting stories of community agency, resilience, and transformation amidst displacement and gentrification. Convergent Waves: Boston by Lenora Lee Dance presented by Pao Arts Center highlights successes in preserving the cultural fabric and accomplishments of these communities on Thursday, April 21st through Saturday, April 23rd at 7PM. 
Abilities Dance Boston presents its annual performance led by Executive & Artistic Director Ellice Patterson. Intersections is centered on BIPOC disabled folks local and national, past and present. New England Film Orchestra will provide live accompaniment. Friday, April 22nd and Saturday, April 23rd at 8PM.
Visions 2022, a Boston University Dance Theatre Group tradition, is a spring showcase choreographed by BU students and faculty. The pieces range from traditional to experimental, thematic to abstract, and lighthearted to contemplative. Visions 2022 will take place Friday, April 22 at 8PM and Saturday, April 23 at 8PM in the BU Dance Theater
Join Kelly Donovan Dance Company for THE SPEAKEASY Live and in Person! (We hope!) The SpeakEasy is a fun performance party for dancers, actors, poets and all other performers. Saturday, April 23rd at 8 PM 
Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion presents A Dance Among the Daffodils at Tower Hill: Left at the Fountain, Rite at Spring. Combining set choreography with improvisations in response to the landscape, PDM will create a dance experience along a path through Tower Hill. Saturday, April 23rd from 1-2PM.
The Tufts Dance Program is proud to present the 2022 Spring Dance Concert! Attend on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday 24 to celebrate the live and video dance capstones of eleven of graduating senior dance minors plus performances by the Afro-Haitian: From Roots to Stage course led by Faculty Artist Jenny Oliver Modern Connections.
On Sunday, April 24th from 7-10PM, JP Jitterbugs and Bluesy Tuesy are thrilled to present Double Up: A Swing/Blues Night! Swing upstairs, blues downstairs at Spontaneous Celebrations.
Rising Step presents the Irish Step Dance Artistry Master Class Series starting on Sunday, April 24th. The class series will feature guest artists teaching (contemporary) step dancing from a focus on artistry, technique, style, creative practice and more
Dancing Through It – Expressions of Movement From the Pandemic, hosted by Celebrity Series of Boston, is a pre-event gathering for the upcoming production of Alvin Ailey, scheduled for April 28 – May 1, 2022 at the Boch Center Wang Theater in Boston. Celebrity Series of Boston is inviting 8 local dance community members to share their stories through dance, spoken word, poetry and video at the Cambridge Dance Complex – Kendall Square/Complex @ Canal, on Sunday, April 24, 3 – 4:30 PM.Choreographing the Campus with Adesola Akinleye is a project investigates how dance-based research and creative collaboration across disciplines can create new techniques, lexicons, and conversations within urban design. Watch Adesola respond to MIT’s campus with BOUNDARY: stream of water or traffic.
Reminder that the BDA Online Auction is Now Open!
CLICK HERE to bid on exciting items and events including private lessons, restaurant gift cards, and tickets to your favorite shows! We will continue to add great items over the next month so check back often.
Wishing everyone a celebratory, reflective, and mobilizing Earth Day this week!
With care,
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Debra Cash, Executive Director