Covid Era
As many nonprofit administrators say, “We Wear Many Hats.” But as everyone knows, when the covid closures around the world were taking place in March of 2020, no would could have predicted the effects that it would have on our communities. Once I was back on the scene of MMA, nonprofit'-creative-problem-solving had escalated to levels no one could have predicted.
Instead of leaning into virtual programming, MMA’s ways of engaging with our community members took a ‘at home’ approach. Working with artists, I put together media-specific at home kits. ‘Low pressure art making at your kitchen table,’ this allowed families to create artwork together, gave space for folks to take a break from baking sour dough bread, and participate in being creative.
Beyond our programs coming to a screeching halt, our agency actually closed the studios down and revamped our building to be an emergency remote learning center; where students from all over Cambridge who did not have a space to be in (or have supervision during the day), would be scheduled to have their ‘remote school days’ with our agency (talk about a pivot)!
Post our, ‘out of the box’ era (and schools reopening), programming slowly bounced back in-person with many new rules of space, masks, and excessive hand washing. In 2023 we can now stand back and see how far we’ve come from March of 2020.
