Arts & Culture
Meet the Newest Member of Barr's Arts Team

Last month, Barr welcomed Jaime Cortez as our new program officer for Arts & Culture.  In a recent conversation with San San Wong, Jaime shares how his past experience as a grantmaker, educator, artist, and activist brings a unique perspective to his new role at Barr. 

“How New Audiences Came Through our Doors”

The leaders of two Boston-based theaters and members of the Barr-Klarman Arts Capacity Building Initiative - Lyric Stage and Huntington Theatre Company - share what they’ve learned from successful efforts to diversify audiences.  Read more. 

Climate
Lifting Economies and Lowering Emissions

A $1.3-billion boost to their economies. 14,000 new jobs. $460 million in savings from lower electricity and heating bills.  According to a new report, these are among the benefits enjoyed by the nine Northeast states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  Mariella Puerto discusses these and other key findings. Read more. 

Pope Rallies Mayors to Lead on Climate Change

Leadership on climate at the city level has never been more critical.  Julia Partin, director of Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance shares how Pope Francis gathered leaders from cities that are already taking up the challenge.  Read more.

Education
What it Takes to Bring Good Ideas to Scale

The Summer Learning Project recently helped 6,500 Boston children return to school ready and motivated to learn, nearly doubling last year’s reach – and an impressive milestone for this six year old effort.  Chris Smith of Boston After School & Beyond reflects on lessons learned along the way.  Read more.

About the Foundation
Announcing $6.5 Million in New Grants

At their September 2015 board meeting, Barr’s trustees approved 16 grants totaling $6.5 million.  We invite you to read more about a few we feature this quarter, and to explore all of the grants via Barr’s online grants database.

Barr Welcomes New Program Assistants

Cindy Lung joined Barr’s Education team in August following her international experiences in research and teaching. In her new role Cindy provides programmatic support to the Education team, including for grants management and strategic planning.

Alexandra Juckno joined Barr as the Arts & Culture program assistant in April, but we are happy to formally welcome her here. And we have already been enjoying her contributions to Barr's blog with her posts, Why Art Should Imitate the New America and How to Keep Audience Next From Clicking Unsubscribe.