莱镇人文第十一期：Cristina Burwell Executive Director， MCA

Munroe Center for the Arts

Volunteers

As someone who is passionate about arts and community service, Cristina Burwell is a familiar name in Lexington, especially in the community arts circle. Since taking the role of the Executive Director of the Munroe Center for the Arts in 2016, Cristina has devoted herself to the mission statement of this renown art center – to build the center as “a vibrant hub for arts education, a welcoming home for artists, a catalyst for community arts events, and a destination for art enthusiasts.

The MCA currently houses four performing and visual arts schools, ten artist’s studios, and a small gallery. It employs more than forty teachers and staff to provide year-long art programming and experiences in music, drama, dance, theater, and visual arts for more than a thousand students of all ages, with the support from volunteers.

Cristina grew up in the outskirts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There was a gurgling stream and a quiet pond on the four acres of land owned by her family. On summer nights, the grass was covered with sparkling fireflies. It's like being enchanted. As the only child in the family, Cristina had a lot of time by herself. Her parents encouraged her to explore and be creative. Her mother who had traveled around the world, often would take her to visit the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, where they lingered at the American Art Gallery and the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. Outdoor activities and arts have become Cristina's favorite ways to spend her time. She continued to paint and handcrafted various artworks. When graduating from high school, her art portfolio won the "Golden Key Award" and a scholarship to college. This has officially launched her to embarked on the road of arts.

Cristina specialized in Industrial Design at college, and then received a Master's degree in Ergonomics and Biomechanics. She worked as a lecturer at Boston University and as a human factors engineer for GTE. In 1996, she moved to Lexington with her husband and raised two intelligent and curious children. She has been a full-time mother for 16 years and has always been passionate about art and community service. Whether it’s the Big Backyard program that leads children to learn about nature at elementary school, or as the leader of Girl Scouts, or the 300th Anniversary Ceremony of Lexington Town, she is the most active and creative volunteer in the school and community. In the icy New England winter, Cristina opened her home to a dozen children in the neighborhood, turning her basement into a paradise for children to make handmade art. In order to cultivate children's love for others and the world, she launched the annual neighborhood kids charity fair to let children learn about organizations that need help, from local farms to foundations for protecting marine life or an NGO that supports girls’ education all over the world. The children write up the introduction and designed fundraising posters. In the cold wind, they gathered relatives, friends, and neighbors to make donations in their self-made fundraising boxes, and sent the funds to the organization afterward.

In 2016, Cristina came off the chairperson role of the Lexington Council for the Arts, where she had volunteered for many years, and officially took the role of the Executive Director of the Munroe Center for the Arts.

The Munroe Center for the Arts is located at the center of Lexington in a building originally built as an elementary school in 1904. In the early 1980s, Lexington had its first-class primary and secondary schools and outstanding professionals in many fields, but no art center at that time, while several neighboring towns, such as Belmont, Bedford, Concord, and Arlington, all had their own art center. In 1987, several artists persuaded the town government to lease the building and turn it into an art center that provides art education and experience for the community. In 1996, it further evolved into the "Friends of Lexington Art", dba "Munroe Center for the Arts". Its board of directors has a surprising history of diverse talents. Cristina found from the minutes of the board meeting that the first president of the Munroe Board of Directors was the designated painter to paint portraits for President Bush; the second president was a well-known architect who also served on the town’s historical society.

At present, the building of the MCA has four performance and visual arts schools, ten artist’s studios, and a small gallery. It employs more than forty teachers and staff, plus more than forty volunteers, each year. It provides courses and experiences for more than a thousand students of different ages in music, dance, drama, and visual arts throughout the year. Some teachers have been teaching classes here for nearly 40 years, sometimes across families of several generations. In 2020, despite the COVID-19, the MCA also organized six performances, three art exhibitions, a unique in-person summer camp, plus many public community art activities, most of which are free. The annual Patriots’ Day parade, ArtWalk, and other art activities of community institutions will not be complete without the participation of the Munroe Center for the Arts. While providing a space for art education and activities for the residents of the town, the MCA also adds a unique value and charm to this historic town. It has become an important part of the local high-quality education, which attracts people to move to this town. Looking from any angle, the Munroe Center for the Arts seems to have lived up to its mission statement to be “a vibrant hub for arts education, a welcoming home for artists, a catalyst for community arts events, and a destination for art enthusiasts."

