Delightful Chaos: Watertown Arts & Culture Roundtable, April 2025

This is an arts and culture roundtable episode where we talk about things that have been going on in Watertown arts and culture recently, what's coming up, hidden gems, and more. The discussion was with Allie Fry (Watertown Free Public Library, Programming Librarian), Liz Helfer (City of Watertown, Public Arts and Culture Planner), Kristen Kenny (Chair of the Watertown Cultural District), and Lydia McCoy (Watertown Senior Center, Director for Senior Services).

Links!

Watertown Cultural District

WCA-TV segment on River of Light

Club de Lectura en Español

Public Arts & Culture (Expert Pairings and Community Sculpture Walk)

Canadian American Club

Senior Center and Services

Mosesian Center for the Arts 20th Anniversary Celebration

5th Watertown Arts Market

100 Years of Arshile Gorky

Art in the Library

Project Save

WFPL & Project Save Event on April 30th: Democracy Talks: Speak Memory: The Photographic Archive as Resistance & Renewal

YardArt

Porchfest

Public Arts and Culture Committee newsletter

Watertown Connect (city newsletter list)

Library newsletter

Senior Center newsletter

Chapters

• 0:07 Welcome to Arts and Culture Roundtable
• 1:10 Recent Arts Events and Successes
• 9:52 Hidden Cultural Gems in Watertown
• 14:47 Celebrating Notable Numbers and Achievements
• 17:50 The Arshile Gorky Commemoration Project
• 22:40 Upcoming Events and Creative Opportunities
• 29:19 Closing Remarks and Resources

Transcript

Matt: 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. This episode is a special arts and culture roundtable episode where I sit down with a handful of people in the arts and culture scene here in Watertown just to give some perspective on things that have been happening in the past couple months that have been successful, what there is to look forward to, just to give a general idea of the arts and culture scene in Watertown, which is quite vibrant and is getting even more so. So I'll let my guests introduce themselves and then we'll get into our conversation. Welcome to the Arts and Culture Roundtable episode. I am sitting here with…

Allie: 0:41

I'm Allie Fry. I'm the programming librarian at the Watertown Free Public Library.

Liz: 0:46

Liz Helfer, public arts and culture planner for the city of Watertown.

Kristen: 0:49

Kristen Kenny, chair of the Watertown Cultural District.

Lydia: 0:52

Lydia McCoy. With the Watertown Senior Center, I'm the director for senior services.

Matt: 0:57

Awesome. Well, thank you for coming down and we're here at the library today. Thank you, Allie, for inviting us here and for being able to record this all together. So we're just going to chat about some things that have happened recently with arts and culture in the city, some things to look forward to and just give people a good feel of what's going on in the city. So my first segment I have is moments from the past months. So why don't I just go around the table again, Allie, what's a big moment you had from the past month?

Allie: 1:31

It's March and we're wrapping up One Book, One Watertown, which typically happens in March. This is it's year 17 or 18 actually, of One Book, One Watertown and we just did the Book of Delights by Ross Gay and we've been delighting in gardening, with some plant workshops, delighting in drawing with Bren Bataclan, who's a local Boston-based muralist. We collaborated with the Perkins Library for a book club discussion on the Book of Delights. We collaborated with Watertown Race Reels for a screening of Black Boy Joy. So we've been having a lot of fun.

Allie: 2:01

But it has also been a whirlwind, a delightful whirlwind. Our staff across the library get really excited about this. We got to see on our way up to this room some artwork that was made by Christine and Claudia, who are two of our amazing circulation assistants who made the window display you saw, and then also Claudia did the artwork on the stairwell coming up that are all capturing delights that our staff submitted, things we find delightful. So delightful but also a whirlwind. So that's what we're coming off of, moments from this past month, and I think Liz was echoing that March feels very busy.

Liz: 2:40 

Very busy.

Matt: 2:37

It’s a delightful chaos. So yeah, Liz, what do you have from the past that you'd like to highlight?

Liz: 2:47

Yeah, planning for the arts going forward, we're in grant season. So that's super busy, which means we're planning projects one, two, three, four, five years out even. So, we're on that bandwagon, writing a lot, asking for money from the state and different local entities. It's very exciting. We try to do a lot of collaboration in the community, which is really important for the success of most of our projects. I will say that in the past month we're really excited. The Public Arts and Culture Committee approved the four projects from the expert pairings proposals, which are pairings of expert scientists and expert artists who are creating temporary public art projects coming this summer and fall. We're really excited to see those move ahead. You'll be hearing a lot more about them.

