Watertown Arts & Culture Roundtable, December 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 Liz Helfer (City of Watertown, Public Arts and Culture Planner), Jamie Kallestad (Communications and Design Specialist for the Watertown Free Public Library), Kristen Kenny (Chair of the Watertown Cultural District), Gavin Kleespies (Executive Director of Gore Place), Lydia McCoy (Watertown Senior Center, Director for Senior Services), and Sheri Melenciano (Watertown Senior Services, Program Coordinator).

Too many links to fit here! Visit littlelocalconversations.com for the list of links mentioned in episode.

Chapters

• 0:07 Roundtable Kickoff & Intros
• 0:39 What’s On Deck For Winter
• 1:31 Gore Place Spotlight: Ken Burns Link
• 3:32 Intergenerational Music For Memories
• 3:57 Light Art Pop‑Ups And Performances
• 4:15 Cultural District Milestones
• 4:48 Yo‑Yo Ma Simulcast At The Library
• 6:09 Library Zine Fest Wins
• 7:09 Canadian American Club Gala
• 7:55 Expert Pairings: Art Meets Ecology
• 9:54 Senior Wellness Fair Highlights
• 11:11 Chamber Music In A 19th‑Century Mansion
• 13:24 One‑Day Liquor Licenses Explained
• 13:50 Bands: Apply For Summer Series
• 14:48 Senior Center’s Holiday Concert Lineup
• 16:33 Restoring Gore Place And “Devil’s Wallpaper”
• 19:08 Hatch Makerspace Usage Soars
• 20:16 Number Of The Month: Community Stats
• 23:03 What’s That Thing: Knitting Kickoff
• 24:29 Gift Shop Craftsmanship At Gore Place
• 25:57 Community Fridge Moves To Library
• 26:38 Chords, New Gates, And Solstice
• 28:46 December Events And Traditions
• 33:42 Host Wrap‑Up & Partner Credits

Transcript

Matt: 0:07

Hi there. Welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is a special Arts and Culture Roundtable. I had a bunch of guests this time. I'll let them introduce themselves and then we'll get into all the things that have been going on from success stories to fun numbers that help illustrate some of the great stuff going on with arts and culture in the city. Welcome to the Arts and Culture Roundtable episode. We do this every few months, this one, we're gathering here towards the end of November. So you'll probably getting this towards the beginning of December to listen to for what's going on in December, January coming up, which there is plenty to do. So let me introduce everyone who's in the room with me today. I'll go around to my left. So why don't you start?

Jamie: 0:51

Hey, I'm Jamie Kallestad, the communications and design specialist for the Watertown Free Public Library.

Kristen: 0:57

I'm Kristen Kenny. I'm the chair of the Watertown Cultural District.

Liz: 1:00

I'm Liz Helfer. I'm the public arts and culture planner for the city of Watertown.

Lydia: 1:04

Lydia McCoy, director for Senior Services. 

Sheri: 1:07

I'm Sheri Melenciano, the program coordinator for Senior Services.

Gavin: 1:11

And I'm Gavin Kleespies, the executive director of Gore Place.

Matt: 1:14

Awesome. Well, thank you all for being here. We're gonna go through and just talk about some things that have been going on and things to look forward to. So let's start with the first segment, which is moments from the past month. Maybe I'll switch it up this time. I'll go to the right. I'll go back and forth. So, Gavin, do you want to start us off? What's been going on at Gore Place?

Gavin: 1:32

Sure. So with lots of programs, lots of events going on, this is a very busy season. One fun thing that has come up recently, it was sort of a surprise, was the Boston Globe magazine had a big article on Ken Burns and his 50-year career, and a painting which is at Gore Place was very prominently featured in this. So this was kind of neat to be able to see one of our paintings in the middle of this article, all about Ken Burns and his career. Turns out that the first important film that he made was about Sturbridge Village, and it featured a painting which was hanging on the wall there, which was a depiction of the Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham. And that painting actually belongs to Gore Place now, and it's been hanging at Gore Place for the last 20 years. It's probably our most famous painting. Actually, it's certainly our most famous painting, not by the most famous artist, it's by a self-trained artist. But it is one of only two known period depictions of the Boston Manufacturing Company. And the Boston Manufacturing Company, of course, was the first vertically integrated textile mill in America. So it was what sort of ushered in the industrial revolution in America. It was the beginning of the textile manufacturing in America. So this picture has been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times in textbooks. But it was very prominent in this whole story about Ken Burns and his work, his latest film, which is about the American Revolution. So it was really great to sort of see a piece of Gore Place featured in this retrospective of one of the most important American documentary filmmakers' careers.

