After 25 years leading the Somerville Arts Council, Executive Director Greg Jenkins was fired by Mayor Jake Wilson’s administration in February. The leadership change comes as part of Wilson’s government restructuring at the start of his mayoral term, but it has rattled the city’s arts community and prompted public responses from Wilson, the Arts Council board and local elected officials.
Jenkins was appointed Arts Council director in 2001 and officially left his position on March 6. The departure caught many in the Somerville arts world off guard, particularly members of the Somerville Arts Council board, who wrote an open letter to Wilson on Feb. 13 expressing concern about the timing and subsequent search for Jenkins’ replacement.
“We have heard from concerned community members in regards to this sudden leadership change, and are proactively reaching out to you as we enter the busiest arts programming season of the year,” the board wrote in the letter, noting that the seven-person Arts Council staff was “already operating above capacity.”
The board asked Wilson to commit to a “transparent, nationwide search” for the next executive director, describing the role as requiring “a rare blend of civic institutional knowledge, demonstrated ability to lead and administer art organizations, creative vision, and interpersonal skills.”
Public surprise over the change prompted Wilson to issue a public apology on Feb. 24.
“The way news of the Somerville Arts Council reorganization became public was not how I intended for it to happen,” Wilson wrote. “You deserved to hear this from me first, with full explanation, and you didn’t. I’m sorry for the alarm that caused.”
Wilson framed the move not as a retreat from the arts, but as an expansion of the city’s commitment to them. His plan calls for elevating arts to the cabinet level by creating a new Culture & Community Department to oversee arts, parks and recreation and libraries — a first for Somerville’s city government. Additionally, Wilson said the city would conduct a separate, open search for both a new director for the Arts Council and an executive director for the new Culture & Community Cabinet, with help from the Somerville Arts Council board.
“For the first time, arts and culture will have a seat at the cabinet level, the same level as Infrastructure, Public Health, and Strategic Planning,” Wilson wrote. “This isn’t symbolic. It means someone grounded in the arts is in the room when key decisions get made.”
Wilson also pledged to protect signature Somerville arts events, programs and infrastructure and shared a desire to “activate more of our public spaces, open up underused buildings, and bring more art into the streets, parks and neighborhoods where people already are.”
For Matthew Martino, a Somerville-based lighting designer and longtime community organizer who has directly worked with Jenkins, the news was unexpected but not entirely surprising.
“My initial impression was that it’s because we have a new mayor,” Martino, who has lived in Somerville for nearly 20 years, said. “When you bring in a new cabinet, you’re only sometimes keeping old cabinet members … I don’t think he should take it personally.”
Martino noted that in a recent conversation, Jenkins did not appear to be shocked by the decision to change leadership.
Wilson’s initiative has support from Somerville’s City Council, even amid Jenkins’ unexpected removal.
“While I was surprised by the staffing change, my conversations with Mayor Wilson and his public statement leave me with the impression that this administration takes the arts seriously and has heard the concerns raised by the community,” City Councilor Jon Link wrote in a statement to the Daily. Link added that he would be “pushing for continuity and support for the Somerville Arts Council through the budget.”
For Martino, the change raises deeper questions about the future of arts in a city that has grown increasingly expensive and inaccessible to younger creative artists.
“Somerville used to be a place where artists went because it was cheap to live,” he said. “And what did they do? They started street festivals and did shows in Somerville, and then it became the hipster place, and now all the yuppies want to live there. … Now we can’t afford to live there.”
Martino said the Arts Council meetings he attends skew older, which he believes is a sign that the pipeline of new artists is quietly drying up.
“If we don’t get new artists, all these old artists are going to retire someday,” Martino said. “There’s not going to be another generation to do it.”
Leadership searches for an Arts Council director and the new Culture & Community Cabinet executive director are ongoing, and the Arts Council board has signaled it intends to stay closely involved.
Martino emphasized the evolving nature of Wilson’s restructuring plan. “I voted for him, so I’m trying not to be cynical about it,” Martino said. “It’s a wait and see.”