Matt: 3:30

Awesome, and Kristen. What's the cultural district got going on? Well, first of all, for people who do not know, what is the Watertown Cultural District, because that is new?

Kristen: 3:33

The Watertown Cultural District is brand spanking new and, after about two years of planning and considering all of the documentation that needed to be presented to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, we were deemed a cultural district and we're looking for new district partners. We're looking to extend outside of just one mile radius cultural district quote unquote and looking at inviting places like the Canadian American Club, which has lots of really interesting entertainment pertaining to Irish, Canadian, and American traditional music. There's lots of grants to be had for these places and I think that it just behooves the cultural district to inform these great cultural resources in Watertown about what's happening.

Matt: 4:25

Awesome. Want to talk about moments in the past month for the Senior Center.

Lydia: 4:29

Sure, we've had some really fun events at the Senior Center. In February we had a Black History Month luncheon where the city manager came and did opening remarks. The Senior Center was full. It was packed out. That was a really nice moment. We also had bilingual storytelling courtesy of the Watertown Cultural Council. Also had a Irish music study presentation by Richard Traver. We've also had a Watertown Cable Access News IT workshop happening at the Senior Center, which was great. We've started an AARP tax clinic which provides free tax preparation for seniors and we run that through April. We recently in March had a Metro West Legal Services housing search clinic to assist seniors who are looking for affordable housing.

Allie: 5:17

Just a shout out. We at the library send a lot of folks to the Senior Center for the Tax Help because we're giving out tax forms at the Reference Center and that is a frequent question of where can I get tax assistance. And that is a trusted resource and we are so grateful to the Senior Center for their AARP tax assistance program.

Lydia: 5:34

Well, thank you. Yeah, it's definitely a gem of a program.

Matt: 5:37

Nice. So on a related topic which we might hit on, some of the same things, but success story that has happened recently that you'd like to talk about. And, Liz, why don't you go first?

Liz: 5:48

Well, I will talk a little bit about the Watertown Cultural District, which has had many recent successes. The cultural district is off to a running start after designation in November and this means that they have a new website that's up that is a hub for finding any cultural event in Watertown. So all cultural district partners are invited to use this new resources. It includes the library, public arts and culture committee, cultural district itself, Mosesian Center for the Arts Project Save Armenian Photograph Archive, among many others. So if you want to find something to do, check it out, and it's getting more populated as I speak. In addition to that, our cultural district signs are up at the gateways to the cultural district and we're planning a big event in May to celebrate all that's happened so far and to let people know a little bit more about what's happening here.

Matt: 6:32

Nice. How about you, Allie? What about the library?

Allie: 6:35

Oh, so success stories. I think we had a really fun winter concert series. That kind of goes back to the moments of the past month, but it's always a fun series. We usually kick off around December and wrap up in March and miraculously we didn't run into a snow cancellation this year. So that was very lucky.

Allie: 6:54

And we ended with Grace Giverts and she actually got a shout out as a free event to check out from the Boston Globe, which was really exciting to have the Watertown Free Public Library mentioned in the Boston Globe, which is always exciting for us to make the big time, make the spotlight, because we think we're pretty darn special, but it's nice to get the recognition sometimes.

Allie: 7:14

And Grace was really wonderful and again was part of our one book lineup as well to have a free concert and that's sponsored by the building committee through the library, which, if you've ever bought a used book through the library's cafe, which is going to hopefully be reopening this spring. Thank you for your patience as we've transitioned to a new cafe vendor. You've supported the building committee, so thank you to listeners like you for supporting our library programs. So that has been really fun and we've had lots of we you know school vacation weeks we see tons of families and kids come in. We had reptiles in the building. We had not necessarily arts and culture really Well, you know depends and we had a drum circle. We have lots of exciting things going on at the library all the time, but certainly lots of fun and action in school vacation week. So the fun just keeps on.

Matt: 8:04

Nice, yeah I was at at that drum circle with my son. That was a lot of fun.

Allie: 8:07

Oh, nice.

Liz: 8:08

Yes, love the library.