Matt: 2:54

Nice. Congrats on the exposure.

Lydia: 2:56

One program that I'd like to highlight, we actually wrapped up on November 5th, but we did about a four-week series with Belmont High School students. And the program was called Music for Memories. It was a chance for seniors to get together, share songs, stories, and smiles. Students put together personalized playlists and throw back karaoke games and other fun games like music bingo. Every session was designed for seniors to be able to speak joy and bring both generations together. So it was a great intergenerational program. And we hope to be doing more of this in the future. 

Liz: 3:31

We had a really cool collaboration this past month with the Investigations in Light class from MassArt. This is an undergraduate class with Professor Elaine Buckholz, who will be working with us in the spring to do a light installation by Coolidge Square. And as kind of a prelude to that, she brought her undergraduate class for the fall out, and we did some site-specific work at Sullivan Park. They did a two-week pop-up installation using light and fabric, and it was pretty impactful. And then they did a one-hour performance, or I should say, more experiential-based art performance, participatory performance. The opening on November 3rd, and it was great fun. A lot of people came by. The images are really stunning because the light effects on the fabric that they chose, they just create beautiful images. We had a good time and we're hoping to do more collaboration in the future.

Matt: 4:15

Go ahead, Kristen.

Kristen: 4:17

Well, the Watertown Cultural District hit an anniversary. Two years ago, we applied to be a designated cultural district, and just last year we actually became one. And within this time we've had 21 partners, and we're always looking for new partners to join the cultural district. You could go to our website, it's watertownmaculture.com. There's a calendar there that will be integrated with tourism eventually. We're working on that, but we're looking for new partners all the time. Thank you.

Jamie: 4:47

Okay. Exciting moment that happened recently when the podcast airs is we will have had a special simulcast event with Yo-Yo Ma, everyone's favorite cellist. Yo-Yo Ma is not going to be at the Watertown Free Public Library this Friday, to be clear. But he is giving a one-of-a-kind, very special performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at Symphony Hall in Boston. And that is like way sold out. But they wanted Yo-Yo Ma's team wanted to expand access to this one night only event. And so they partnered with a bunch of cultural organizations across the state. And we were thrilled that they picked the Watertown Free Public Library to be one of them. And so then we were able to offer this live simulcast experience on our big screen in one of our biggest rooms. And a hundred people signed up like instantaneously to come hear this live event in the library. So we're just thrilled to be a part of this very cool initiative. Yo-Yo describes it as an invitation to listen to each other and to the world around us, to create a shared space for connection, reflection, and action, and imagining a better future. And that's how we see the library too. So we're thrilled to be a part of this very cool event coming up with Yo-Yo Ma on screen, not in the library.

Matt: 5:58

Nice. Well, thanks everyone for sharing your moments from the past month. This one is very similar vein, this next segment here. I'm going to go around and do success stories that have happened recently. So let me go to the left this time, Jamie.

Jamie: 6:13

Okay. Now I feel like I'm taking up all the air time. But um a recent success story is we just held our fifth annual Watertown Zine Fest, and it was a big success. That was a couple of weeks ago now. If you don't know, zines are handmade, self-published pamphlets. They're a medium for sharing everything from art, culture, writing, activism, jokes, whatever you want. And we are really trying to create a space where that type of work is celebrated in the library. And DIY creativity is given space and celebrated. So we had 525 people come through to learn about zines, to celebrate zines, to share their zines. And that was just a huge success. And part of what's so special about that event is folks coming in the door, give us information about how they heard about it, where they're coming from, have they been to the library before? And a lot of the people coming to ZineFest haven't been to the library before or hadn't been to our library before. So we love seeing that outreach stuff working. So it's a lot of fun.

