Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition

Artists leaders and artist-run groups addressing policy issues that affect artists in Massachusetts

Thank you to everyone who came to the Artists Under the Dome Event & the Celebration of Life Ceremony for Liora Beer

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The MALC Steering Committee would like to thank everyone who attended and helped make the 12th Annual Artists Under the Dome event a huge success!

A special thanks goes out to our collaborators for this event: the Massachusetts State Treasury, the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

We are grateful to the legislators and state official listed below who attended and offered such inspiring remarks:

  • Representative Sarah Peake, Third Division Chair and Former House Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts & Cultural Development
  • Representative Matthew Muratore, TACD Committee Member
  • Representative Thomas P. Walsh, TACD Committee Member
  • Nam Pham, Assistant Secretary of Business Development & International Trade

Special thanks to State Treasurer Goldberg who took the time out of her busy day to introduce a discussion of the 2018 By Artists, For Artist report.

MALC wishes to thank the 2018 Champion of Artists awardees for their moving acceptance speeches:

[note color=”#fff4e2″]* State Representative Cory Atkins, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, was unable to attend the event or award ceremony due to illness. Also, Meri Jenkins’ award was presented in memory and honor of Liora Beer, and Save the Art-Save the Museum (STA-STM)’s award was given in honor of the late, state representative, Chris Walsh.)[/note]

The  Celebration of Life Ceremony for MALC Co-Founder, Liora Beer, moved many to tears and we offer our special thanks to Liora’s family for attending and participating. A big thank you goes to all who shared their memories of Liora during the ceremony: Kathleen Bitetti*, Malia Lazu*, Craig Bailey*, Laura Pattison, Joelle Fontaine, Kelly Bennett, L’Merchie Frazier,  Meri Jenkins, Allentza Michel, and Jill Carrier. And special thanks to Elisa Birdseye* for performing.

MALC would like to thank the following individuals for all their support:

TACD Research Director, Joanne Muti, for reserving the Great Hall, handling all the state house logistics and making the welcome packets. A huge thank you to Chairman Senator Hinds and his staff: Bethann Stiener, Danielle Allard, and Christian Kelly.

A heartfelt thank you to State Treasurer Goldberg and her staff members: Emily Kowtoniuk and Lizandra Gomes for their help, Suzanne Morrison who handled all the registration/name tags for the event, and Frank McNeal who created the registration webpages. 

And, thank you to the Mass Cultural Council who have been steadfast supporters of this event and of MALC: Executive Director Anita Walker, Greg Liakos, Kelley Bennett, and Dan Blask.

Finally, thank you to the MALC Steering Committee – we are an all volunteer coalition.  Thank you to the following members who helped out at the State House: Craig Bailey, Gloretta Baynes, Elisa Birdseye, Kathleen Bitetti, Bob Couture, Erin Harris, John Hodge, Malia Lazu, Don Packer, Tony Toledo, and John Weeks. A special shout-out to Don Schaefer who could not attend due to illness (he is our blog master), and to Erin Harris for her design of the outreach fliers for this year’s AUD event and for her excellent tweeting!  And one last shout out to Paula Bitetti, Kathleen Bitetti’s mom, who comes every year to help with checking folks in.

The MALC blog will be on hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday and we hope to post some pictures of the AUD event and Liora’s ceremony the week of November 26th.

We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

*MALC Steering Committee members