Since taking office, Cristina has completed several key infrastructure constructions for this old building. Riding on the momentum of the newly renovated parking lot in 2016 and the new roof in 2017, Cristina led such energy-efficient projects as updating the old circuit system and the installation of insulation in the attic in 2018. The huge window restoration project in 2020 has saved the art center. The teachers, staff, and students don’t have to wear gloves to work and paint in Munroe’s classroom in winter anymore! All these infrastructure projects have laid a solid foundation for Munroe’s steady and sustainable development in the future. This old building has finally been given a new look, providing a safe and comfortable art haven for more than 1,000 teachers and students of different ages, backgrounds, and abilities who come to this building every year.

“I don't do art work now. I'm doing spreadsheets instead,” said Cristina with a laugh. “I'm figuring out how to best create a welcoming environment where children can learn and coming up with creative solutions. I think that the creativity associated with art work set me up well.”

For Cristina, art makes everything better. "If we say what is the most important thing in life? Then it must be truth and beauty," Cristina said seriously. "Beauty gives people hope. We need hope in our lives. No matter where and when we are, we can get an opportunity to experience beauty and hope through experiencing art. Those kinds of feelings and experiences in your life are nurturing on a spiritual level as well as a health level."      

The diverse art courses and activities designed by the Munroe Center embody this idea of letting people create art by hand. Any seemingly mundane object in daily life can become works of art! In order to promote public art in the community under the shadow of the pandemic, Cristina and Munroe’s teachers came up with countless ideas, some of which were full of wisdom and humor, and some were a voice for social justice and environmental protection. For example, when summer is approaching, one of Munroe’s ideas is to let residents come to the art center to pick up plain plastic slippers. After they are brought home for decoration, they will be returned before the deadline. Munroe will select and coordinate with various stores at the town center to display them at their window front. This event not only broadened the creativity and platform for each participant but also brought more customers and businesses to the town’s businesses. The endless creativity of public art closely integrates community and art. Residents turn ordinary fence posts, wooden blocks, gates, recyclables, etc. into works of art, which spread across the beautiful town.

"So often I have seen how the arts have brought joy to people," Cristina said, "the Saturday dance class of bouncing feet in the sunshine, or looking at a collection of exuberant artwork on display, for example.  Sometimes it is unexpected, like the colorful public artwork that has been displayed downtown this winter, or finding music along the bike path."

Cristina also emphasized the importance of art to people’s mental health. She said, “I have repeatedly seen where the arts are just a means for personal well-being too.  Sometimes people take a class because they enjoy the exchange with other students;  they enjoy doing something fun like dancing or drawing, and making friends, or casually testing out new ideas while the focus isn’t on the speaker but the art.  The arts center is also a safe place where people can explore, and express themselves in different ways."

The slogan "Art makes everything better" also includes advocacy for social justice or social change. During the school’s April vacation, as part of an environmental awareness project, the Munroe Center collaborated with the newly established LexZeroWaste, https://www.lexzerowaste.org/ to invite students of all ages to create works on the lawn at the front door of Munroe. A large sculpture teaches everyone that many items cannot be recycled, such as paper coffee cups, paper beverage cans, plastic straws, black plastic food boxes, etc., which can only be incinerated or landfilled. Munroe's performing arts series often invite artists from different cultures. Chinese Peking Opera, Indian dance, Native American heritage, and other rich cultures have all had their special performances on the stage of "Munroe Saturday Night".