Roxbury Cultural District to hold first community gathering, Oct. 3

The Roxbury Cultural District was created seven years ago to activate the arts and cultural scene in Roxbury and contribute to the economic growth of the neighborhood.

Now, as the institution looks to the future, it invites community members to share their feedback on its work and offer input on what’s next during its first-ever Community Arts and Cultural Convening. The free gathering will take place at Hibernian Hall on Thursday, Oct. 3, beginning at 5:30 pm.

While the RCD was a decades-old dream, it received its designation from the Mass Cultural Council in 2017, defining it as the geographic areas of Nubian Square and John Eliot Square.

The RCD is one of 50 or so cultural districts across the Commonwealth created in 2011 by the Mass Cultural Council via the state legislature. Initiated under the administration of former Gov. Deval Patrick, the idea was to connect and promote arts and cultural institutions within commercial districts to drive economic activity.

“So, in the case of the Roxbury Cultural District, for example, if you go into Nubian Square, you might go to Hibernian Hall to see a play or to hear spoken word or some kind of musical performance, and then you can go across the street and have dinner at the Suya Joint,” said Kelley Chunn, interim president of the RCD. “Maybe you’ll buy a book at Frugal Books, have a cup of coffee at the Dudley Café.”

In April, the RCD conducted its “Cultural Pulse Survey” to better understand the arts and culture needs of its constituents and inform how its operations can meet those needs. The survey asked questions about how long participants had lived in the RCD, their main activities within the area and what they needed. Although the survey received less than 100 responses, Chunn said the information gleaned from the results was still useful.

One of the key takeaways was that artists and residents needed more funding, which Chunn said didn’t surprise her. The survey also found that there was a general perception that arts and culture events in the district were costly. Most notably, respondents said they wanted more mutual support collaboration between the arts and culture communities in the district, where currently people were operating out of individual siloes or bubbles.

“There’s a lot going on, but there’s not a lot of cross-communication,” Chunn said.

That last takeaway is what led the RCD and its board members to organize its first-ever community convening to raise awareness about ongoing projects and those on the drawing board. During the gathering, the board members and leaders will also present the findings of its “Cultural Pulse Survey” and seek input from attendees about the future of the RCD.

After the organization’s seven years in existence and a pandemic that took up a couple of those years, Chunn said a key question for her as interim president is “Where do we go from here?”

The community meeting is well-timed, Chunn said, as many of the new developments in Nubian Square and John Eliot Square are set to open their doors soon. New additions to the RCD include the Greater Roxbury Arts and Cultural Center, the Jazz Urbane Café which is currently building out its space on the first floor of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, and the Community Music Center of Boston which will move from the South End into a recently purchased a building in Nubian Square.

Hosting the convening ahead of these openings will allow the RCD to prepare in advance and ensure their efficacy.

But there have been some obstacles along the way, the main one being funding, Chunn said. The RCD is looking to hire an executive director to manage the day-to-day operations and ensure the institution’s longevity, but doing so is financially challenging.

For now, to guarantee its long-term success, the organization is prioritizing “good governance,” Chunn said. It is accountable to a board that has grown from six to 13 members and operates with an accountant and treasurer. Funding from its community partners such as the Boston’s Office of Arts, Mass Cultural Council, Hibernian Hall and Mass Humanities has also kept RCD afloat over its life course.

“We want to be able to sustain the district going forward,” Chunn said. “When you look at the history of some of the cultural districts, some of them have actually gone out of business for lack of resources or lack of governance or support, and we want to have a much more positive future.”

Thursday’s convening will be an opportunity for stakeholders, residents and those interested to discuss what’s on the horizon for the RCD, and Chunn said she hopes to make the gathering a regular occurrence.

“I would like to see this be an annual event,” Chunn said, “a time for arts and cultural stakeholders, the institutions based in John Eliot Square and Nubian Square to come together, check in with each other, check in with the community.”