Call For Art, Arts Advocacy, Donor Spotlight & More!

Arts & Culture * Beautification * Service

Celebrate Newton

Public Art Initiative

Newton Community Pride is excited to announce a Call for Art for our spring 2023 public art initiative called Celebrate Newton. NCP is currently seeking creative, bold, and vibrant designs from local and regional artists to be reproduced on banners and installed on approximately 100 light poles throughout the city this spring. These banners will be hung in several village centers and along several major thoroughfares throughout the city. This year's public art initiative is designed to enliven and brighten our city, inspire civic pride, and introduce more art into our public spaces.

Interested artists are invited to submit an application and banner images celebrating the culture, history, diversity, values, and/or beauty of the City of Newton. Colorful, active designs will receive the highest consideration. Designs can be any form of 2D art, including photography. More information, deadlines, and official rules can be found HERE. Artists selected through this juried initiative will receive an honorarium of $1,800.

Newton Community Pride is grateful to our Presenting Sponsor, The Village Bank, and for support from the City of Newton Parks, Recreation & Culture Department.

WinterFEST

Grab your winter hat and scarves and mark your calendars! Newton Community Pride's WinterFEST is back on January 28 & 29!

Warm up with a hot bowl of soup at the Hyde Community Center on Saturday, January 28 and bring your dancing shoes as we groove to the Eli Cash Band, mingle with Olaf from Frozen and other costumed characters, and get your hips swiveling with glow-in-the-dark hula hoops.

On Sunday, January 29, take a guided family-friendly morning winter walk with the Newton Conservators and Olaf along the trails of Cold Spring Park and then head over to Newton Centre to meet Elsa from Frozen and her friends, shop at our Winter Market, watch a live ice sculpture carving, and enjoy several entertaining performances from local groups - and of course hot chocolate! Take home a special photo from our photo booth to mark all your wintry fun!

Final schedule coming soon! Click here to see highlights from last year.

Arts Advocacy

New Art Center Pop-Up Art Shop

Do you have all of your holiday shopping done? If not, here is the perfect opportunity! NCP would like to give a shout-out to NCP board member Emily O'Neil, the Executive Director of the New Art Center for bringing once again this holiday season, the New Art Shop to the Trio building on the 2nd floor of 245 Walnut Street, Newtonville. It is bigger and better than ever. This is a great chance to shop and support local artists and the New Art Center. The shop will be open Wednesdays through Sundays until December 23, from noon to 6PM each day and until 7PM on Fridays.

This shop is run by artists whose work is available along with more than fifty artists, craftspeople, and makers of handmade jewelry, paintings, prints, wearable textiles, sculptures, woodwork, ceramics, hand-knit goods, and more. Happy shopping!

Arts Advocacy

City Hall Gallery Space Available

Attention artists! Newton City Hall has free and open spaces available to exhibit community and fine artworks in their first and second-floor hallways.

The Newton Cultural Development Office offers opportunities to display high-quality, original artwork, with a preference given to local artists and organizations.

If you're interested in this opportunity, fill out the form here. The deadline to send in your work is December 31st.

Donor and Volunteer Spotlight

Gloria Gavris

Hi my name is Gloria Gavris and I am a retired lawyer, arts advocate, and the volunteer board chair of Newton Community Pride. Since 2020 I have had the honor of volunteering as Chair alongside a terrific group of community leaders and art advocates. I first became aware of Newton Community Pride when I met Linda Plaut, the city's Cultural Affairs Director in 2014. Together we started the Festival of the Arts, (which has been supported by NCP for over 8 years now!). Chairing the first Festival of the Arts in 2015 allowed me a wonderful opportunity to embrace the arts community and meet so many amazing and talented residents that call Newton their home. I am so very grateful for Linda Plaut's friendship and example of infectious energy and enthusiasm to promote the arts in the City of Newton. She will always be an inspiration to me and it's an honor to carry on her legacy through free arts and culture programming offered by NCP.

Through my involvement with NCP, I see the joy arts and culture bring to the city through our Fall Village Concert Series, WinterFEST, Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts, and our public art projects - Newton OutDoors, Sit and Let Your Spirit Soar benches and the Artful Pianos. I am particularly proud of working with our board over the last two years to strengthen our non-profit and expand our mission to foster the next generation of artists and musicians with the Nancy Quint Schön Arts Scholarship and provide seed money for artists, organizations, and neighborhood groups with our Community Micro Grant program.

I love volunteering for NCP and having the opportunity to support its mission in a meaningful way. As a board member, I see firsthand the prudent fiscal stewardship of how each donor dollar is maximized to support NCP operations and programming. I am honored to serve as NCP Board Chair and donate at the Bronze Level to support NCP's public art and free and accessible community programming. I look forward to seeing the many contributions NCP brings to the community, its growth in the years ahead, and the enjoyment its free programming brings to the residents of Newton.

Pictured are Gloria, her husband Lee, and their two sons, Christopher and Michael

Support Our Impactful Programming Today

As 2022 draws to a close, we hope you will consider Newton Community Pride and all we do in your year-end giving. From city-wide public art & free music festivals to caring for our award-winning gardens, and supporting great ideas & events with micro grants and operational support, our small nonprofit couldn't do any of it without your help. We rely solely on support from our business partners, individual gifts, and small grants. Please consider showing your Newton community pride by making a tax-deductible donation online or by mail today and help us continue bringing art, culture, beautification, and service to Newton in 2023. Our mailing address is 1294 Centre Street, Newton Centre, MA 02459