Kristen: 7:08

Well, as most people know, one of my favorite places in Watertown is the Canadian American Club, which started in 1950 and moved to Watertown, buying their building on Arlington Street in 1969. And they recently had their annual gala on November 9th. And they had musicians and dancers doing traditional dance from where they were from. They had Cape Breton, Scotland, Quebec, and Ireland attending and performing at this event. And it's one of their biggest money-making events. And it's also a chance for new members to go in, check it out, and see what the Canadian American Club has to offer. But it is one of my favorite places in town, and it was a great success for them this year.

Liz: 7:50

I'm going to talk about a project that's been ongoing this past year called Expert Pairings. Probably heard me talk about it before. It is a project of the Public Arts and Culture Committee, which Matt's on. And it pairs scientists and artists to create temporary public artwork that talks about our local ecology. It was funded through a projects grant by the National Endowment for the Arts and through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Accelerating Climate Resiliency Grant. And three of those projects wrapped up this month. And one is coming in the spring, so keep an eye out. This one's very exciting too. But we were really thrilled with how each of these projects went. You can find evidence of these projects here at the Watertown Free Public Library. There's an exhibit up for the month of November. So by the time this comes out, it might have come down. The projects include Tangled Connections, which explores all the different uses of Japanese knotweed, a highly invasive plant. Over the summer, there was an installation on the community path. They've brought artifacts from that installation here into the library. They also ran two workshops here at the library. Another project was a live, I'm going to say participatory experience again. But it was an event at Arsenal Yards where you could explore the creation of the Miyowaki Forest, which is at one of the schools here in town, and also take a marble and interact by plunking your marble into a selection to either grow shrubs or low cover or trees. And in real time, you could watch on a monitor your selection to change both the music and the growth of the forest that was created in a digital model. And what this group had done was a composer and an engineering group, they had to 3D model the space at Arsenal Yards. You could also then put on VR goggles and experience that growth in real time, which was very, very cool. And then the third project that wrapped up was called Faces of the Forest. And it's over at Whitney Hill Park. And it is fairly permanent, in fact. But they did an artist talk and ecology walkthrough exploring all the different keystone species there. And they created a set of signs that are very educational about all of these different things. I encourage you to go see them. But they also created a zine, which now lives here in the Zine Library at the Watertown Free Public Library. Mural forthcoming in the spring. 

Lydia: 9:54

One event that was a success story was our health and wellness fair that actually took place November 18th at the Mosesian Center for Arts. The focus for this year's fair was dementia, memory loss, and Alzheimer's awareness. We had about 20 community vendors who provided free resources. Seniors got a chance to meet with local professionals and get information and giveaways. It was a lot of fun. We heard from two speakers. One of our presenters was Claudia Suarez Rodriguez, a doctor with the Massachusetts Alzheimer Disease and Research Center with the Mass General Hospital. And we also heard from another presenter by the name of Sarah Talcott, a certified dementia practitioner at an area community liaison for epic senior living. Both of these women gave two different dynamic presentations on what the difference between normal aging is, memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer's, and what seniors can do in their day-to-day life to hold on to their cognitive functions and connect socially. And we got to talk a lot about our different programmings that we have at the senior center that really nurture cognitive development and cognitive wellness. So that was a huge success. 

Matt: 11:08

Nice. Go ahead, Gavin.

