DUXBURY – Do you live in Duxbury? Are you interested in helping to craft a vision for the community’s future? Now is your chance to weigh in on the town’s draft master plan!

Join us for a public forum on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 in the Merry Room of the Duxbury Free Library, located at 77 Alden St., to help put the finishing touches on the town’s next master plan, “Envision Duxbury.” The event will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and is free and open to all.

RSVP for the forum online at envisionduxbury.mapc.org.

Envision Duxbury is a comprehensive master plan being developed to guide the future stewardship and economic development of the town, using goals and ideas generated by local community members.

Thousands of residents have offered input via survey, text message, and at public meetings since late 2017 when the project kicked off. The plan has been a collaborative effort of the Duxbury Planning Board, town Planning Director, and a group of dedicated local “Master Plan Ambassadors” have been working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in Boston. MAPC is the regional planning agency serving Duxbury and 100 other cities and towns across Greater Boston.

During the course of the Envision Duxbury process, residents of all ages, business owners, elected and appointed representatives, and others in town have had the chance to weigh in on important issues facing Duxbury, including housing, arts & culture, open space, recreation, sustainability, development, transportation, infrastructure, and zoning. This last community meeting will bring together the goals and strategies for each element of the master plan so the public can give feedback and share their priorities before the final plan is compiled and refined. Once community input is synthesized and the top priorities emerge, planners will share a final document this spring with a full draft plan expected by June.

For more information, visit envisionduxbury.mapc.org and on the “Envision Duxbury” tab on the town’s website, or by contacting MAPC Project Manager Josh Fiala at jfiala@mapc.org or 617-933-0760.

Questions or special need? Please reach out to Duxbury Town Planner Valerie Massard at massard@town.duxbury.ma.us or 781-934-1100 x5476.

Don’t miss the second event in MAPC’s MetroCommon speaker series! Join us for a riveting keynote by the transportation thinker David Zipper on the interplay between urban and transportation policy and new mobility technologies, followed by an interactive panel discussion with local transportation planners, advocates, and administrators.

David Zipper is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, where he focuses on the interplay between urban policy and new mobility technologies. David advises numerous startups and urban officials about the future of cities and mobility. His writing about urban innovation has been published in The Atlantic, WIRED, Slate, and Fast Company. Learn more on his website, www.davidzipper.com.

Registration and networking will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the speaking portion of the event will begin at 6 p.m. Light appetizers will be served.

Stay tuned — we’ll announce our panelists soon!

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/are-we-there-yet-21st-century-mobility-registration-76091067431

To preserve our communities and create opportunity for future generations, we must eliminate carbon emissions and green our cities and towns. We also must advance equity, resilience, public health, and economic growth.

How do we align those critical needs for mutual benefit? That’s the question the MAPC Clean Energy Forum will dig into on December 11. Join us!

Light breakfast and beverages will be served. Further event details to come!

Learn more about MetroCommon 2050, Greater Boston’s next regional plan: https://metrocommon.mapc.org.

We’re postponing… but! In response to the Massachusetts’s Governor’s guidance in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, we’re postponing this event. In the meantime, however, we’re still thinking about these important issues, and know you are, too. We invite you to sign up here to receive occasional emails on this and related topics. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to being in touch!

How might creative acts of remembering and imagining in public help us reframe the past and present–and see more inclusive futures?

Join the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) for a conversation that explores the power of public art to catalyze critical dialogue around public memory, representation, and belonging, and to transform public life. You’ll hear from artists, curators, and organizers who use creative strategies to reframe public memory and imagine future possibilities for more inclusive, thriving spaces and communities.

Guest Speakers:

Paul Farber – Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab and Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Public Art and Space at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design (keynote speaker and moderator)
Erin Genia (Dakota/ Odawa) – Multidisciplinary artist, educator and cultural worker specializing in Indigenous arts and culture
Kate Gilbert – Executive Director of Now + There
Stephen Hamilton – Artist and educator, based in Boston

This event is part of a series organized by the MAPC’s Arts and Culture Department and NEFA’s Public Art Department in conjunction with MAPC’s MetroCommon 2050 planning process. This unique, cross-sector initiative brings together artists and creators, planners, and policymakers to discuss the evolving relationship among public art, public memory, and public policy and to explore how artists can envision and shape more inclusive, thriving spaces and communities in Greater Boston.

We’re postponing… but! In response to the Massachusetts’s Governor’s guidance in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, we’re postponing this event. In the meantime, however, we’re still thinking about these important issues, and know you are, too. We invite you to sign up here to receive occasional emails on this and related topics. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to being in touch!

What can municipal staff working in the areas of planning, open space and recreation, and public arts do to address untold histories, engage with controversy, and leverage the power of public art and public memory in these discussions?

Join the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and New England Foundation for the Arts for a professional development workshop designed for municipal staff on new approaches to public memory and public art in Greater Boston.

In this workshop, you’ll learn about best practices for facilitating dialogue about controversial monuments and memorials in your community, and about inspiring examples of public art and public history projects that are transforming public memories of places around the country. You will also engage in small group discussions where you’ll have an opportunity to learn about lesser-known historic and cultural stories in our region and how those stories and experiences can be actively engaged in place-based planning and programming related to public art, creative placemaking/placekeeping initiatives, and more.

Facilitators and Speakers: To be announced

This event is part of a series organized by the MAPC’s Arts and Culture Department and NEFA’s Public Art Department in conjunction with MAPC’s MetroCommon 2050 planning process. This unique, cross-sector initiative brings together artists and creators, planners, and policymakers to discuss the evolving relationship among public art, public memory, and public policy and to explore how artists can envision and shape more inclusive, thriving spaces and communities in Greater Boston.

How do monuments and memorials shape our understanding of place—and what we choose to forget? And how might we reframe public memory to address the harmful legacy of colonialism in our region? This artist panel will consider how remembering and forgetting of Indigenous peoples and colonial history shaped the landscape and collective consciousness of Greater Boston—and the necessary role of Indigenous artists in shaping more just public spaces.

Reclaim? Recontextualize? Relocate? Remove? What should we do with monuments that no longer reflect our shared history and collective values (or never did to begin with)? This conversation among artists, designers, and educators will explore how creative commemoration can help us see the past and present in a new light—and chart a path toward more just futures. 

Join us for the premiere of “Living Together,” an original short film by Mariona Lloretta. It’s the stories of five Greater Boston residents, their lived experience, and their hope for the place we all call home.

We’ll hear from experts on retrofitting suburbia, get a first look at MAPC’s interactive report and website, and discuss opportunities for you to transform suburban space to meet new needs.