Posted Tuesday July 18 2017 at 11:05 pm
in News
A message from Charles Washburn:
When Maida Abrams, founder of VSA Massachusetts, approached me about joining her team over thirty years ago, I thought I would help her build her organization for a while and then move on. I really had no idea that I was signing on to an international movement that would become my career. Now the time has come for me to move on, I will retire in November. Correspondingly, I am happy to announce that Nicole Agois has agreed to accept a new position at the Seven Hills Foundation, as Managing Director of VSA Massachusetts.
Unlike when I started, Nicole already knows VSA intimately and has demonstrated her passion for this work. Her first exposure to VSA came as a volunteer at the Ann Sullivan Center, the VSA Affiliate in Lima, Peru. After her studies at the Boston Conservatory and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, we were lucky to recruit Nicole onto our team, moving throughout the organization over the past thirteen years as her leadership and the organization matured together. She is also well known in the VSA Network, sharing field-leading knowledge and application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), teaching artist development, and school partnerships. Last year she served on the City of Boston's Leadership Council surrounding the creation of our sector-wide cultural planning process. Needless-to-say, she is an exceptional artist, practitioner and leader whom we are deeply lucky to have assuming this essential role.
Nicole's team will include Marian Taylor Brown, who worked with us as an intern while she was in Harvard's Arts in Education Program, as a COOL Teaching Artist, and has also exhibited in the Open Door Gallery. Marian will serve as Organizational Consultant through a special arrangement with the Institute for Community Inclusion and UMass Boston, where she is a doctoral candidate in Global Inclusion & Social Development.
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Posted Monday July 17 2017 at 2:12 pm
in Education
After spending a year working as an intern with Aysha, Nicole, Charlie, Jon, and COOL School's many wonderful Teaching Artists, it was a no-brainer for us to offer Mia Branco the position of COOL Program Manager, starting September 1, 2017.
Before moving to Boston to pursue her Masters in Arts in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and interning with VSA, Mia was the Access Program Coordinator for a Children's Theatre in DC called Imagination Stage. While in this position she developed and implemented arts curricula for students of all abilities, developed policies for family engagement, and worked with the professional theatre to continue to grow the accessibility of their productions. Mia specialized in programming for students with autism and emotional trauma. In addition to developing programming in house, she was in charge of the programming for multiple school partnerships and other local organizations. Through a project funded by VSA and The Kennedy Center Mia also had the opportunity to develop and co-lead trainings about inclusion best practices within arts programming for venues including Roundabout Theatre (NYC) and Wheelock Family Theatre (Boston).
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Posted Monday July 17 2017 at 1:25 pm
in News
Photo credit: Candace Walker Photography
Marian Taylor Brown; a recognized arts leader and innovator in greater Boston, is joining VSA Massachusetts as an organizational consultant.
Marian will support the team during leadership transitions as Charlie Washburn retires, and Nicole Agois assumes the position of Managing Director. Later in the year she will work with the team to lead a strategic planning process, building the organization's capacity to best serve its mission and to expand its impact in Boston, and across Massachusetts.
Marian first worked with VSA Massachusetts in 2011 as a Research Intern while completing her Ed.M. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also exhibited as a featured solo artist in the Open Door Gallery in 2012. In 2014, she moved back to Boston after completing a Global Health Corps Fellowship in Malawi, and founded a local non-profit called "Arts Connect International", which has been incubated by VSA Massachusetts for the past three years, finding great mission alignment between the two organizations. Marian also worked as a Teaching Artist for VSA at Boston Green Academy in 2014 – 2015. In sum, her work and passion intersect equity, the arts, human rights, intersectionality, research, and practice.
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