This year marks a profound milestone in how Art became a national symbol of creativity and ingenuity. It leads the way to prepare the new generation to take opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing economy for the commonwealth future. In 1871 state leaders had the foresight to make an inspired investment.
Without the facility of television or internet, horse – drawn wagons served as the Instagram or Tik Tok of its day. Like never before bringing works of art to the people directly.
It started as a “travelling museum” traversing the rough roads, and intending to educate the garner excitement and masses for public art education. It turned into the enduring institution 2 years later. Presently known as Massachusetts College of Art and design. Anywhere in the country it had never been done before, but here a free-standing public arts college was introduced.
In the coming years, its earliest graduates would literally change on how society and cultured evolved and how the world worked. After 150 years later how once again, those educated in the arts will shape the next one and a half century. This stands as a relevant example for this moment.
Bostonians who are being rattled by an abrupt economic downturn nationally and still reeling from the great Boston fire of 1872. The leaders of that era were not paralyzed by inaction to push our state forward, it was determined to double down on a plan. Not unlike this period where everything got changed due to the height of the pandemic, it was a time of renewed and transition.
In 2023 life in Boston is nowhere compared to what it would have been like in 1873. Understanding that educating in Arts will lead future generation forward with the necessary courage and skills to tackle an ever- changing economy and world is, just as true today as it was then.
In 1873, MassArt was open to respond to a need, in Massachusetts classrooms to put more qualifies teachers with arts education expertise. Today that major goal is still pertinent. MassArt has evolved to meet the times, and is now education UX designers, video game designers, fashion designers, web designers and art directors.
In Ukraine, art is being used as a healing tool. As cities across the globe evolved in new way following the pandemic, it is designers and artists who will bring us new ideas in design and urban planning.
During the pandemic as K-12 educators grapple with how to confront severe gaps exacerbated by learning loss, the arts will play a major role in engaging students, inspiring them and retaining them. As machine learning and artificial intelligent – still just in their infancy – evolve, it is a generation of designers that will shape the impact of the complex technology of our daily lives.