Gavin: 11:11

So I think one great success we've had recently has been a series of concerts that we've had inside our mansion. There's actually kind of a cute story to how this started. We were approached about six months ago by a couple, Guy Fishman and Renee Hemzig, and they were interested in getting married at Gore Place. And it turns out that Guy is the principal cellist for the Handel and Haydn Society. And Renee is a violinist who also plays with Handel and Haydn as well as teaching at NEH and a couple other places. And so we spoke to them about exchanging, doing two concerts at Gore Place for the rental of using our space for our wedding. And so it was like a little romantic story tied in there. And they invited Ian Watson, who is the principal pianist and assistant conductor of Handel and Haydn, to join them. So we had our little trio and they did a chamber music concert, actually, two chamber music concerts in our mansion. They were using our 1826 Broadwood piano. So this was early 19th century music on early 19th century instruments in an early 19th century mansion. It was a pretty amazing space to be in. And it was a very intimate space. It was only about 45 people for each concert. So it was, you were there close to them, you could hear them, you could talk to them. It was a really sort of wonderful experience or set of experiences. And then as a fluke, they contacted us shortly thereafter and said that some musicians that they were friends with who are from England had been planning their American debut, North American debut, and they were planning to do their North American premiere at the Library of Congress. But because of the government shutdown, the Library of Congress was closed and they had to cancel that. So they were looking for a new venue. So we also hosted this fabulous quartet from England, which is called the Consone Quartet, for a concert at Gore Place. And it was a another really magical experience. And it really has made us want to embrace doing more music, particularly chamber music, within this space. And Gore Estate was certainly built to it was a house meant to impress. These rooms were meant for entertaining. They were designed to be spaces where there were things like music played. So it was really great to be able to bring that space back to what the space was originally built to be.

Matt: 13:17

Nice. All right. Now we're going to roll into some of the fun ones here. Not that that wasn't fun. So did you know? Which, you know, explanation of some process, event, hidden gem in the city. So let's switch it up so Jamie and Gavin don't have to feel like they're first every time here. Kristen, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go.

Kristen: 13:36

So the holiday season is upon us. And I think that a lot of venues, restaurants don't know that if you don't have a liquor license, you can't apply for a one-day liquor license through the town hall. $75 for beer and wine, $150 is all inclusive. So that would be beer, wine, and cocktails. It's just for one day. There's a form on the Civic Plus website, which you can also find on the Watertown website, fill it out, and you know, add a little sparkle to your holiday cheer.

Liz: 14:08

This is the time of year I get a lot of inquiries, bands emailing me saying, Hey, how do I get into the summer concert series? And I say, Hey, we have a rolling application, fill it out. So I want everyone to know that there's an open application. If you are a local band, a regional band, we get bands from California, we get bands from Tennessee. You can apply through the open application through the city website. Type in summer concert series Watertown, it'll come right up. But we do review applications in December. So, you know, if you're a local band hoping to get in on this year's concert series, you gotta get in quick. And we usually have about 10 spots open. I think we have nine because we already selected our season opener. And if you don't get in on the summer concert series, there's always Watertown Porch Fest coming up in May. 

Lydia: 14:49

So I think as everyone's already said, the holiday season is upon us. And did you know that at the Senior Center we'll have seven concerts for the holiday season, including, well, actually eight if we include an interactive drumming circle. So I just want to briefly just kind of list these out so folks who want to attend can come. On Tuesday, December 2nd, we have the Mellowtones live. This is a choir singing group. They meet mostly online, but they do come in person once a month. We will also have a jazz and blues concert December 9th at 3 p.m. We are gonna have Austin Smith, who's gonna give us an afternoon of soulful blues and elegant jazz with his guitar. We'll also have Mel Steller, and this is a sing-along concert. Mel plays the piano and folks get to sing along. Wednesday, December 10th at 11 a.m. We also will have a Japanese sing-along concert Monday, December 15th at 12.45 p.m. Please come join us and we will be singing nostalgic Japanese nursery rhymes, shuahwa pop music, and other folk songs. We'll have a harp concert on Tuesday, December 16th at 2 p.m., courtesy of Susan Wright. We'll have Richard Amir playing the piano December 18th at 1.30 p.m. And we will also have the Watertown Middle School coming to do a holiday concert on December 19th at 10:30 a.m. Lastly, we'll have an interactive healing drum circle with Cornell Corley December 18th at 12 p.m.

Matt: 16:28

Nice. Lots of music. All right, Gavin, what do you have for your did you know?

