Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture to hold seventeen concurrent community conversations on Boston Creates

Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced Tuesday that the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture will hold 17 concurrent community conversations on Saturday, August 1, 2015 to drive discussion on the cultural planning process. Sixteen of the Boston Creates Community Conversations will take place in different neighborhoods across the city and one additional conversation will be dedicated to youth participants. The public is invited to attend these meetings and share their opinions and ideas about cultural priorities for the city.

“The success of Boston Creates is dependent upon hearing the diverse ideas and opinions from every neighborhood and community in Boston,” said Mayor Walsh. “We encourage everyone to attend a community conversation and add let us know what you want to see in your city.”

Boston Creates is the city’s cultural planning process, designed to create a blueprint for arts and culture in the City of Boston. The process will engage residents, visitors and stakeholders to identify Boston’s cultural needs, opportunities and resources. Boston Creates will create a plan to prioritize, coordinate and align public and private resources to strengthen cultural vitality and build creative capital in Boston over the long term.

The Boston Creates Concurrent Community Conversations are continuing the community engagement phase of the cultural planning process. The full list of community conversations and locations can be found at www.bostoncreates.org/events. Those unable to attend the conversations are encouraged to fill out the Boston Creates Survey online at www.bostoncreates.org/survey.

Boston Creates is part of larger, overall vision for the city: Imagine Boston 2030. Led by the Mayor’s Office, Imagine Boston will define a vision for the future of the city leading up to its 400th birthday. Under the leadership of Mayor Walsh, the entire city will work together to create the first citywide plan in 50 years. Imagine Boston 2030 will guide this approach to preserving, enhancing and growing the city’s neighborhoods in a way that promotes shared prosperity, sound public investment, and a healthy environment and population.

The Cultural Planning portion is expected to be complete in June 2016. For more information or to volunteer, visit www.bostoncreates.org. Social media users can engage with the process on Twitter using #BostonCreates or by following on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArtsinBoston

Among the community conversations scheduled for Saturday, August 1st are:

Roxbury: 11 a.m. at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street.

Dorchester: 10 a.m. at the Codman Square Health Center, 637 Washington Street.

Roslindale: 9 a.m. at the Roslindale Farmer’s Market, Adams’ Park.

Mattapan: 10 a.m. at the Mattapan Library, 1350 Blue Hill Avenue.

South End: 10 a.m. at the Plaza Theatres at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street.

Chinatown: 10:30 a.m. at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, 28 Ash Street.

Youth Meeting: 11:00 a.m. at the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street.