The Chelsea Cultural Council meets on Zoom Tuesday, October 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. to start reviewing this year’s applications for Local Cultural Council grants. The application deadline was October 15. Members’ scores are due November 6, and the council plans to vote at an in-person meeting on November 10, according to its minutes.
The packet for Tuesday’s meeting also includes minutes going back to March. They show the council gave out $99,000 in Chelsea Heritage Celebration grants this spring and talked about replacing Chelsea’s Columbus statue, which no longer stands.
$99,000 for 13 projects
On April 14, the council voted unanimously to award these Heritage Celebration grants:
- Apollinaire Theatre, Apollinaire in the Park festival: $10,000
- Boston Landmarks Orchestra, community concert at Chelsea High School: $10,000
- ñ press, Print as Public Art activations in Chelsea: $10,000
- Chelsea Black Community, Juneteenth celebration: $10,000
- Unknown Stories: Immigrant Voices of Chelsea: $10,000
- Chelsea Salsa in the Park: $10,000
- La Colaborativa, Entre Nosotros Latinx youth film series: $10,000
- Wondermore, authors and illustrators in schools: $9,000
- Veronica Robles Cultural Center, Día de Muertos festival: $7,500
- Little Ant World, AANHPI Cultural Market and Celebration: $5,000
- The Neighborhood Developers, Bosson block party: $4,500
- Chelsea Public Library, Plant a Seed, Read: $2,000
- Friends of Mary O’Malley Park, annual kite festival: $1,000
The Día de Muertos festival is one of the grants still to come. It takes over Chelsea Square on Sunday, November 1, from 1 to 5 p.m., and the city will set up an ofrenda there on the evening of Friday, October 30.
The Columbus statue
The council’s May 12 minutes list a “discussion on replacing the Christopher Columbus statue.” Members were “very interested in being involved, especially in the public process aspect,” the minutes say. Member Hector Colon, who the minutes describe as Boricua-Taino, “the Nation of first contact,” might perform a conch shell ceremony. The minutes do not say what might replace the statue or when.
At the October 5 City Council meeting, Councillor Santagate said of Columbus that “we did have a statue that many families contributed to buying. That statue is no longer up.” It is in our transcript of that meeting. The city is separately looking for an artist for a bronze statue of John Ruiz.
Measuring results
The council is also working on how to tell whether its grants make a difference. In September, member William Kaufman drafted survey questions grantees could hand out at events, such as whether this was the person’s first Chelsea cultural event and whether it made them “feel more connected to Chelsea’s culture or heritage.” The council plans to formally adopt a scoring rubric for Heritage grants in January. Its October 13 meeting had no quorum, so the minutes from earlier meetings are up for approval Tuesday.
The members listed in this year’s minutes are William Kaufman, Armando Rivera, Towana Wright, Flor de Maria Guerrero Aldana, Magno Garcia, Kim Rizzolo and Hector Colon. Delia Harrington staffs the council for the city. The Zoom link is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86888863159 (meeting ID 868 8886 3159).