FALL RIVER — The Bristol County Chamber of Commerce, area businesses, and arts innovators and advocates are coming together to bolster arts and culture through a new collaboration, the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition.
The coalition, a committee of the Chamber, is united over a common mission: “arts, culture and economic prosperity within the city of Fall River.”
The goals of the initiative include connecting arts groups and artists with city venues and opportunities in the city; seeking funding for the arts on a local, state and national level; and promoting Fall River as a destination for arts and culture.
Michael O’Sullivan, president and CEO of the Bristol County Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Julie Ramos Gagliardi, BayCoast Bank’s vice president of corporate giving and community relations, approached him with the idea of starting the coalition.
“She asked if the chamber would be interested in playing a role in it and my answer was yes, because I’ve always thought that when you look at having a diverse economy, and diverse economic development and growth, arts and culture is one of the keys," O’Sullivan said. “It’s amazing to me that Fall River already has a much better arts and culture scene than the public realizes.”
In addition to O’Sullivan, Gagliardi and BayCoast Bank President and CEO Nick Christ, the coalition includes, among others, BankFive President and CEO Bill Eccles; local arts advocate Kathy Castro, who was appointed to the Massachusetts Cultural Council last year; Narrows Center for the Arts Executive Director Patrick Norton; Michael Benevides, owner of Portugalia Marketplace; Jeremiah Hernandez, Entrepreneurship for All community partnership manager; Jennifer Lourenco, of Sen. Michael Rodrigues’s office; Creative Arts Network founders Sandy and Dave Dennis; arts advocate Walter “Sandy” Fraze; representatives from Bristol Community College and UMass Dartmouth; treasurer Brian LeComte of Gold Medal Bakery; Rayana Grace of the Community Foundation of Southeasten Massachusetts; Jackie Francisco, director of fine and performing arts for Fall River Public Schools; and Mike Dion, director of Fall River Community Development Agency.
Other organizations that have been invited include the Greater Fall River Art Association, Little Theatre of Fall River, Fall River Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette-Durfee House, Battleship Cove and the Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River.
“It’s an idea and a concept in motion," Castro said. "We’re hoping more people come forward."
Now that she’s serving on the MCC board, which awards grants to cultural programs statewide, Castro said she sees the way the council operates and how it prefers the concept of an organization in place with which it can work, such as AHA! in New Bedford, rather than seeking out individuals.
“I think we can help fill that hole here in Fall River," Castro said. "There have been organizations before, but what pleases me is that this is mushrooming up through the business community and I think that’s a very good thing because we don’t have to rely on one group of people to make sure that it carries on.”
It all started, said Eccles, with the Barr Foundation grant that was awarded to arts organizations in Fall River and New Bedford through the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts last year.
“There was no way to communicate to the organizations within the Fall River area and we felt a bit under-represented," Eccles said. "Through Nick Christ’s initiative, we saw the need to set up a communication means and method to get the word out. That’s how it initially started. Now it’s grown. ... We’re not as far ahead on the arts in Fall River and we thought this was a good way to start.”
Though arts organizations exist in the city, they seemed to be operating in silos, added Gagliardi Ramos. Bringing all the entities to the table, similar to the way the chamber’s education committee operates, would be a way to partner up to address opportunities, issues and obstacles.
“Fall River has lacked any kind of stability for a long time,” Norton said. “We need to have an independent body, and it’s important to have the business people. Arts organizations alone aren’t going to be able to move the needle. I’ve been trying to do this for 22 years with little or no success in trying to get government to understand that art is good for economic development and good for the city of Fall River. We can’t rely on the city to move an agenda forward so this group has decided we’re going to move an agenda forward and hopefully the city will be a part of it.”
Since forming a couple of months ago, the coalition has established two subcommittees. One committee will work with a consultant to develop a long-range plan for arts and culture. “As a model, I look to our neighbor Providence, which reached out to its colleges, Brown and RISD, to get the basic concept of what do we have and where do we go with it,” Castro said of the city that found enormous success with Waterfire.
The other subcommittee, headed up by Norton, is looking at parking in response to the crucial need for it in the waterfront area, which has blossomed in the past three to five years with the completion of the highway project. The issue is compounded, he said, by the prospect of a bar and entertainment venue on the City Pier with a capacity for 2,000 people. Those plans were put on hold after the Environmental Protection Agency notified the city that soil contamination testing had not been recorded at the site since 2017.