By Sue Dahling Sullivan

Updates
Yarn bombing, a kids rock concert, a parking space turned urban art park, a historic taste of the Revolution, painting the public garden, a science-infused fashion event, an MIT Arts Hackathon, circus arts meet paint bar, an urban planning sketch night, and the launch of the nation’s first literary cultural district – these are just a few of the creative experiences that were highlighted during Fall ArtWeek.  (Click here for the full schedule.)

ArtWeek Boston kicked off its third edition September 26 - October 5, with 77 one-of-a-kind experiences celebrating arts, culture, and creativity.  These unique events highlight collaborations between over 130 organizations and partners in more than 27 neighborhoods and towns. And over 50% were free with most others under $25, continuing to make ArtWeek experiences accessible to many.

All events were designed to involve, invigorate and ignite imaginations while encouraging interactions with audiences of all ages in all kinds of spaces and places.  This fall, events happened on sidewalks, parking spaces, a new urban “Lawn at D” park space, school campuses, organic farms, audio stores, electronic marquees, a youth hostel, community centers, city alleyways, a salvage space, mall walkways, bridges, subway entrances, and more.  But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t cool ArtWeek experiences that happened in studios, theatres, galleries, and other more traditional spaces. It just shows that ArtWeek is everywhere!

Yarn Bombing:  ArtWeek joins forces with American Craft Week and the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts to highlight Yarn Bombing, a fun and unique way to express creativity by embracing the urban environment. Participants will attend a talk and demo with JP Yarn Bombers, and learn about the process of executing stealth art in public places.[/caption]

Recent Wins
“Take Art Into Your Own Hands” - Fall ArtWeek 2014 Marketing Campaign

Click here to see the television spot.

This fall marked some exciting new milestones:  a record number (77) of unique events which was over two and half times more than last year’s launch, expansion to three towns outside of Boston who are hosting one or more events, a new creative campaign and updated website, a dramatic increase in public art activities, and the addition of four new media partners.  Working with another new partner, the official kick-off for the ten-day celebration was in one of Boston’s famous Duck Boats for an ArtWeek “Pop-Up Peak” surrounding the Boston Commons. And Fall Preview media highlights included a television segment on Chronicle (click here).  Another highlight was when Americans for the Arts profiled ArtWeek as an innovative model in their “Profiles in Creativity” series this summer – it is exciting to see that the idea of “ArtWeek” has quickly captured a national spotlight (click here to read it).  Yes, ArtWeek is on a roll!

Challenges
While city and state government officials continue to be interested and supportive of ArtWeek, formalizing meaningful partnerships with public transportation, neighborhood development, parks and other key departments has been slow.  It also remains challenging to find artists who want to and/or are comfortable in engaging with the public in new ways.  But with networking, persistence, and the increased awareness about ArtWeek, progress is being made.

Insight/Provocation
Thanks to the support of ArtPlace and Highland Street Foundation, ArtWeek launched just one year ago with 29 events in 12 neighborhoods. Twelve months later, ArtWeek Fall 2014 boasted 77 events in 27 neighborhoods and towns in Greater Boston – an amazing growth in a short amount of time.  But there is another surprising success story that isn’t obvious by just looking at the numbers.  It is the emergence of an informal ArtWeek Network – a growing community of artists, organizations, and businesses who are starting to collaborate and make new connections.  And these new relationships can be directly linked to ArtWeek as a creative catalyst.  As an example, ArtWeek recently introduced a school, an arts organization, and an artist (all representing different ArtWeek events) to each other who shared a passion for Art and Climate change – they’ve already set-up a meeting to talk about a potential partnership.  Last week, another connection was made between an individual artist and a local business association who will collaborate on a public Artist Conversation about a place-based art installation.  And several Fall ArtWeek events are the result of a happy intersection of past ArtWeek hosts who are now working together for the first time in new spaces and places.  Based on these examples and others, it has been rewarding to see ArtWeek emerge as a new kind of creative connective tissue within our community.