Gavin: 16:32

As people have mentioned, the holiday season is coming, and we every year take the lead up to the holiday season as an opportunity to do some, you know, relatively minor but significant repair projects in our mansion. We will be doing that again this year, and we've been working on a couple things that are kind of fun. This will, among other things, really make our mansion sparkle in ways that it hasn't in the past. We have rebuilt three windows in Christopher Gore's office, so they look much more attractive than they used to. Christopher Gore's office also, for the last 10 years, has had a big hole in the wall, which is sort of confusing to people. This was opened up by an architect that we worked with when he was doing an exploration of the original architectural design of the building. They realized there was a cavity inside the wall that was intentionally built. And we opened it up and it's been there sort of as this weird hole in the wall for 10 years. So we've decided that rather than just having a hole in the wall, we're gonna lean into it and we're gonna really explore it. So we are building it out as like a display portal where you can see into the history of the building and how the building came together and some of the architectural details and how the room was originally used. But the hole in the wall also has a unique feature, which it has remnants of a wallpaper. This wallpaper is called the Devil's Wallpaper by most people, and it depicts all sorts of very unusual scenes and devils. And this wallpaper is actually relatively famous. It's been reproduced in a number of different places. It's been featured in different books about New England wallpaper. Historic New England has reproductions of it available, but the only place where this original wallpaper exists is at Gore Place. So we'll build a little portal into that space where you can see this history and this unusual wallpaper. We're not exactly sure what the date of it is, but it's probably from about 1830 to about 1840. And we've been working with Richard Nylander to help date that. Richard Nylander is sort of the leading wallpaper expert in New England. And while leaning into all of this and sort of polishing it up and making it more accessible, we have also decided to reproduce portions of the Devil's Wallpaper on coffee cups and tea towels and even socks, which are going to be available in our gift shop, along with a whole bunch of additional holiday items, many of which are handmade by Gore Place staff members and will be available to the public once we get into December. 

Matt:18:48

Nice.

Lydia: 18:50

Great marketing.

Matt: 18:54

I'm trying to think of a way you guys can get a one-day liquor license for like a speakeasy in the wall with the devil's wallpaper. All right, Jamie, what do you got? 

Jamie: 19:05

Okay. Um did you know that Watertown has a makerspace? People in this room do. All the listeners may not. I did want to bring it up because very cool to me, I am seeing that the word is getting out about our makerspace. I compile statistics for the library's impact report, and I noticed that over the previous fiscal year, which had around 4,600 visitors, the makerspace in the past year had 6,290, which is a huge increase. So we're seeing a lot of traffic, a lot of people going to Hatch to make things, which is making Liz smile. We have Hatch alumni in the room with us today. And so we are delighted to see that. And we have a new Makerspace coordinator, Alice, who's doing a fantastic job. So I just invite anyone to stop by 20 Summer Street. It's not in the library, it's near Starbucks and Dunkin, if that's a frame of reference, in the residence at Watertown Square. And see what you can make at the library's makerspace.

Matt: 20:03

Nice. Awesome. Well, let's move on to another fun section here. Yeah, let's do number of the month. So this is just a fun spot to talk about any number related to what you've been doing or what's coming up. So Liz, I see you uh looking through there. You put three.

Liz: 20:18

Three is a really great number. Three, which is the potential winners of the Watertown Business Coalition's first annual holiday window decorating contest. So if you are a local business and you like to celebrate the holidays, you have a great opportunity to win both a free Watertown Business Coalition membership plus a donation to a charity of your choice for the season. If you'd like to get in on this, you probably have to do it pretty quick. You have to sign up by Thursday, December 4th. There will be community voting online, and then there'll be a panel of judges who will also be helping to decide, and the winners will be announced on December 22nd. It's a really fun way to get involved.

Matt: 20:50

Kristen, are you on that judging panel?

Liz: 20:53

I am.

Matt: 20:53

Yeah. All right, so let's go to Lydia next. We'll work our way this way.

Liz: 20:59

Sure. The lucky number is 400. 400 invites went out to Watertown veterans over the age of 60 to invite them to our Veterans Day event, which was November 10th. The event featured the city manager who read a proclamation from the governor. We also had our new veterans and ADA coordinator, Jay, and we also had our former governor's counsel, Marilyn Devaney, speaking. It was a great event. It was a great way to outreach and connect with veterans in the city. And we hope that veterans who might be listening to this podcast come out and join us for some of our December activities that we have.

Matt: 21:36

All right, Gavin.

