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By early next year, the Zeiterion will have launched our inaugural season, the culmination of a years-long effort to renew this historic, city-owned building. The $37 million project — made possible through private donations, public investments and historic tax credits — will enable the Zeiterion to remain a center of creative expression for city residents, across age, income, and cultural backgrounds, for generations to come.
This is part of a larger revitalization taking place in New Bedford, which includes plans to reopen the Star Store as an arts hub, expand the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Art Museum, and complete a Cape Verdean Cultural Center — places that help shape and celebrate local identity and bring meaning to the places we call home. Along with these projects, we are seeing new housing construction, a rethinking of State Pier, new restaurant openings, and plans for a new hotel.
Arts and culture are leading the way to new prosperity and improved quality of life for everyone in our city. For that reason, it puzzled us when the City Council voted to eliminate the Zeiterion’s support agreement completely. This financial support, which was overwhelmingly approved by this same City Council through a signed contract, is essential to our ability to operate the Zeiterion, which is also home to our long-standing resident companies, the New Bedford Festival Theatre and the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. It is an example of a public-private partnership that has proven again and again to promote economic and community vitality in cities across the country.
By zeroing out the city’s support agreement, the City Council withdrew funding not just for the Zeiterion and the improvements to the city-owned building in which it resides. It cast a shadow on the progress that has earned New Bedford a growing national and international reputation as a creative center. New Bedford is already known as one of the 10 most creative cities in the country. And just last month, the city was recognized among just 22 cities around the world for its innovative approaches to supporting creative expression.
Why is this important?
Theaters, galleries and museums not only create community vibrancy, together they are a magnet for economic development. They draw visitors who spend money, create new jobs and business opportunities for residents and lure outside investment. That in turn creates new tax revenue.
The National Endowment for the Arts found the arts and cultural industries contributed 4.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), or $1.1 trillion, to the U.S. economy in 2022. In a separate study that year, Americans for the Arts estimated that economic activity by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences supported 2.6 million jobs and generated $29.1 billion in tax revenue.
From West Oakland, California, to Richmond, Virginia, municipal leaders across the United States are using public investment in the arts to bring new life to their communities. We are seeing the results in New Bedford. With the arrival of commuter rail in March, more and more Boston-area residents are making New Bedford a rewarding day trip, where they can shop, visit a museum or gallery and get a great meal. At the Zeiterion, we provide thousands of visitors another reason to come to New Bedford.
We are approaching our role as a leading cultural institution with a new energy and a new mission that reflects New Bedford’s growing diversity. Our existing partnerships and programs have brought 70,000 patrons and 20,000 school children through our doors every year. Building on that, we will soon announce plans to engage residents throughout the city in our mission to be a place for everyone, sharing our plans and learning how we can serve the neighborhoods and the people of New Bedford better. In that way, we are committed to programming that will deepen our impact within the city of New Bedford and expand our reach beyond The Z’s traditional audiences.
We are optimistic that this budget cut will be reversed and that our work will continue uninterrupted. The city’s financial commitment to The Z is only 15% of our overall $3.2 million budget, but it certainly helps employ 338 people and is a fraction of the $10.2 million economic contribution the Zeiterion generated annually before we closed for renovation. We have every reason to expect that impact will rise significantly after our reopening.
We thank those forward-looking City Councilors who voted to maintain our support agreement and Mayor Jon Mitchell for his unyielding support. We thank our donors and volunteers whose gifts of money and time enable us to fulfill our shared vision. And we thank the people of New Bedford whose enduring support has shaped The Z for the past 100 years and whose continued involvement will carry it into a bright and thriving future.
Together, we will elevate The Zeiterion into a premier regional hub for arts entertainment and learning — a dynamic venue for performers and a cornerstone of our cultural life — helping ensure that New Bedford continues to thrive as the vibrant, creative, and prosperous city we all deserve.
Rosemary Gill is president & CEO of the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center. Frank Almeida is the chair of its board of directors.
I wouldn’t want to live in a city that doesn’t promote the Arts and the preservation of it’s Culture and History. That city would have neither heart nor soul!
Are the people of New Bedford really ready to join along with those in the past who gave up the whaler, Charles W Morgan, to Mystic ! Mystic whose forward thinking citizens built a tourist business around it ! Please consider a revote on this .
The City of New Bedford who as others have said passed not only on the Morgan… But also a Casino or two, and a massive aquarium. They turned the downtown area into a huge walking sidewalk only to dig it back up and make it into streets again. The train is 40 years too late. The City can’t get out of its own way.
Yes, reconsider! Cut night as it is called seems to be a blitz of not necessarily well thought out decisions. While there is budget vetting prior to this night, what strikes me is the lack of good questions: the legal ramifications and cost of not honoring the Z contract, the DFFM cost of only having one plumber and therefore, hiring out plumbing work at $16o an hour – why? Would ask – is this cost effective ? For ninety city owned buildings ?
The school budget cut. What would be cut ? Easy to slash a budget, the hard work of how to implement this enormous financial loss falls on the school administration.
The arts have a place in every community, but there has to be a balance, this city can no longer afford to be a city of businesses that do not pay taxes (Non Profits and State Run Agencies). The Zeiterion has received their fair share from the taxpayers of New Bedford (a free building, yearly funding, and millions of dollars to complete new building renovations) and now we can add the Star Store to the list (sold the building for one dollar and failing to recover back taxes). The vision of the current administration has failed, increasing the budget by over $300 Million Dollars, expanding city government, continuing to raise taxes, while relying on State Aid is not the answer. 100% we need new leadership in the Mayor’s office and a administration that will focus on bringing private industry into our city that will contribute to our tax base.