The Massachusetts Cultural Council announced this week that Team Haverhill has been selected to receive a Commonwealth Award in the category of Creative Community. According to Council Director Anita Walker, the award is being given for Team Haverhill's extraordinary efforts to make Haverhill a better place to live, work, and visit. 

 

We are most grateful to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for this extraordinary and unexpected honor, and for the confidence they have expressed in our projects over the years. And we thank the Haverhill Cultural Council, and its chair David Zoffoli, for working so closely with us to build arts and culture in our city.

 

Team Haverhill also thanks  the hundreds of Haverhill residents, business people, nonprofit leaders and public officials who have participated in a project or attended our annual Possible Dreams community event (next cheduled for January 31, 2011). You all have a share in this award. And a huge thanks to the volunteers who participate regularly as Team Haverhill members, officers, and project leaders, dedicating themselves to turn dreams into realities for our whole Haverhill community.

 

Presented every two years, the Commonwealth Awards shine a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions that arts and culture make to education, economic vitality, and the quality of life in Massachusetts. 

 

Past Commonwealth Award winners include leading artists, writers, and scholars such as Yo-Yo Ma and David McCullough; world-class institutions including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Huntington Theatre, and the Peabody Essex Museum; and social innovators like the Boston Cyberarts Festival and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation.

 

The 2011 Commonwealth Awards ceremony is at the State House in Boston on February 9.  Leaders from nonprofit cultural organizations, schools, and communities across the state will gather and celebrate awards in Leadership, Creative Community, Achievement, Cultural Philanthropy, and Creative Learning. A new award for Culture & Healing will recognize the increasingly important role of arts, humanities, and sciences play in healthcare. 

Boston native John Slattery-an accomplished stage and screen actor and a star of the critically acclaimed TV show "Mad Men" will deliver the keynote address.  Leaders of the state Legislature will be on hand to present the Awards; Representative Brian Dempsey was asked to present our award.  

The Awards ceremony is a chance for our cultural sector to come together, assert its value, and make the case for public investment in its work.