Allie 8:10

We're excited and proud to be part of the cultural district too. I saw Liz in the library for the Chinese American Association of Watertown. You were here for their dragon boat team meeting and I was like I saw one of the cultural district signs driving into work. I was very excited to tell you.

Liz: 8:28

Very fresh. Well, thank Department of Public Works for all their help putting them up. Thank you, Thank you.

Matt: 8:35

It’s a team effort. Was there anything else people wanted to talk about that's happened recently here with Arts and Culture?

Liz: 8:40

I'd love to mention River of Light, which was a really successful collaboration among three major players in the city, the Mosesian Center for the Arts, the Public Arts and Culture Committee, and the Watertown Cultural Council. Together they were able to put on this incredible community event that was free. People created lanterns, paper lanterns. We brought in this wonderful artist, Gowri Savor, and her husband, Angelo, and they ran these beautiful workshops in the fall and people then started to teach them to each other these different techniques. And Dawn Scaltreto shout out to Dawn for also running several workshops in many locations. And people came together and we had a light parade and it was beautiful. It did rain. Brought it indoors and then we brought in some flow performers who were dancing with lights and it was a big hit. We had estimated about 500 people came out for this indoor event and we're getting ready to start planning for 2026. This happened back in January. We're looking forward to another successful year. 

Allie: 9:34

That's fantastic. It's a good way to brighten up those winter months.

Liz: 9:36

Yeah, yeah, and it really does segway beautifully with some other events nearby. We're hoping to bring in some other groups in the coming year, like the Chinese American Association of Watertown, a newer group. There's an Indian dance group that's nearby we'd like to involve, and a few others.

Matt: 9:51

Cool, that's a good overview of what's happened recently. I know there's lots more too, because there's always so much going on, but that highlights some of the big things recently. Let's move on to some maybe little fun hidden gems that people might not know about in town, you know. So I called this section, did you know, where we can find out about some process, event or hidden gem in the city, arts and culture related? So, Allie, you want to give us your little hidden gem about the library.

Allie: 10:15

Absolutely. We're really excited that the library has just launched a book group for Spanish language readers. This is called the Club de Lectura en Español. It just means Spanish language book club. So if you are a Spanish speaker or a Spanish reader, they meet the fourth Tuesdays of the month. That will be starting in March, which is around when we're recording this, but that's going forward into the year. So whenever you're listening, they're meeting the fourth Tuesday of the month. This is the first of its kind in the Minuteman library network, so of 40 plus libraries, this is the first of its kind, and we're really excited to celebrate Spanish language readers and Latin American authors and we hope you'll join in.

Matt: 10:57

Sounds cool. That's people who can read those. It's not like a teaching thing, it's just.

Allie: 11:01

That's a great question, Matt. This is for, like, native speakers of the language. If you are someone who's proficient in Spanish, where you could pick up the book and read it without much help, you're welcome there too, but this is not for someone who's learning how to speak Spanish. This is a good place for people who it's your first language and you're looking for community around that, and, in particular, one of the reasons it's kind of the first of its kind in the Minuteman network is that it can be difficult for libraries to source books that are being published in Mexico or in Latin America from some of our mainstream American publishers and suppliers, and so that's why we're invested in getting those books and getting them in bulk for Spanish language readers. And it's an investment and it's something we're really proud of and excited to do. So, yeah, but for native speakers and readers.

Matt: 11:53

Which there are plenty around here.

Allie: 11:54

There are lots around here and lots of people are interested, so we're excited to welcome them to that group.

Matt: 11:58

Awesome. How about you, Liz? What's your little hidden gem?

Liz: 12:00

Oh, hidden, but in public. I think not enough people know about our community sculpture walk, which started back in 2022. It follows a community path starting right behind the library at the corner of the Thaxter Street Municipal Lot and Saltonstall Park. You can follow the community path down to Howard Street and there are eight sites for public sculptures and they rotate every year. So the sculptures are on two-year loan and every year we put out a call to artists and we get approximately four sculptures every year that are new to us and it will be there for two years so people can enjoy them. It's a great way to immerse yourself in contemporary and somewhat local contemporary art across all mediums and it's a great way to enjoy the linear park which the community path goes through and to explore a little hidden gem in Watertown.

Matt: 12:42

Did you want to mention when the new ones are going in this year?

