Dear MassArt Community,

I’m still reflecting on how wonderful it was to see so many friends and colleagues at our Opening Breakfast on Tuesday – our first in-person since Fall 2019! The Pozen Center was alive with energy, lively conversation, warmth, and optimism as we began this new academic year. Thank you to everyone who attended - our faculty, staff, SGA E Board and RAs, and Board of Trustees Chair Elisa Hamilton and Trustee Linda Snyder.

I began my remarks Tuesday by noting that it has been such a busy and productive summer – and that is really an understatement. The creative and engaging work that is happening all across the campus and throughout the community is inspiring and has helped us make the case for important support. Most recently we saw this with a $100,000 grant to Artward Bound from the Cummings Foundation – congratulations to Chandra Ortiz and Kristen Heintz Perkins for securing this crucial funding!

Over the course of the last year, thanks to a range of innovative collaborations and compelling projects envisioned by our faculty and staff, along with the great teamwork of Advancement, Administration and Finance, Academic Affairs, JET, Artward Bound, CACP, Youth Programs, Marketing and Communications, ARC, and Student Development, to name a few, we secured over $1 million in grants. Congratulations and thank you to all who built partnerships, read proposals, developed budgets, met with funders and supporters, and met often very tight timelines.

As we close out this week, I do it with joy and anticipation for the academic year ahead. We will have opportunities and challenges and we will move through them together. Looking ahead just a few days, I am mindful that we will mark the 21st anniversary of September 11th . Whether we lived through that singular day or grew up in its long shadow, the day’s events touched us all. Around the City of Boston you will find opportunities to gather, remember, and honor those we lost over 20 years ago at events like these, or you may wish to participate in a day of service and remembrance like this one.

My thanks again to all of you for all that you do and all that you make happen. Thank you for your support of one another and the difference you make in the lives of our students and our community. To quote our Board Chair, Elisa Hamilton, from Opening Day, “How lucky are we?”

Have a wonderful weekend and see you on campus!