ArtWeek Festival Passes Torch To Community Partners For 2022

The Boch Center announced today that its award-winning creative festival, ArtWeek, will not be returning in 2022. After years of success and growth, the Center has decided the best step forward is to transition to an online-only presence, and to put the creative torch in the hands of the hundreds of local communities it has worked with and supported for nearly the past decade.

Since 2013, the launch and growth of ArtWeek created a statewide platform of affordable and accessible cultural opportunities across Massachusetts. Over seven years, it grew from fewer than 30 events in Greater Boston to a statewide festival with almost 800 events in 170 communities. With mostly free events, it opened the doors for tens of thousands of children, families, residents, and visitors to explore their creative side and to discover the invaluable contributions offered by our creative communities. In 2020 and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the anticipated record-breaking ArtWeek season shifted to #ArtWeekAtHome, a virtual celebration with 200+ online activities and ten days of daily creative social media activities.

During the county-wide shutdown of 2020, numerous hosts and partners presented community-driven festivals in honor of Artweek's statewide festival. Towns like Natick and Harwich, and a collective South Coast effort that included towns from Fall River to Wareham, honored the ArtWeek mission with week-long creative celebrations that offered accessible opportunities despite COVID-complications. "ArtWeek's mission celebrated widely diverse offerings while showcasing affordable and accessible ways for everyone to experience the arts in rich, local communities across Massachusetts. We feel that we've completed that mission," said Joe Spaulding, President & CEO of Boch Center. "We think this is the perfect time to step back and to allow these communities to continue this tradition in the coming years."

Even though an official ArtWeek statewide festival will not be produced, the spirit of the festival will remain lit via the ArtWeek Online Community. A social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) has remained active, celebrating efforts by local community members and by sharing their successes with a network of over 15,000 followers. ArtWeek will remain an online social media presence and asks and hopes its community partners will keep sharing their successes and using its social network to keep the creative sparks flying.

The ArtWeek Team thanks its loyal and generous supporters over the years, including Highland Street Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, regional tourism councils, media sponsors, as well as the countless other financial and in-kind sponsors whose support made ArtWeek a reality. And of course, ArtWeek simply couldn't have happened without the tireless work and passionate commitment of hundreds of event hosts and community partners each year. The Boch Center is proud that ArtWeek and ArtWeekAtHome showcased how important arts and culture are to healthy communities.