Liz: 12:44

Oh sure, there is an opening reception for three new sculptures this year. That will be on May 17th, the same day as Porchfest, definitely not a hidden gem, and it will just proceed Porchfest at 11 am to noon. We're going to welcome one of our high school ensembles who will perform for us, and the artists will be there to talk about their works. If you have questions or want to learn more about it, it's a really fun time.

Matt: 13:05

Yeah, should be fun. How about you, Kristen? You got anything hidden in the city you want to highlight?

Kristen: 13:10

Well again, and it being St Patrick's Day today, the day that we're recording, I really want to highlight the Canadian American Club and everything that they do. They're located at 202 Arlington Street in East Watertown. During the week at the Canadian American Club, there's Scottish dancing on Mondays. You could go in and watch and participate. There's Irish step dancing classes you can take. Then on the Friday night pub night there's always an open session so people could go in with their fiddles, violins, beginners, experienced artists in Irish traditional session music. There's always something going on there and I think it needs to be more widely publicized and I think they would appreciate more people going there. I was there last Friday night and it was just a tremendous, wonderful experience. People bring baked goods from home, Irish soda breads. There was a Guinness cake that was phenomenal. It's just a really great time and they're always open and always welcome to new members and for people who want to learn about traditional Canadian, Irish, Scottish music.

Matt: 14:07

Yeah. Is there a specific hidden gem about the Senior Center or the services that you do that you think people might not know about?

Lydia: 14:13

I think a lot of people would be surprised at how lively the Senior Center is on any given day. One of our most popular programs runs every day and it's gaming. So for seniors who are just home, they're isolated, they want to socialize but they might not be into our programs that are in our calendar. They can come, they can play Canasses, rummy cube, chess or any number of board games that we have at the senior center and just hang out, have coffee, have snacks and just socialize and get out the house.

Kristen: 14:41

I would do that. That sounds great.

Lydia: 14:42

It's fun.

Matt: 14:47

All right. So for the next segment we're going to do number of the month, number of the I don't know, a fun number. It doesn't have to be of this month, just a fun number, right. So why don't we start with you, Allie, working around again? What's your number to share?

Allie: 14:59

Okay, my fun number, which I love. This feels like a Sesame Street segment, I’m very excited. The number six. Watertown Free Public Library ranks in the top 10 libraries in the state of Massachusetts for total circulation. So that means physical items you check out from the library and also digital items like your e-books, your movies, your e-audiobooks. So in the last fiscal year for the state we ranked number six. It's a big flex and it helps keep our library funded and it just means that we are a really curious town. We're awesome, keep checking out stuff Watertown, that's a big deal. We're number six so I think that says a lot about how much we value culture and the arts in Watertown. So number six.

Matt: 15:44 

That deserves a little Muppet dance.

Allie: 15:44

I know right, if I had a puppet I'd be doing some kind of yes, thank goodness, this is just audio, I'll keep my puppets to myself.

Matt: 15:53

Awesome. Yeah, that's really great. What do you got, Liz? What's your number to share?

Liz: 15:57

20. Number 20. This is the 20th birthday of the Mosesian Center for the Arts, which is our very own magnificent arts center. We're really proud of it. We're really proud that it's community grown, and to celebrate 20 years is a huge milestone. So we hope that people save the date for May 22nd to come out and celebrate the Mosesian’s birthday.

Matt: 16:19

Yeah, and that's quite a long time to be running something like that in this day and age, right. That is a big accomplishment.

Liz: 16:23

It is. And it is a testament to how much people care about that facility and what it means to us.

Matt: 16:28

Yeah. We love books, love art. What do you got, Kristen?

Kristen: 16:31

Five, it's the magic number. This year will be our fifth Watertown Arts Market. We started at Arsenal Park. We're returning to Arsenal Park. We're very excited. Typically we have about 80 vendors. We think perhaps this year we can fit in about 120. Yeah, so now we're going to have more. Back with bands from Watertown, artists from Watertown, writers from Watertown. We have the Lit Squad that'll be set up again that is made up of poets and authors from Watertown, some from Cambridge. We're just looking forward to another year. Five, magic number.

Matt: 17:04

Nice. And Lydia, do you have any number to share that you think would highlight something?

