By Michelle Xiarhos Curran
ECCF COMMUNICATIONS WRITER
When he joined the Essex County Community Foundation Creative County ChangeMakers program in March, Gloucester resident Sal Zerelli remembers looking around the room of creative people – actors, writers, painters and musicians – and being filled with self-doubt.
I’m not an artist, he remembers thinking.
But when it was his turn to speak at the ChangeMakers graduation ceremony on October 25, Zerilli – a social psychologist, innovator and founder of the micro-granting organization, Awesome Gloucester – stepped onto the small stage at El Taller in Lawrence and told a different story.
“Art is a division of inspired labor,” he said to his fellow 2024 graduates. “We are interdependent. We rely on one another, and we have to trust one another. Courage, for me, is rooted in the collective and you have really done an amazing job enabling me to feel brave.”
Zerilli is a member of the fourth cohort of ChangeMakers, the annual, eight-month-long immersive leadership support program that is empowering creative leaders across the region to build and grow a more inclusive and sustainable arts and culture ecosystem in Essex County. Since 2021, ECCF has graduated nearly 50 ChangeMakers across the region.
Participants in the program meet monthly and take part in facilitated and project-based learning, peer networking and leadership trainings. Perhaps the most impactful outcomes of the program – which participants describe as inspirational, energizing and transformative – are the long-term relationships that develop and are expanding the way people work together across the region. These bonds and trusted relationships help lay the foundation for the systems change work that ECCF so strongly believes in.
“The only way to do systems change is through people,” said ECCF President and CEO Stratton Lloyd. “Bringing people together, building that collaborative muscle is how we build sustainability, not only in arts and culture, but for every opportunity that arises and for every challenge we face.”
ChangeMakers participants described how much the group has meant to them.
“I love the community that we started, and I want to invest in it all,” 2024 ChangeMakers graduate Jennifer Houle told fellow graduates. “I want to keep the conversations going.”
“Having this incredible network to lean on is the thing that gets me through every else,” said Erin Padilla, the director of Creative Haverhill and a member of the 2023 ChangeMakers cohort, who was on hand at El Taller to celebrate this year’s graduates.
In addition to networking and training, each ChangeMakers participant also receives a small grant in support of a community-based, arts or cultural project, one that they workshopped and incubated as part of the program.
Zerilli used his ChangeMakers grant to expand Awesome Gloucester’s public mural project, in particular the “Ship in Fog” mural on the side of the old Empire Fish building in downtown Gloucester, a replica of the famous Fitz Henry Lane painting. Additional ChangeMakers projects range from animal activism to free live theater.
The graduation on October 25 gave each participant the chance to talk about their community projects and their overall experience as part of the program. The 2024 ChangeMakers graduates include:
MICHAEL BASTIEN, founder, Bastien Media Group; founder, Brothers in Arms, Inc., a community-based support group for men, Lawrence.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Brothers in Arms Fathers Relief Fund offering financial support, financial literacy workshops and resource management.
LOIDA LOVE DOMINGUEZ, singer-songwriter and founder, InPower Love Coaching, which helps to empower women, Methuen.
ChangeMakers Community Project: A Voice for Animals: vegan activism
NOAH GREENSTEIN, actor, director and theatre arts teacher, Urban Bridges, Inc., a nonprofit that empowers women and youth through a variety of services, Haverhill.
ChangeMakers Community Project: An original play about the challenges faced by people with disabilities.
SUNIL GULAB, visual artist and founder, Lynn Summer Arts Festival.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Breaking Silos by Breaking Bread: a community-wide mobile pizza party that brings people together.
JENN HOULE, visual artist specializing in public art focused on the environment, Merrimac.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Plant, Paint, Cross-Pollinate: a public art mural project that inspires a cultural shift towards restorative land use.
HAILEY MOSCHELLA, co-head of school, Wisteria Montessori School; director, Haverhill Art Walk, Haverhill.
ChangeMakers Community Project: A Love Letter to Haverhill – a community compilation of memories and reflections.
CRISTIAN RECINOS, director, United Lynn Pride and Lynn Cultural Council.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Rainbow Relief Fund: an emergency needs fund for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the city of Lynn.
EDWARD SPECK, actor, director and artistic director, Theater in the Open, Newburyport.
Community ChangeMakers Project: Free public theater at local public libraries with free transportation.
JEFF SURETTE, vice president, Danvers Art Association; art teacher, Danvers High School.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Day of the Dead Community Art Exhibit & Family Fun Day.
ANNETTE SYKES, visual artist and director, Gallery at LynnArts, Lynn.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Paint by the Ocean painting group.
SAL ZERILLI, filmmaker, sociologist and founder, Awesome Gloucester and Awesome Rockport.
ChangeMakers Community Project: Public Art: Ship in Fog mural
The ChangeMakers program is facilitated by Karen Ristuben, ECCF’s Creative County program director; Lisa Miller-Gillespie, director of the Lawrence Festival of the Arts, former ChangeMaker graduate and member of the Creative County steering committee; and consultant Danielle Coates-Connor, who also serves on the steering committee.
“When you get together with a group of like-minded people who are working to change the society that they’re living in, to bring more beauty, to change some of the systems, how things are done, it is so powerful because you are not alone,” Miller-Gillespie said at the graduation.
“The relationships that are shared in this room are the currency that adds value to the whole community,” added Coates-Connor.
ECCF and Creative County are currently recruiting for the next ChangeMakers cohort, which will start in March 2025. If you are interested in being considered for participation, please reach out to Karen Ristuben at k.ristuben@eccf.org.
“We’re excited to continue to expand this countywide group of creatives working together to build the arts and culture ecosystem that Essex County deserves,” said Ristuben. “The ChangeMakers program is a critical part of our plan to ensure that this work is strong and sustainable.”