Gavin: 21:37 

So I'm gonna push the limits and I'm gonna go with a range rather than a specific number, which is between 850 and a thousand, which is the number of people who came to our Handmade for the Holidays crafts fair. So this was the first time in a couple of years that we've done this. So we brought this tradition back, and it was a blowout success. The place was packed. There were tons of people. All of the artists who came had amazing stuff. And I personally spent way too much money. But that's a number that we don't need to get into. But people really loved it. And both the artists and the guests were really impressed by the number of people who were there. We certainly owe some of the credit to that to WBUR, who is our media sponsor and made it helped get the word out. But it was a really great success. And I think we're going to keep doing that year after year and having a lot of fun with that. 

Matt: 22:17

Nice. All right, Jamie, you're up again. 

Jamie: 22:19

Okay. My number is 109. And that, at the risk of being a broken record over here, that is the number of applications to Watertown Zine Fest that we had this past year. I'm going back to Zine Fest just to say it's also growing. Like I said about Hatch makerspace, it's so cool to see people finding out about these things that the library is doing. And so we had more applications than ever. And there's just more creativity, more interest in showing their work at the library. And the fest was expanded in this past year, and that's all thanks to our programming librarian Allie. So I wanted to make sure to give her a shout-out because I'm here for her today. And she has made that fest bigger and better than ever before, which is very cool. And we have an amazing zine team that's also making it happen. You know, I'm going back to zines over and over again. It's one of my favorite programs at the library, but I'll do one more shout out if you want to learn more. Matt actually interviewed one of our team members, Megan. And so go back into the little local conversations archives and learn about zines with Megan from the library. 

Matt: 23:16

Yeah. Creative Chats episode somewhere in October. So. 

Jamie: 23:20

Thought you were going to rattle off the number.

Matt: 23:22

Well, there's no numbers on those ones. I don't number those ones. So you have to go when this is released, you'll probably have to go back five to ten episodes. So yeah. Kristen, what do you have?

Kristen: 23:30

Well, on the Watertown Cultural District calendar, there are 11 events happening in the remaining days of November, four of which are happening at the Mosesian Center, including the New England Watercolor Society Regional Juried Exhibit, which is up from November 14th to January 9th. I've been to it in the past. It's tremendous. I highly recommend it.

Matt: 23:51

Great. So now we'll go on to the last one of our fun sections. This is what's that thing? So I'm curious what you guys have for your thing. So if we continue on here, that means Lydia, we're gonna start with you.

Lydia: 24:03

I'm actually gonna pass this one off to our new coordinator, Sheri Melenciana, who has planned something that I think is really cool.

Sheri: 24:12

Okay, so this might seem a little strange, but what's that thing would be for us is in our activity room, we have this kind of like looks like a cabinet or like a storage space, but we have a lot of knitting materials in there. Knitting is something that has kind of been underrated at the senior center. And in January, we're gonna do kind of like a kickoff to the new year. Let's finish this project, what's in your basket, like shebang. So it'll start on January 6th. It's gonna basically happen on Tuesday afternoons from 2:30 to 4. It's to kind of encourage people to come in with all their bits and pieces of crocheting, whether they have knitting projects that are kind of like hanging on by a thread and they don't know what to do with it, but also an opportunity for folks to kind of have a social setting. So like I'm gonna provide food. I love feeding folks. So if you guys are interested, please come. There will be food provided and just a moment for you to just pick up where you left off, have some extra help, socialize with other people in the community that are just interested. And even if you don't know where to start or if you've never did it before, there will be people on hand to help with these projects and kind of guide you through that. And hopefully this will be the beginning of a great thing for the senior center. So yeah.

Matt: 25:27

All right, Gavin, what's your thing? 

Gavin: 25:29

So this I was trying to think of something that maybe was not immediately apparent to most people. So I'm gonna go with an Amish pegboard. And people are like, what's that thing? And an Amish pegboard is a handmade, essentially a rail with pegs in it that you hang your coats on. And this is an example of one of the traditional crafts that we have manufactured at Gore Place for sale in our gift shop. So our farmer Scott Clark, who has lived in Watertown on Gore Place's property for the last 35 years, has made by hand a whole set of different pegboards, which are available for sale. So depending on how many coats you have, or hats or frisbees or whatever you want to put on it, you could buy out of various sizes. And that's part of a much more expanded gift shop that we're doing this year. We have also worked with a local artist and commissioned her to make six images inspired by either plants and animals at our farm or, you know, beautiful trees, which we're now also reproducing on things like tea towels and note cards and Christmas cards and things like that. So that original art, I think, is quite remarkable, and it's a great way to support a local artist and a local institution.

