How can Boston be a place for artists to live, work, and thrive? Borrowing the ornate stage of the Strand Theatre on Wednesday night from Company One, Mayor Michelle Wu and challengers Domingos DaRosa and Josh Kraft got personal while musing answers. In their second mayoral forum ahead of the September 9 primary election, each candidate addressed urgent concern in a one-on-one, half-hour interview with GBH’s The Culture Show host Jared Bowen.
Ranging devastating funding cuts to displacement and dreams for stronger arts education, inquiries were curated by Bowen based on responses from the 750 registrants for the program organized by MASSCreative. The collective energy was palpable, with hundreds of community members scoffing, laughing, and cheering “Go on now!” to candidates into the night.
The health and well-being of Boston’s more than 130,000 creative workers is indicative of how the state is doing at large. Artists’ concerns are community concerns: affordable housing, reliable public transit, and the promise of safety. “It’s not an easy moment in our country’s history and all of the pressures that are on our families are in some ways felt and condensed even more through our arts and culture sector. “You all are the platform, the foundation, the beating heart of how we bring people together, how we transcend the various boundaries and divisions that so many are trying to impose on and between our communities,” Mayor Wu said.
Boston’s next mayor will have to contend with the reality that while the Massachusetts creative sector generates more than $27 billion each year and roughly 4 percent of the state’s GDP, even its most prominent artists like Alison Croney Moses find it nearly impossible to sustain their lives and careers in the city. Artists, unable to contend with commercial and residential rent raises or takeovers, are being displaced to nearby Lowell, Fitchburg, Providence, and Lynn, a point Bowen raised with each candidate. Individuals must earn at least $35,000 to survive in one of America’s most expensive metros.
In kicking off the event, MASSCreative’s executive director, Emily Ruddock, thanked attendees for showing up to have their voices heard at such a moment. “This is how we build political power,” she said. “This is how we make sure that everyone has access to vibrant arts and cultural experiences.”
While all three candidates espoused the transformative power of the arts and confirmed they would stand against the Trump Administration’s attacks on the sector and equity initiatives, only Mayor Wu consistently kept responses grounded in policy, action, and examples specific to culture workers.
Kraft, a philanthropist who has been critiqued as out of touch and aligned with business owners, frequently mentioned his daughter’s music career but when pressed by Bowen couldn’t offer a venue for where he enjoys music in the city today. He put forth ethnicity-specific arts and culture proposals — an “All of Our Roots” initiative, including for example a Latino Arts Night with Vietnamese food vendors, or dedicating Blue Hill Avenue to the Black diaspora. Attendees laughed. Kraft, as did Wu, did commit to streamlining the bureaucratic permitting process for organizations, which leaves many in waiting for several weeks between agencies.
Making a distinction of noting he “survived” growing up in Boston Public Schools, DaRosa said he has yet to see his Cabo Verdean culture reflected in the city’s art scene. He fumbled when asked what was the last, best art event he’d experienced, pivoting instead to say his top priority is education, to which the audience—which had grown audibly more engaged by this point in the event—yelped in approval.
DaRosa had a simple source to tap for ample arts funding: the police overtime budget. He also criticized the Mayor’s office for taking more than eight months to appoint a new arts and culture chief with an executive search firm, when there are so many credible candidates who’ve done the work here for decades. Encouraging audiences to dream bigger, he asked why each of Boston’s twenty-three neighborhoods can’t have their own arts chief.
Wu’s administration is responsible for one of the largest injections of state money into the arts sector in Massachusetts history, allocating $26 million of pandemic relief funds,. She promised to double down on that investment, saying the city would help organizations put down roots via more targeted grant opportunities, especially in the wake of recent cuts to the National Endowment of the Arts.
“We have always been a place, especially in times of challenge or when there’s an injustice that is glaring, to actually stand up and say we’re gonna push past survival,” she said. Her biggest ask to creative workers in this historical moment is to continue that legacy. “We need the inspiration to have the courage to dream. … The arts are critical to providing the fuel and the momentum and the care that can keep us moving forward.”
Here are further breakdowns for how candidates responded to the community’s top concerns.
On Funding
Across New England, at least $4.2 million in grant funding was rescinded earlier this year due to federal cuts, and at least 810 jobs are at risk, according to MASSCreative. Arts organizations nationwide are feeling the squeeze, putting exhibitions on hold and laying off critical workers.
Kraft told audiences that he would use private funding to supplement these losses, while making sure artists feel accepted and supported in their cultures and expressions. He did not offer any specific plans to do so. DaRosa, as aforementioned, put police budgets on the chopping block to provide more opportunities.
Wu, who holds a thirty-point lead over Kraft in the latest polls, highlighted a pilot program that will ease overhead costs for arts organizations. Since 2009, arts institutions, like universities, have paid the city a quarter of what would have traditionally been owed as property taxes, but “I have never felt like arts institutions were in the same bucket as hospitals and universities,” she said.
On residential, commercial, and studio space
For over a decade, Boston has witnessed creative landmarks like the Piano Craft Guild and EMF Building evict artists from rent-stabilized housing and studio spaces, collateral damage of gentrification as the city became a hub for the hyperwealthy in health science and technology.
Wu proposed updating zoning policy to incentivize cultural development, like how some zoning laws prioritize net-zero emissions. Kraft also had a landlord-forward tax break idea: opt-in rent control, for commercial or residential spaces. He claimed to have support from an unnamed landlord who owns over 500 units in the city. When asked about a long-term solution, since ownership could switch at any moment and leave artists at the whims of a new landlord, Kraft said he would increase the income eligibility for first-time home buyer programs.
DaRosa zeroed in on ownership, not landlords, criticizing housing voucher stipulations that only allow low-income recipients to save a few thousand dollars without losing eligibility. He pushed for an increase to at least $20,000 while in the program, so that people could build legitimate down payments.
“Where we start”: On K-12 arts education
To the question of how to build a robust creative economy, all candidates referenced the importance of the next generation and ensuring Boston’s children have access to the hub around them. Wu touted initiatives like Family Days, which opens doors to key institutions for free; the hiring of dozens of arts educators; and renovations at several schools to install black box theaters and piano labs.
“That’s where we start. That changes everything. You put education back at the top of the list, our children now become successful,” said DaRosa. “[They’re] not looking for low-income housing. Why? Because they got a career.” He referenced wanting to build more partnerships and rental opportunities between schools and arts organizations and hire retired educators to offer childcare.
Kraft proposed art therapy in each school to address student mental health concerns. While he said it was “hard” as a kid being dragged to the opera and symphony by his mother, he learned it was like witnessing history, something everyone should have the opportunity to experience. The arts, he said, are “just as important as math and English … it wakes kids up.”
A preliminary non-partisan election will be held on September 9, 2025 followed by municipal election on November 4, 2025.
