Episode 1: Tessa Kelly - The Mastheads
Episode host Sam Bonney is a senior at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. In this episode of Thinking Like a Region, Sam interviews Tessa Kelly, co-founder and design director of The Mastheads, an experimental writers’ residency and public humanities project based in Pittsfield, MA. Kelly highlights her journey in setting up The Mastheads program and how it has shaped her understanding of the arts and the skills and practices.
In Kelly’s words, “What I find really amazing about The Mastheads is that we continue to find ways to, through inviting everyday people, to find and share their creative voice as a way to reflect on where we live, and that we continue to find new opportunities to shape and improve our public spaces.” This episode focuses on the creative capacities of active listening, the ways ideas are combined with other goals, embracing and responding to multiple voices, and translating ideas into actions. Listen in to learn what it means to be an arts program that serves a region.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Thinking Like A Region is a production of the C4 Initiative, Berkshire County’s Creative Compact for Collaborative and Collective Impact, based at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA and grant-funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. This podcast is produced by Lisa Donovan and Leslie Appleget. Technical podcast support by Audrey Perdue.
For more information about the show or the C4 Initiative, visit brainworks.mcla.edu/c4.
Tessa Kelly is the co-founder and design director of The Mastheads in her hometown of Pittsfield, MA. She received her B.A. in art history from Williams College and her M.Arch from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Kelly created The Mastheads alongside her husband and co-founder, Chris Parkinson, with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Housatonic Heritage.
Sam Bonney is a senior at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA. Bonney is majoring in arts management. His passions are literature, history, and learning.