Matt: 26:34

Nice. All right, Jamie. What's your thing?

Jamie: 26:37

The thing is something new that folks might notice at the back of the library. Big white shed just to the left of our back door is the Watertown Community Fridge, which some people might be familiar with. Community fridge is a give what you can, take what you need, food exchange service run by volunteers in Watertown. It's been going strong in Watertown for a couple years now. And they just moved to the back of the library, and we're very excited about that location for the fridge. To be clear, the library is not running the fridge, but there are dedicated volunteers in our community that are making that happen and making food available for people who need it. And we're hoping that the new location behind the library will help them spread their message about how to donate. Will bring more donations in as people are coming to the library and will enable people to get food if they need it, especially if they're at the library already. So that's the new thing. Check out the Watertown Community Fridge and learn how to donate or learn all about it at WatertownCommunityFridge.org.

Matt: 27:36

Thanks. All right, Kristen, you're up. 

Kristen: 27:38

My thing is actually a sound. So once again, I'm repping the Mosesian Center for the Arts. There's music happening all over town, including Mosesian's chords and cocktails. On December 9th, they are hosting Eric Mintel. He's playing with a full band and he's doing a Charlie Brown Christmas. And I'm familiar with his music, and to see him with a full band doing that collection of songs is going to be incredible. Again, it's December 9th at the Mosesan.

Liz: 28:05

There's a really cool new thing on the east end of Watertown. There was a ribbon cutting on Monday for the two new Grove Street entrances to Mount Auburn Cemetery. They are beautiful. They are so beautifully designed. They integrate into the landscape in the way that they are always so thoughtful about. It was a long process, but I highly encourage you to go and access Mount Auburn Cemetery now through Watertown gates. There are two: one at the intersection of Grove and Coolidge Avenue, and further down on Grove Street, right across from the Atrium School.

Matt: 28:36

Cool. Well, thanks for sharing all that, everybody. Now we're just gonna wrap up with upcoming for things we haven't mentioned yet. Mention a couple things that you each have coming up. So where we are. Gavin, we're starting with you. 

Gavin: 28:46

Sure. So this is a busy time of year, as I mentioned. We have a number of upcoming programs. On December 6th, we're hosting a reenactment of the Christmas Carol. This is actually a great project. We've done it once before last year, so it's becoming a tradition. But this is actually the same group that produces the Christmas Carol production in the Parker House Hotel in Boston. It's essentially a one-man show with a little support, but it's a really wonderful presentation. It's great for people of all ages. We also have an ongoing tradition of ours, which is we'll have our Jane Austen holiday tea party on December 14th. This is a huge hit for people who are interested in Jane Austen. Jane Austen, of course, never visited Waltham or Watertown, but she is the exact same period as the Gore Place mansion, so it's a very historically period appropriate appearance. And then we continue to have ongoing tours and concerts. Notably, we are hosting John Muratore for a holiday concert on December 10th and our music for the hollydays on December 17th. So both of those are annual traditions that people should enjoy in our carriage house. And of course, our holiday fundraiser is a December evening, which is on December 11th, which is a great event if you happen to make it.

Matt: 29:58

Great. All right, Jamie, what do you have upcoming at the library?

Jamie: 30:01

Well, I started this talk with a music plug. So by the time this drops, Yo-Yo Ma will have performed at Boston Symphony Hall. But if you're interested in hearing live local music by talented local folks, come to the library for that. We do have concerts coming up. It's our winter concert series. There's four of them, once a month, December through March. So on December 7th, we're having Watertown's Vivace Music School here. It's a free concert. If you want to hear classical music, come to the library on December 7th. And then the next concert, which might be the next one when this podcast airs, will be Nuevas Raíces with guitarist Jhon Alvarado. And that's going to be an exciting show. They perform classical music written for guitar by contemporary Mexican composers. We have winter concerts going throughout the rest of the season. So check watertownlib.org slash concerts to see all the live music coming out.

