This holiday season, we’re highlighting local businesses as part of our #StayLocal2020 campaign. Scroll to the bottom for more information. It’s been quite the year in storytelling: here are 18 stories that inspired us and made us feel hopeful this year, and we hope they can inspire you too. Local Photographer’s Front Porch Project Leaves the Light on for Shelter Pets –

What are the places, landmarks, and memories that define your sense of community? When you think of home, do you think of the park on the corner where you and your friends hang out on weekends? The coffee shop that has the best bagels? The neighborhoods you walk through to get to work?  In 2019, the Essex County Community Foundation

By John Andrews A little outside the North Shore, we traveled to Lawrence to catch up once again with Marquis Victor of Elevated Thought (Read the amazing article by Joey Phoenix here and learn more) This time around, Marquis and the Elevated Thought team, with a huge assist from their students, created a stunning and empowering new mural on the

by Joey Phoenix Marquis Victor, the Founding Executive Director of Elevated Thought in Lawrence, is a poet, photographer, designer, educator, businessperson, and visionary.  He co-founded Elevated Thought in 2010 as a way to address social issues through art and by providing a platform for youth in underprivileged areas to have a voice – to have a way to be seen,

Art by Helen Bur and Sam Worthington at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, MA. The days are getting shorter and the crisp fall air reminds us all to get outside before the inevitable drop in temperature drives us indoors. One way that you could spend these last few warm days is to check out some of the incredible public art