Creative District
The Melrose Creative Alliance was organized and established by a passionate and experienced group of artists and arts administrators to advocate and provide support for an official MA state-designated Arts & Cultural District for the City of Melrose.
What is an Arts & Cultural District?
Similar to a historic district or a business district, the Arts & Cultural District is a walkable and defined area of Melrose that boasts a robust array of creative arts and cultural assets. The district is geographically inclusive! Even if your creative or cultural practice’s physical address is outside the marked district boundaries, the Melrose Creative Alliance will include, promote and elevate your work equally! “One Creative Community, Open to All”
What is an Arts & Cultural Asset?
Arts and cultural assets can include our community’s arts organizations, cultural and civic organizations, public art, individual artists, musicians, performers, writers, open spaces, creative businesses, cafes, and arts supporting organizations. Did you know that Melrose has over 180 of such assets?
Why?
Establishing an arts and cultural district in Melrose carries significant community benefit, including access to new and increased pools of funding and other resources for the arts, placemaking opportunities, ability to attract more creative businesses, and more.
Where are we in the process?
The Melrose Creative Alliance has put tremendous work and resources toward forward to support the City of Melrose should they move forward with a formal application. In 2024 the MA Cultural Council put a pause on accepting new District applications while they worked on some structural and policy improvements to their Cultural District program.
Map Melrose arts and cultural assets
We have done the research and have a working database of hundreds of arts and cultural assets in Melrose.
The majority of these assets fall within a reasonably walkable area in the center of Melrose, but a Melrose Cultural District can and will be inclusive of all creative producers located in Melrose.
Convene stakeholder meetings
The Melrose Arts Summit in March 2022 was the first step toward a series of stakeholder meetings. The Summit helped us understand what types of priorities we should focus on, where a District effort might fit among priorities, and who might begin to step up to help. The 2023 Summit was the second of these community stakeholder gatherings, where we further clarified our goals and vision for an Arts and Cultural District. The Melrose Creative Alliance continues to host these annual Arts Summits in an effort to keep our creative community organized and listen to the ongoing challenges and priorities of our local arts sector.
Managing Partnership
A designated district requires a formal Managing Partnership to raise funds, program and manage the district. The partnership must include specific ‘types’ of arts & cultural leaders, including City and business representatives. The Melrose Creative Alliance satisfies these requirements, and we are incorporated as an official 501(c)(3) under the Community Coalition of Melrose. Are are also closely partnered with the Melrose Chamber of Commerce and the Melrose Cultural Council to provide support and sustainability to our work. We welcome anyone who would like to be included in the partnership. The Alliance meets monthly on the first Friday of each month at 8:30am at MMTV studios.
Meet with MA Cultural Council
Early in this process, we held several zoom conversations with representatives from the MA Cultural Council to help guide our efforts. In 2023, MA Cultural Council representatives visited Melrose and toured our arts and cultural offerings with the Creative Alliance and Melrose Chamber of Commerce. MCC Executive Director was our featured speaker at our 2nd annual Creative Arts Summit in 2023. In 2024 the Cultural Council made some changes in the application requirements and paused review on any new applications. The new District requirements will look for more formal and sustainable structures behind a managing partnership. Our ongoing partnership with the Melrose Chamber of Commerce will continue to be an important strength for Melrose arts and culture.
Formal application
When the MA Cultural Council reopens applications, and when the City of Melrose is ready to move forward with a formal application, the Melrose Creative Alliance will be ready to continue our advocacy for a Melrose Cultural District and support the City of Melrose as needed. We applaud the actions of Mayor Paul Brodeur to increase funding for the then Melrose Messina Fund for the Arts, as well as Mayor Jen Grigoraitis for her continued support for sustained arts funding by allocating Messina funds to the Melrose Cultural Council. We are committed to our continued partnership with Mayor Grigoraitis to champion arts and culture in Melrose. The Creative Arts Alliance continues to function as a steward of the Melrose arts sector, advocating for resources, providing marketing and technical assistance to our partners, and providing platforms for creative collaborations that allow our artists and businesses to thrive.