Help Save the Munroe Center for the Arts!
Why Keep the Munroe Center for the Arts?
A: Absolutely, but so are its children. The Munroe Center serves more children than any other age bracket of the Lexington community. It has become a de facto community center for children ages 3 through 13, as well as a large number of teenagers. So why increase services to one segment of our town at the expense of removing services to another equally important segment?
A: The town is composed of its citizens who have a right to determine how their tax dollars are used. These buildings are their buildings, and they vote with their feet with respect to the use of each building. The Munroe Center has approximately 2,000 people a week pass through its doors. It provides a service unique not only to the town, but important as well to the surrounding communities.
A: Absolutely not. The town rejected the MCA building in 2001 when it last considered sites for a new Senior Center. The Munroe Center site was found to have insufficient parking space, no handicapped access, insufficient square footage, and insurmountable traffic problems, and it was determined that it was a building that did not fulfill the requirements for a new Senior Center. To use this site would mean not only eliminating the Munroe Center for the Arts, but also removing a local playground and a playing field.
In addition, the Siting Committee was charged only with reconsidering the 11 sites it had previously considered (and rejected); it was not asked to discover new sites, nor was it asked to consider the implications of removing the existing organizations from the building.
A: Since its inception almost twelve years ago, the Munroe Center for the Arts has repeatedly tried to negotiate a lease with the town, but the town representatives have remained unresponsive. During these twelve years, the Munroe Center for the Arts has spent approximately $20,000 per year on maintenance for the building and the surrounding land. It has done so as a good faith gesture, even though it has no lease with the town, and can be ejected at a moment’s notice. The town has not contributed any of its resources.
A: The Middlesex County Hospital site is a long distance away from the center of town (off Trapelo Road, east of Lexington Street), in an inconvenient location. The concept of a community arts center that is within walking distance of the center of town, and which is easily accessible to children and parents, would no longer be applicable. It is also unlikely that many of the schools within the MCA would be able to relocate to this new venue, so the whole idea of a multiple arts center would also disappear. In effect, moving the Munroe Center for the Arts would be tantamount to destroying it.
A: Participation in the arts is a uniquely effective route to personal growth, social connection and community enhancement. An arts education provides a way to develop the individual’s capacity for creativity, project planning and completion, and self-expression.
The widely diverse arts taught and practiced at the Munroe Center give participants a vehicle to express their vision of the world. It offers insights and new perspectives for both the artist and the community, and it enriches the well-being of both.
For some children, especially those with learning challenges, artistic expression is the only way that they can feel competent and self-assured. New research on brain development supports the importance of the arts in keeping our minds and bodies healthy.
A: Almost every town in the surrounding area has an arts center: Emerson Umbrella in Concord, Arlington Center for the Arts, the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, New Arts Center in Newton, Bedford Center for the Arts, and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln. An arts center is one of the institutions that indicates the quality of life in a particular town, and enhances its cultural richness. Arts centers make a town more attractive to prospective residents, and create a more stimulating and educational environment for those who live there.
Seen in this light, an arts center not only improves land value and the tax base, but also enhances the quality of life for all Lexington residents.