Marshall Strauss and Elaine Gerdine have bought Cinema|Salem from Paul Van Ness, and the couple aims to reopen the much-loved independent theater later this spring. To bring their ideas into action in a way that will serve the community, the couple has hired small management team — which includes John Andrews of Creative Collective — to help expand its cultural and artistic presence in the region.

The Love Letters to… Campaign was an initiative that supported small businesses, makers, artisans, and performers! We created the Love Letters to…. campaign in the spirit of the month of February and the need to thank everyone who has been working so hard to keep us fed, clothed, and inspired throughout the challenges of the winter.

Salem Main Streets and Creative Collective, in partnership with the City of Salem, created the new Salem Winterlude Initiative in December 2020, bringing light and creativity to downtown Salem during the 2020/2021 winter.

In partnership with Destination Salem, Creative Collective helped to create the Salem Together Safety Pledge Toolkit. The Pledge was a response to the need for health and safety to be at the forefront of the communications and strategies that the City of Salem needed to put in place to respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The city of Salem dedicated and named Charlotte Forten Park at 289 Derby St. in Salem, MA on September 20, 2019. The park has been under development for two years, the result of long placemaking discussions between the City of Salem, Salem Main Streets, the Salem Public Space Making Project – led by Claudia Paraschiv, Creative Collective, and other city leaders and officials.

The City of Peabody engaged with Creative Collective and our Marketplace division to expand the scope and quality of the annual Peabody International Festival. With over 50,000 people in attendance for the one-day festival, Creative Collective was tasked with expanding the market and ensuring a more diverse selection of artisan vendors to reflect the diversity in the community food vendors that are typically the highlight of the festival!

Beyond Walls partners with local organizations, municipalities, community members and expert consultants to design, produce and manage projects and programs that infuse public art and creative experiences into underutilized or overlooked spaces.

At the 2018 Peabody Essex Museum Block party Creative Collective was in charge of managing a street fair as part of this annual celebration. Over 30 artists, crafters, makers and creatives set up on the Peabody Essex Museum campus giving our members and other vendors a very unique experience and opportunity!

Our membership with the Collective has helped us with classic events like Taste of The Gables, but has also supported us with making new community connections such as the seaside yoga events with Rebel Yell Yoga. The Gables also hired the Collective as consultants to support our first-ever Gables Fest event. Without Creative Collective, we never would have been able to make connections with the unique talents that made the celebration a success. -Julie Arrison Bishop – House of the Seven Gables