Lydia: 17:07

Well, I must say, those were pretty hard to follow, but if I do have a number that I'm proud of, it'd be 900. I don't have an exact number, but the last time I checked we were over 900 free GoGo Grandparent transportation taxi rides for seniors for the year since we launched last March.

Allie: 17:29

Heck yeah.

Matt: 17:32

So no, you brought game. That's a good number too. Awesome. I'm glad this fun number segment is going to work out. I think I like it.

Liz: 17:42

We'll keep it for next time.

Matt: 17:45

Yeah, we'll keep that in. All right. So let's move into the last kind of fun segment here, which is what's that thing? So it's like an explanation of something or object art-wise or otherwise you might see in the city. Yeah, Allie, what's that thing that we might be seeing around that you have a little explanation for?

Allie: 17:56

Liz has a thing that I well, okay, I can say my thing and then but.

Matt: 18:01

Oh, you want Liz to go first. 

Liz: 18:03

I've got so many things.

Allie: 18:04

I want Liz to go first.

Matt: 18:07

All right, Liz.

Liz: 18:09

People are going to start to notice that there's a lot happening about a certain artist named Arshile Gorky, who used to live in Watertown. There is a commemoration effort that is underway. We're really excited about it. It all came to fruition because one Jack Dargon, resident and artist, he's going to hate that I call him an artist. He is a really great artist. He's very passionate about art history. He realized that Arshile Gorky used to live here and said why haven't we done anything about this? Then he went around, he talked to me, he talked to Jason Sohegian, the director of the Armenian Museum. He talked to the Mosesian Center for the Arts. He talked to the library. He talked to a whole bunch of folks and convened a group to create this commemoration effort. To date, the city declared March 1st in honor of Arshile Gorky, which is just about 100 years since he used to live here.

Liz: 18:53

For those that don't know, Arshile Gorky survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide, arrived in the United States around 1920, and spent his first several years in Watertown, where he started to get more into art making, before he finally moved to New York to continue his career. He has Armenian roots. His sister's homes are still on the East End and we're putting up markers near those homes to create a walking tour of sites related to Gorky. And a mural that will start going up next month in April. It will be done by the end of May. We'll be having an opening reception.

Liz: 19:19

This mural commemorates the life and work of Arshile Gorky. It will be on the Grove Street underpass on the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway and it'll be created by an artist named Brandon Gaia Marshall. We're really thrilled to have this artwork in place. I'll let Allie talk about what the library is doing as part of this effort, which we're really thrilled about. The Mosesian Center for the Arts currently has up an exhibit called Gorky and the Language of Drawing, which is an incredible exhibition that features drawing that is in the style and or the legacy of Arshile Gorky. So it's a whole bunch of contemporary styles that range from abstraction through surrealism. It is a beautiful show. It was curated by Bill Flynn, I should say juried. Yeah, it’ll keep going.

Matt: 19:55

A lot going on and you want to add on to that Allie with your contribution to that.

Allie: 19:59

The library's contribution is very small compared to all of this, but we do have a very small but mighty capsule collection of materials related to Arshile Gorky and the Surrealism art movement that have been on the display nearest to the elevator on the second floor, and they have been checked out and returned at a rapid pace. And so if you want to see some of Gorky's work and check out some information about his life and just dive into some books about him, check it out at the library. And because we're in the library and we're actually located near the art gallery, just a cool thing that we have in the library is we do have an art gallery and we want to showcase your work here if you are an artist, and we are booking for the year 2026. We accept applications for the art gallery on a rolling basis and you can apply on our website, which is watertownlib.org. But the art gallery is behind us and if you've never checked it out, it's on the second floor behind the reference desk and I think of it also as a little bit of a hidden gem.

Allie: 21:01

Not everybody gets to the second floor. You might come get your holds or you bring your kids to story time and you don't make it all the way up here. But there's some really, really cool artists. They get their work showcased here and, who knows, you might be the next Gorky in our midst. But come check out the art gallery and if you're interested in displaying your work, now is a great time to apply. 

Matt: 21:21

Awesome. Kristen, you got any, what's that thing to share?

Kristen: 21:22

Well, I just discovered the brand new skate park in Arsenal Yards. 

Liz: 21:29

New mural coming there soon.

Kristen: 21:30

So come on by with your board, check out some art. But it's really cool and it was nice to see people out yesterday riding and people hanging out and their kids were there and it's spring man. 

