Arts and culture do so many powerful things for our communities.
“First and foremost, arts and culture bring people together, particularly during times of uncertainty in the world,” said Karen Ristuben, program director for Creative County, Essex County Community Foundation’s arts and culture initiative. “They inspire us and give us hope as they play a critical role in fostering healthy communities and robust local economies.”
“Arts and culture contribute immensely to the prosperity and resiliency of our cities and towns,” she added.
That’s why ECCF is committed to ensuring that arts and culture thrive here in Essex County. To support that commitment, in 2021, ECCF launched Creative County ChangeMakers, an immersive leadership support program that is empowering creative leaders to work together to build a more inclusive and sustainable arts and culture ecosystem across the region.
In four years, ECCF has graduated 44 artists, educators, creative business owners, nonprofit leaders, community organizers and others from the program. And they each have gone on to elevate arts and culture in innovative ways: public murals, new community and cultural festivals, and the activation of spaces that expand access to the arts, just to name a few.
Today, ECCF is proud to announce the next cohort of Creative County ChangeMakers, who will begin the eight-month program in March.
“Each member of this incredible group of creative leaders is already doing amazing things in their own communities,” said Ristuben. “We can’t wait to see how their work grows, evolves and takes shape when they begin to connect and grow that collaborative muscle over the course of their ChangeMaker journey.”
The 2025 ECCF Creative County ChangeMakers are:
• Angelina Benitez | Lynnfield, Ipswich | Lead Nurturer, High Street Studios & Dance Complex/The Click
• Tori Darnell | Saugus | Co-Chair, Saugus Cultural Council
• Catherine DeBrocke | Amesbury | K-8 Arts Integration Specialist, River Valley Charter School
• Kat Everett | Haverhill | Founder/Director, Coco Brown; Haverhill City Councilor
• Dariana Guerrero | Lawrence | Development Manager, Groundwork Lawrence; activist
• Aysim Hakioglu | Merrimack | Lecturer, Northeastern University, artist
• Kimberly LaCroix | Rowley | V.P., History Alive, Inc., theatre professor, Gordon College
• Caitlin Little | Haverhill | Director of Community Engagement, Arts in Reach
• Yaira Matos | Salem | artist, community activist
• Nicole McLain | Lynn | Founder, North Shore Juneteenth; Lynn City Councilor
• KD Montgomery | Essex, Gloucester | Executive Director, Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum
• Wanda Santos | Lawrence | Founder, Roses of Renewal, V.P., Waystone Health & Human Services
Ristuben leads the ChangeMakers program with Lisa Miller-Gillespie, a 2021 ChangeMaker graduate and executive director of the Greater Lawrence Fellowship of the Arts, and communications consultant Danielle Coates-Connor. From March through October, this group of activists, artists, nonprofit and community leaders, educators and small business owners will be immersed in facilitated and project-based learning, peer networking and leadership trainings.
Each participant also receives a ChangeMaker grant to seed a community-based public arts project.
“The grants are modest, but it’s been incredible to watch how the ChangeMakers leverage the funding to grow some incredible ideas,” said Ristuben.
At the end of the eight-month program, these leaders from across Essex County are connected in ways that they weren’t before. These new connections lead to partnerships, collaborations, idea-sharing and a stronger support system for the regional arts and culture sector.
“The relationships our ChangeMakers develop over the course of the program last far beyond the graduation ceremony in October,” said Ristuben. “And that’s the whole point. This is a growing group of creative leaders who lean on each other for advice, share resources and ideas and think about their work as part of a larger ecosystem.”
