MAPC
Smart Growth & Regional Collaboration
2019
Boston's Latin Quarter
Cultural District Plan
Cultural planning in Boston's Latin District builds off recent efforts to recognize Boston's Latin Quarter as a cultural district, expand investment in arts and cultural facilities and programming in Boston, and better support Boston's growing Latino population.
The Hyde Square Task Force and the City of Boston secured an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support an arts and community development project focused on strengthening Boston’s Latin Quarter as a designated cultural district. This project will fund new creative placemaking activities, outreach to community leaders and consensus building, development of a marketing strategy, and cultural district planning.
On December 13, 2019, Boston's Latin Quarter Cultural District Plan won the 2019 American Planning Association Massachusetts Chapter Social Advocacy Award.
Background
This project builds on previous work completed by the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) and the City of Boston with the goal of establishing Boston’s Latin Quarter as a vibrant center of Afro-Latin culture for Greater Boston, including the following:
- In 2016, the Boston City Council passed a resolution in April 2016 to recognize Boston’s Latin Quarter.
- HSTF recently completed an ArtPlace America grant that mobilized over 4,000 community members, 365 artists, 25 local businesses, and 48 organizations.
- HSTF owns the former Blessed Sacrament Basilica, an architectural icon in the Latin Quarter whose plaza functions as an outdoor performance space for Afro-Latin artists and events.
- After the City of Boston, in partnership with the Hyde Square Task Force, submitted an application, the MCC designated the Latin Quarter in Jamaica Plain as a state cultural district.
MAPC’s Role
MAPC’s Arts & Culture Department led the development of a cultural district plan for Boston’s Latin Quarter, working with the Boston Latin Quarter Advisory Committee (LQAC), the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), and the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC). MAPC developed a process and plan targeted toward the needs and concerns of the neighborhood, with an emphasis on inclusion, sustainability, mitigating residential and commercial displacement, and supporting greater integration of local merchants with cultural district priorities and programming.
The Plan
The final Boston's Latin Quarter Cultural District Plan was published in September 2019.
Supporting documents:
Partner Pages
QUESTIONS?
For more information about this project, please contact Annis Sengupta at [email protected] or 617-933-0774.