The Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition completed its first year of operations, July 31, 2008 to July 31, 2009. It has been a busy and fruitful year for our young organization. We encouraged the passage of numerous Commonwealth bills that support the creative economy and the vitality of artists communities. We worked closely with the Governor’s Creative Economy Council to represent the interests and concerns of artists. We fought to limit the cuts in arts and culture funding during this very tight budget cycle. We have supported each other through a tough economy.

Specifically, we contributed to the following efforts:

• MALC made it a key goal to attend public hearings and public meetings by agencies on issues that impact the artists community. Over this past year, MALC members attended:
  • all the Creative Economy Council meetings;
  • 95% of the Commonwealth Health Connector Board monthly meetings and related regulatory health care reform meetings; and,
  • almost all of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Board meetings.

MALC wanted to make sure that our policy makers knew artists of all disciplines were interested in their work.

• MALC members also testified at several State House hearings on pending legislation that would impact our community, including:
  • HB 4013 An Act Relative to the Establishment of Cultural Districts
  • HB 1078- the amended version- An Act Relative to Massachusetts Artists(Health Care)
  • MALC testified against HB 3686 An Act Relative to Eligibility for Cooperative Housing Corporation House

To read about these bill see: http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/legislature.html

• MALC is the artist working group for the Creative Economy Council and offered key recommendations for the Council to consider that would be feasible in the current economic downturn – CEC 2009 Mid-Year Report
• MALC was also a partner on last year’s Artists Leadership & Entrepreneurship Conference last October at the Boston Public Library.

We continue to contribute to the following ongoing efforts:

• attend public hearings and public meetings by state agencies and public hearing on issues that impact the artists community;
• testify on legislation and regulatory matters that impact our community;
• continue to be the artists working group for the Creative Economy Council and work diligently to ensure the CEC implements artist-sensitive solutions;
• use the MALC blog to continue to report on these and other public meeting/hearings to keep our community informed.

We expect to become involved in the following upcoming efforts in the coming year:

• MALC will be a co-presenter for the third annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House on Nov. 19th. http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/annualevent.html
• MALC this year is establishing the first ever state-wide Artists Congress in November at the Boston Public Library. http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/program.html

This has been a successful year for MALC, perhaps all the more successful given that we have only been at this for a year. We look forward to a challenging yet rewarding upcoming second year of artists’ leadership. We invite you to join MALC to be part of our important work.