Matt: 30:55

Great. All right, Kristen. What's going on with the cultural district?

Kristen: 30:59

Well, I swear you won't hear the Canadian American Club out of my mouth again for the rest of the year. But they do have a really fun Christmas party, and it's on December 19th at 8 p.m. It's part of their open to the public evenings that they have throughout the winter season, so September to about May. And on Friday nights, it's open to the public. And this particular evening is a lot of fun. There's a Yankee swap, there's carols, there’s treats, and of course, there's live music throughout. And it's a great way to experience Canadian American Club. Even if you're not Canadian or French Canadian or Irish or any of those cultures that had gone to Canada and then migrated down to America, it's a great club to join and just be a part of. And that, along with many other fun events, you can find on Watertownmaculture.com.

Liz: 31:49

All right. There are several wonderful things coming up during the holiday season. One that I'm very excited about. The Merry Mingle with the Holiday Makers Market is happening on a Saturday, December 6th. The Merry Mingle starts at 4 p.m. And the Makers Market at the Mosesian Center, which is partnering with Merry Mingle this year, opens at noon. So I encourage you to go check it out. It will include pictures with Santa, performances by the local school groups, and the official tree lighting for the city of Watertown. And then also coming up for its third annual, Solstice at Mount Auburn Cemetery. It's a wonderful time to celebrate light and reflection through the season. You can get tickets now. It usually sells out, so I encourage you to get tickets now. It's from December 5th through 21st. And then so excited that at the Armenian Museum of America, there will be an opening reception for Arshile Gorky, Redrawing Community and Connections, an exhibition of original works by Arshile Gorky. You can RSVP by December 1st if you want to make it to that opening event. Otherwise, the exhibit will be up from December 12th through April 26th. It is the culmination of a series of events to commemorate Arshile Gorky, a luminary of the abstract expressionist movement, who did live in Watertown, was an Armenian immigrant to the United States and ended up in New York after his time in Watertown. We're so proud to have had him here. We've created a walking tour that you can do to see sites related to his life here in Watertown and a big mural in the Watertown Cambridge Greenway. And we've been working with the Armenian Museum of America throughout it all. And so we're very, very appreciative of their work to put this exhibition together. Some of the work has never before been seen. It has been in private collections. We're very excited for you to check it out. 

Lydia: 33:23

All right. So in addition to our eight concerts, we are having a special holiday collab. We're having a holiday party that is a combination of crafts and flowers and an ugly sweater party. The hosts are going to be Arlene and Ernie. Arlene does crafts, Ernie does flower arrangements. This combination is coming together December 18th at 2:30 p.m. There is a $15 fee to participate. With that, there'll be crafts and flowers, there'll be uh gingerbread houses, there'll be music, there'll be lots of fun. So please do join us.

Matt: 33:59

Whew, I think we got through everything there. So thank you everyone for being part of this. And I'll get links from everybody to share in the show notes for listeners. Go check out and click on to all those things. And uh goodbye, listeners.

: 34:11

Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Matt.

Matt: 34:13

So that's it for the Arts and Culture Roundtable. I'll try and get as many links as I can for things that were mentioned and put those in the show notes so you can click through and check out all this great stuff going on. And if you like the podcast, you can head on over to Little Local Conversations.com. There I have all the episodes from these special roundtable episodes to live recordings from podcast events to just regular one-on-one interviews that I do with people all throughout the city. And if you like the podcast and you'd like to help support it, there is a support local conversation button in the menu, and you can help keep these conversations going. Much appreciated if you do. 

Matt: 34:45

Alright, and I want to give a few shout-outs here to wrap things up. First one goes to podcast sponsor, Arsenal Financial. It's a financial planning business here in Watertown. That's owned by Doug Orifice, who's a very committed community member, and his business helps busy families, small businesses, and people close to retirement. So if you need help in any of those areas, reach out to Doug and his team at arsenalfinancial.com. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council, who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout-outs to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition, their nonprofit organization here in Watertown, and their motto is Community is Our Business. Find out more about them at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper run by Charlie Breitrose here in the city. It's a great resource and a great place to keep up to date with everything going on, so go check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.