A Q&A with Cristina Burwell, Executive Director, Munroe Center for the Arts
LexObserver: Munroe Center for the Arts seems to be both a nonprofit organization and a building. How are the two connected?
Cristina Burwell: I’ll start with the building because I’m in love with the building. The building is owned by the town of Lexington. It was built in 1905 an elementary school, decommissioned in 1974, then a variety of small businesses made us of the space until the mid-1980s, when local arts organizations petitioned the town to turn it into a center for the arts. Those groups are still tenants of the building today (the Lexington Music School, the Dance Inn, and the Lexington School of Ballet), along with ten visual artists who rent studio space.
Munroe Center for the Arts (MCA) is a community arts center for Lexington and its neighbors. MCA was established as a nonprofit organization in 1996. We rent the Munroe building from the town and the tenants rent space from us, in turn. So, in addition to putting on our own arts programming, we manage the physical space — maintaining the building and investing in infrastructure and repairs.
LexObserver: What sort of programming does MCA produce?
Burwell: We complement the music and dance schools by offering a range of visual art programs, such as painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking, and crafts, and we organize an annual summer camp — this one is our 30th! We host public events, too, like our meetings for artistic minds, in which an artist or performers discuss the process and inspiration behind their art.
MCA also works hard to engage with the community outside of our space. In September alone, we’re participating in Porchfest, working with MassCreative on an apolitical project about civic engagement through voting, and providing arts and entertainment during the big Bikeway Block Party in celebration of Lexington’s 250th. And beyond September, we are working with other town organizations on an Illuminations night, we’ll be presenting another Youth Holiday Marketplace, and so much more.
LexObserver: What do you think is the value that MCA adds to Lexington?
Burwell: We offer such an extensive range of programming because of how important it is to us to be a welcoming place for everyone, to offer opportunities for everyone for development of special skills, self-expression, and exploration in the arts. I truly believe that the arts make everything better. They build our self-esteem and bring joy in creation, and we need places to foster that creativity throughout our lives.
MCA is both a physical and a perceptual space for uninhibited creative growth — to try, to explore, to germinate ideas into form. And it’s important to understand that being creative doesn’t just mean being able to paint a picture. Working with others in a group to come up with a variety of ideas is part of creativity. MCA enables those interactions, too.
LexObserver: What is your background, and how has that helped your role at MCA?
Burwell: I am an artist at my core, which drives my work here. I have a BFA in Industrial Design with a Master’s in Ergonomics and Biomechanics, and I spent time working both in industry and as a professor at Boston University before getting involved with Munroe Center for the Arts. Now, I do anything and everything necessary to keep the organization and the building running, from fundraising, to creating sculptures, filling in for teachers, working with plumbers and carpenters on repairs… the list goes on — we are a very small staff!
However, while I think it’s important to have first-hand knowledge of how things operate, the purpose of my role is much more strategic. I make sure that we listening to and reflecting back the community’s needs in the form of the arts opportunities we offer.
LexObserver: What do you see as the future of MCA?
What we get from the arts is critical to who we are as a society. There are some truisms that aren’t going to change. Our staff and community at MCA are so deeply ingrained in in the arts, and that kind of leadership opens up a community to what’s possible. We really strive to provide a playful, expansive space that is welcoming to all.
But more concretely, we have new initiatives that explore the intersection between the arts and technology, such as a theater class in which playwrights work with AI to develop their own scripts. But we also want to bring back some previous programs, like our much-loved Munroe Center Stage program (formerly Munroe Saturday Nights). For over a decade, Munroe Center Stage provided a local stage for artists to present their work to the community and get feedback for improvement. It was very much a critical part of the development process for the performing arts. Because of the pandemic, we lost our audience and volunteer steering committee, and I’d very much like to get them back.
LexObserver: What does MCA need?
Burwell: Financial support. Like all nonprofits, donations are critical to our sustainability. We have complex financial needs because, in addition to offering robust programming, hosting community events, and hiring and retaining stellar staff, we are responsible for taking care of the building itself: Just as the programming we offer evolves to meet the needs of the current population, the building itself also has to change. Some of the features that were put in place over a century ago don’t work for how we live today.
For example, we are embarking on a renovation project to make the building accessible, as it was originally not designed with accessibility in mind. That requires installing an elevator and adding gender-neutral, wheelchair-accessible restrooms on each floor. It is critical to be able to serve the entire community and to continue to be a welcoming space for all, but it is also a significant capital expenditure.
We also need volunteers. At the most strategic level, we need more members on our Board of Directors, but we also have so many events that require a lot of hands. We also need someone with accounting skills to review our budget, gardeners to tend the plants, writers to contribute to our newsletter… there’s plenty of work to do and we would really welcome the help.