Matt: 21:42

Nice, changing of the season, like it. Do you have any, what's that thing for your related stuff?

Lydia: 21:47

Yeah, I would say at the Senior Center we have a garden club. We'll call it a club or a garden program that meets during the spring. We're going to be launching an April programming, but one of the key features are two raised garden beds. And we grow kale, lettuce, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, different varieties of herbs, onions and a lot of really nutritious, delicious organic vegetables.

Matt: 22:14

Awesome. Any other things that people want to share before we kind of wrap up.

Liz: 22:20

If anyone wants to learn more about the Gorky commemoration effort, it's available on the city website under Public Arts and Culture.

Matt: 22:26

Yes, I will try and grab as many links from you guys at the end of this or later on for me to put in the show notes so that people can find out all these things. All right, so that's going to move us into our last section here, which is upcoming, which we've highlighted on things that are some upcoming, but anything else that you want to get out there about that is coming up in the next month or two for people to look out for.

Allie: 22:47

We are at the library, we're really excited to collaborate with Arto Vaun at Project Save because Project Save is celebrating their 50th anniversary. Liz mentioned them earlier but they're an archive that's based in Watertown and we are actually working with them as part of our Democracy Talks series. Our Democracy Talks series is a lecture series that looks at civic engagement, looks at hot topics that are related to preserving our democracy and what are some of those issues. And I think Project Save really looks at how storytelling and preserving those stories are a big part of our democracy because they counter erasure and counter groupthink, and how visual storytelling can foster resilience and what is the role of collective memory in preserving our democracy. And those are all things that the library, I think, tries to do as well, through preserving stories and books and your access to information. And so we're really excited to collaborate with Arto Vaun and Project Save and that Democracy Talks program is called Speak Memory, the photographic archive as resistance and renewal, and that will be held Wednesday, April 30th at 7 pm in the library. And we'll get to hear from Arto Vaun and from Project Save and again, this is their 50th anniversary and we're excited to be a small part of celebrating that. 

Allie: 24:11

Also coming up in May, totally different tone. We are doing another STEAM, so that's science, tech, engineering, art and math week. We did one for the solar eclipse last year and it was really popular for Watertown. We're doing another one. We don't have a solar eclipse to look forward to, but we're doing a different theme and this year's theme is fungus. So get ready for a fungus week in May. First week of May, be on the lookout for all things fungus, all ages, arts and science programs. So lots of fun to be had at the library and thanks so much for caring about arts and culture and using your library.

Matt: 24:49

Let's move it on down to Kristen. Kristen, what do you have for us?

Kristen: 24:53

Coming in March. We'll have the open call for artists and vendors for the Watertown Arts Market happening August 9th, so we'll be sending out press release for that actually pretty darn soon.

Matt: 25:03

Might even be out by the time this is out. Liz, what do you have for us? 

Liz: 25:10

Yard Art. It's back, also for its fifth year, I believe. So Yard Art Watertown for those that don't know is when everybody is invited to create something that is viewable from the sidewalk or the street. It's a sculpture, it's an installation, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman, it could be anything creative that you want to make and share. It's been wildly fun the past several years, usually about 130 installations across the city. Watertown Bike Ped Committee hosts a bike ride to go view them.

Liz: 25:40

I'll be leading a walk through Watertown Walks, just through Live Well Watertown, to go check out a bunch of them. Registration is now it's up the whole month of April, so we hope that you'll join us and create something fun. If you want to learn more about it, Yard Art Watertown at the Mosesian Center for the Arts website and Watertown Porchfest, also coming up this May 17th from 12 to 6 pm all over Watertown. This year there's an after hours event. So if you're a restaurant or organization that wants to do a ticketed something, we want to drive business to you. It draws a huge crowd. It's going to be super fun. Yeah, both of these initiatives are now under the auspices of the Watertown Cultural District led by Kristen, so it's really exciting to see these events grow and thrive.

Matt: 26:16

Absolutely. And, Lydia, what do you have coming up that you'd like to highlight?

