The Fenway Alliance
337A Huntington Avenue/Avenue of the Arts
Boston, MA 02115
tel: 617.437.7544
fax: 617.437.7459
www.fenwayculture.org"Where else in Boston can you take a morning walk through the Back Bay Fens, tour an exhibit at the MFA, grab Thai food, catch an afternoon show at the Symphony, take in a night game at Fenway Park, down an after-game beer and, if you haven’t already imploded, end the night at a club on Lansdowne Street?"
-Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Boston Magazine, April 2002
The Fenway Alliance is a consortium of 22 arts, cultural and academic institutions in Boston's Fenway Cultural District, dedicated to enhancing the cultural, economic and environmental vitality of the Fenway neighborhood.
The Fenway Alliance works in three environments to advance the vitality of the Fenway Cultural District. One is working with Boston's cultural community to make the Cultural District a vital reality. We also work in close alignment with Boston's planning and governmental sector to design and reconstruct large infrastructure and environmental projects within the physical boundaries of the Cultural District. Equally important to our mission is working with residents and the community at large to create opportunities for greater access to the cultural and academic resources for our neighbors.
As the umbrella organization for its members, The Fenway Alliance provides an important facilitative role, fostering collaboration among member institutions, as well as community organizations, State and City government agencies, local businesses and neighborhood groups. Members support the function of The Fenway Alliance, understanding that no matter how strong specific individual organizations are there exists great opportunity to improve their collective identity and increase local community access to culture and the arts. The Fenway Alliance has achieved progress in four important areas:
One of the Fenway Alliance's greatest strides has been in leveraging more than 30 million City, State, and Federal dollars for infrastructure improvements in the District's major thoroughfares and parklands through working with elected and appointed government officials. In addition, The Fenway Alliance was at the forefront of Mayor Thomas M. Menino's 1998 Proclamation that designated Huntington Avenue "The Avenue of the Arts," and this area of Boston "The Fenway Cultural District." We believe a combination of programmatic educational and cultural initiatives coupled with a strong focus on the physical environment provides a reasoned holistic approach to accomplish our organizational mission.
1) Development and marketing of the Fenway Cultural District through website promotion (www.fenwayculture.org), collaborative marketing/advertising endeavors (including a District map/brochure and promotional video), continued collaboration with neighboring community organizations.
2) Public Art/Identifiers for the Fenway Cultural District. Grant monies from Fund for the Arts, a restricted fund of NEFA (New England Foundation for the Arts) enabled The Alliance to lead a public art planning process involving a Committee of art curators, practicing artists, institutional leaders, city government representatives and Fenway residents in the planning and selection process for new public art/signage works in the Fenway Cultural District. Funding for implementation of the Committee's recommendations - Ellen Driscoll's critically-acclaimed "Lumina" project, featuring LED "canvases" along the Avenue of the Arts - will be critical in reaching that goal.
3) Advocacy for and coordination of numerous major public infrastructure major projects:4) Increased cultural/educational access through a number of programs and projects, including our annual Opening Our Doors! free community cultural festival, and a series of forums and events for our members, community partners and friends, including topical Educational Forums and an annual President's/Director's Breakfast.