Barr Foundation

As cities try to balance the competing demands of maritime industrial uses, urban development, and public access along the waterfront, Designated Port Areas can spark meaningful conversations within coastal communities. Read more about a new report from the #WaterfrontInitiative, led by Jill Valdés Horwood.

After 11 years, Jim Canales will step down from his position as Barr Foundation's President. He has led the organization through a decade of extraordinary growth and driven us to be more steadfast in our values. By the end of 2025, Canales will succeed Barr's Co-Founder Barbara Hostetter as Board Chair, and step into a full-time role with Pilot House Associates, the Hostetter family office. Learn more about this transition on our website: https://lnkd.in/e_BNXudZ

Over half of Boston’s renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The newly launched Boston Acquisition Fund takes aim at this affordability crisis by offering low-interest loans to new, local, and diverse developers who will purchase properties that might have otherwise ended up on the speculative market. In the first five years, the fund is projected to prevent the displacement of over 1,500 residents. Barr supports the fund as part of the Racial Wealth Equity Initiative, led by Lisette Le. “Through this work, we’re recirculating rather than siphoning wealth. We’re promoting the conditions Boston’s residents need to thrive.” 

Smart Growth America and Transportation For Massachusetts are training elected officials across Massachusetts to better advocate for safer, more complete streets in their communities. “Local elected leaders can have enormous impact on how we use our streets—making them safer, more accessible, and even fun, especially when moving on foot, on transit, or bike or scooter,” said Lisa Jacobson, Senior Program Officer for Mobility.

Happy New Year! We're grateful to have much to celebrate from 2024, and much to do in 2025.

In Ashfield, Double Edge Theatre is finding creative solutions to the challenges facing their rural community. They're working with residents, businesses, and elected officials to provide eco-friendly housing, build community spaces, and renovate old buildings into new, affordable apartments.

In their latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Stefan Lanfer and Jim Canales ask, "How can we use communications to make a vision of a hopeful future seem possible, achievable, and worth the fight?"

The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center is undergoing twin renovations—one to their 1923-era performance space, and the other to their approach to equity. “When I think about the work we're doing right now, it’s from the inside out. We're not going to fulfill our commitment to New Bedford without changing from within," says Rosemary Gill, the Z's President and CEO. In 2025, the Z will reopen as an organization that strives to forge deeper bonds with its community, dreams bigger through its programming, and tackles the messy steps toward structural change with grace.

Starting in January, all of Boston school-aged children in grades Pre-K-12 will be able to visit some of the city's most beloved cultural institutions for free on specific dates. This expansion of the successful "BPS Sundays" pilot program adds new museums like the Museum of African American History, and includes students who are homeschooled or attend independent schools. Since the pilot began, more than 44,000 students and families visited, half for the first time. The program will run through 2026, with an eye toward future growth to support a stronger, more inclusive arts and culture sector in Boston.