Arsenal Center for the Arts
Head to the Arsenal Center for the Arts for outdoor arts, music and more.
The Arsenal Center For The Arts will host its annual spring benefit on May 19, 2015 honoring Watertown arts activist and Arsenal Center founding member Roberta Miller with this year’s Charles Mosesian award for Support of the Arts.
Fiesta for the Arts begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19 and features Flamenco Dance Project with dancers Sabrina Aviles, Yosi Karahashi, and Ian Hoover, with Juanito Pascual on guitar and Tania Mesa on violin. An open-air reception begins the festivities with Spanish tapas. After the award ceremony and dance performance in the Mosesian Theater, scrumptious desserts donated by local bakeries will be served.
Each year, the Arsenal Center honors an individual or organization that shares the late Charles Mosesian’s commitment to his community. The late Charles Mosesian’s remarkable $1 million gift played a pivotal role in launching the Arsenal Center’s building campaign, and his leadership inspired others to lend their support to create what is now a flourishing arts center. The 380-seat theatre, named in his honor, offers nearly two hundred performances annually in a variety of genres.
Roberta Miller will be honored for her longstanding commitment to Watertown and the Arsenal Center for the Arts. As a former elected Town Councilor, her expertise in organizational development led to her public appointment to the redevelopment authority, which transformed the former U.S. Army superfund site to a commercial and public resource for Watertown and Greater Boston. Miller served as a founding board member and co-chair of the six million dollar capital campaign that established the Arsenal Center for the Arts, and as former board President of the Watertown Community Foundation. Miller is currently supporting early stage start up companies, fostering local initiatives and innovation strategies in her work at The Arsenal Project.
Proceeds from the evening directly support the Arsenal Center For The Arts and its programs. Tickets are $75 and may be purchased at www.arsenalarts.org or by calling the box office at 617-923-8487.
To Kristin (Ciccarelli) Augusta,
Thank you, for sharing this article with me.
As you know, your Dad, Salvatore Ciccarelli, was a significant member of the Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation , and most certainly of Watertown’s Center for the Arts. I am grateful for all the help he gave me throughout the years, particularly when I went to him, in 1975, to request his help to incorporate the fledgling art center into the “Watertown Center for the Arts,” and to create its ByLaws; and he generously gave of his time and expertise. We remained steadfast through the thirty-year process, while our predictions of a more favorable economy, and availability of Phase 2 of the Watertown Arsenal played out. Watertown’ s Center for the Arts is now up and running, as a successful multi-use arts facility Arsenal Center for the Arts doors opened in September, of 2005. It continues to be a valuable resource to Watertown, and its surrounding communities. The Center and it’s programs are truly a Legacy, to be inherited by generations to come. It is everything we envisioned, and more. A Legacy created by hundreds of dedicated board & committee members, volunteers, donors artists and performers, who generously gave of their time and resources from its early beginnings in 1974. Particularly remembered are those, who are now deceased. As the original founder and first president, it is my intention to never forget about them, nor their quest to create an extraordinary multi-use arts facility at the Watertown Arsenal. Bravo!
Elaine Victoria Grey
Congratulations Roberta. I am happy that you are being recognized and honored for your contributions.
The Published Back Story by Elaine Grey for A Theatre History Project, Harvard University Summer Program, 2005
“A Center for the Arts in Watertown : Thirty Years in the Making” is available upon request.”
evgrey@aol.com