Supporting public art and cultural activations that spark collective imagination throughout Massachusetts

Diverse artistic expression and creative activations in our public spaces offer vital opportunities for communities to develop a vision for their shared present and future. With EPIX (Engage Public Imagination eXchange), we invest in organizations that support creation, curation, and production of public work that challenges what we think we know, makes space for joy and humanity, and invites us to reimagine the world we want to live in. We envision public spaces where everyone feels safe, powerful, and empowered to share their own stories — including those who have felt marginalized.

The goal for this initiative is to foster a more developed and resourced public art field that is rooted in justice and belonging. To that end, EPIX grantees seek to change the field of public art and cultural practices.

The EPIX grantees envision a field that will: 

• Cultivate agency and power. We are investing in field leadership to cultivate a sector that creates public and community-based arts and cultural experiences that challenge dominant beliefs and inspire us to think beyond what used to be. Through a process of purposeful creation, communities that have traditionally been marginalized can build connections, joy, and collective voice. We believe this is the necessary groundwork for movements that achieve equity in civil rights, housing, economic development, and more.  
• Build public spaces of belonging. By putting art at the center to challenge oppressive norms and encouraging the expression of more diverse art, culture, and celebration in public and civic spaces, we seek to cultivate spaces in which any who have been made to feel unwelcome in the past can actually feel safe, seen, and powerful.   
• Facilitate collective imagination. We envision art and creative activations in public that brings communities together in new and unexpected ways, supporting stronger connections, alignment, and collective action. We believe in more public art that helps people lean into their inherent creativity to imagine the future they want to see and inspire ideas on how to work together to build it.