Lydia: 26:19

Sure, we'll be having something new at the senior center, a new fitness class, Flamenco classes, which is a dance, a Spanish dance class. We'll have that April 7th, April 14th, and April 28th. We will also be having the Watertown Cable Access News back for a technology workshop on April 14th and we'll also have a dramatic performance called Bon Voyage and that will be April 22nd. We'll have the bilingual storytelling performance back. We'll have the MBTA accessibility program coming back to teach seniors about what programs are available for them and what services they can tap into. That will be April 28th. We'll also have the energy saving seminar presented by the Watertown Community Development and Planning Department on April 29th, and I think that's it for April.

Allie: 27:15

You guys have that fantastic. You're holding them in front of us, which is reminding me, but you have these fantastic newsletters that are available in lots of public places, including at the library, and you have the email newsletter and I think I'm going to be Liz, Kristen and maybe Matt, we're going to try to crash the flamenco dance class.

Lydia: 27:32

I think you should.

Allie: 27:34

That sounded so much fun.

Matt: 27:37

Is there anything specific you want to drive people to in terms of websites? I'll have links for, try and find as many links for the things we talked about here, but is there one thing you want to send people to to find out more information?

Kristen: 27:46

Watertownartsmarket.com. Watertownartsmarket.com, Also watertownporchfest.org.

Liz: 27:54

I would love to plug the Public Arts and Culture newsletter, but what I'm going to do is send you to Watertown Connect, part of the Watertown City website. On that page, Watertown Connect if you Google it, it'll show up. It is a list of all the things you can subscribe to through the city so you can really pick and choose which newsletters you want from which departments and see all the different things that are going on. I highly recommend it as a resource to get hooked into the things you care about.

Allie: 28:19

The Watertown Free Public Library has an email newsletter. We only email you once a month. We will never spam you, we promise. Please sign up or pick up our print newsletter, which is once every two months at the library and other public places, 

Matt: 28:33

For all your fungus-related.

Allie: 28:34

For all your fungus-related needs at the library.

Lydia: 28:40

So I would just highlight our senior services newsletter that goes out every month. We actually do have paper copies that can be found at the library, City Hall, Watertown Savings Bank and a variety of other places throughout the city. We have an electronic version that folks can sign up for that goes out once a month, and then we have a weekly program kind of reminder that goes out. So that's where to find us.

Matt: 29:02

Awesome. All right then. Well, thank you all for taking the time to sit down and share everything that's going on in Watertown. There's a lot going on arts and culture related. That's why I wanted to set up these episodes specifically just for this topic. So this has been really great. Thank you for your time.

Kristen: 29:17

Thanks Matt.

Allie: 

Thanks Matt.

Lydia:

Thank you.

Liz: 

Thank you.

Matt: 29:20

So that's it for my conversation with Allie, Kristen, Liz, and Lydia. I'll put links in the show notes for many of the things mentioned. And if you're interested in arts and culture, you might be interested in my next Creative Chats podcast event. That is happening on Friday, April 18th, from 830 to 10 am at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. Guest is going to be Cat Bennett this time around, who's been an animator, illustrator, artist and teacher. You can find out more information about that event over at littellocalconversations.com. Also head on over to the website to find more regular interview episodes, local government update podcasts and recordings from previous Creative Chats. So lots of different stuff for you to check out there to try and give you a feel for the stories and things going on in town. All right, and a few things to wrap up here. Got a grant this year from the Watertown Cultural Council, so I want to give them a thank you and the appropriate credit, which is this program is supported in part by a grant for the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported in part by a grant for the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Find out more about them at watertownculturalcouncil.org and massculturalcouncil.org.

Matt: 30:23

I also want to give a shout out to podcast sponsor Arsenal Financial. They're a financial planning business here in Watertown. It's owned by Doug Orfice, who is very involved in lots of things in Watertown, including the Watertown Business Coalition, and is vice chair of the Cultural District, and his financial planning business helps out people close to retirement, busy families, and small businesses. So check them out at arsenalfinancial.com if you need a little financial help in any of those areas. And you can also listen to my Watertown trivia episode I did with him to celebrate the sponsorship. You'll learn some fun facts about Watertown.

Matt: 30:55

And the last shout out goes to a promotional partner, the Watertown Business Coalition. They're a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that is bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Find out more about them at watertownbusinesscoalition.com. They have a whole slew of events coming up, networking events at City Hall, a special STEM night coming up at the Watertown Middle School. So check out watertownbusinesscoalition.com to see all those events. So that's it. Until next time, take care.