Massachusetts Cultural Council committee hears staff report on formalizing 'Advancement' and partnerships across health, housing and workforce

Co-Chair Ché Anderson convened the Massachusetts Cultural Council Advancement Committee at 10:06 a.m. on June 4, 2026, and the panel unanimously approved the Oct. 9, 2025 Advancement Committee minutes after Diane Asadorian Masters moved to approve and Joyce Linehan seconded.

Acting Executive Director David Slatery told the committee the agency has advanced work under its strategic plan and expanded how the cultural sector is represented across state conversations. “We’re doing programs at a nationally recognized level, and we’re in rooms where the arts simply weren't represented before,” Slatery said, thanking staff and committee members for building relationships.

Erik Holmgren, Manager of Strategic Partnerships & Advancement, framed the office’s work as systems-change and long-term, distinct from grantmaking. He said the team’s two primary goals are to position arts and culture as partners in addressing major Commonwealth challenges and to diversify the sector’s funding beyond philanthropy. “The question isn't, 'Why the arts?' The question is, 'How?'” Holmgren said, urging a shift from arguing for arts’ value to focusing on practical implementation.

Holmgren and staff reported that the Advancement function has helped leverage millions of dollars into the cultural sector through collaborations in housing, creative placemaking, workforce development and health. Staff noted several concrete health-sector integrations: two major health insurers are investing directly in arts organizations in Massachusetts; five clinics at Mass General Brigham now integrate arts programming; and the Commonwealth is using arts prescriptions supported through opioid settlement funding, according to the presentation materials.

Carolyn Cole, Special Projects Manager for Advancement, described community-level work that builds on the Cultural Districts Initiative and maps municipal and community development partners. Cole highlighted partnerships with the Executive Office of Economic Development and MassDevelopment that aim to integrate arts and culture into business development and local growth planning.

During questions, Diane Asadorian Masters asked for peer-reviewed evidence on arts prescriptions; Holmgren agreed to share relevant Frontiers in Public Health material. Tom Bernard requested a local contact about use of opioid-relief funds for arts prescriptions; Holmgren said he would connect Bernard with a contact in Franklin, Massachusetts. Cole noted the Council’s work with the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), observing that MACDC’s 68 member CDCs manage roughly $15 million annually and increasingly report creative activations in annual reports; in some communities those partnerships have led to independent 501(c)(3) arts organizations affiliated with CDCs.

Holmgren said the Council also monitors examples from Canada and the U.K. for social prescribing and other arts-integration models, but emphasized adapting proven models to Massachusetts’ context and capacity.

The committee had no further business and Ché Anderson adjourned the meeting at 10:45 a.m., closing with an informal remark: “Knicks in Four.”