Essex County arts

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May 22, 2026
Featured image for “The Radical Power of Gathering”
Creative Advocacy Series

The Radical Power of Gathering

by John Andrews
Why simply Showing Up Is The Best Thing We Can Do The average American now spends 35 minutes a day socializing in person. Not 35 minutes with friends, specifically — 35 minutes with another human being, in a shared room, breathing the same air. That number is down from 38 minutes in 2019, and it never recovered after the pandemic
May 22, 2026
February 13, 2026
Featured image for “She Went to Rome Anyway: Edmonia Lewis, Creative Noncompliance, and Why the Room Matters”
Black History Month
Creative Collective Member Events

She Went to Rome Anyway: Edmonia Lewis, Creative Noncompliance, and Why the Room Matters

by John Andrews
By John Andrews | Content Director, Creative Collective | February 2026 On Wednesday night, a group of us stood inside something historic. The Peabody Essex Museum opened its doors for a press and influencer preview of Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone — the first major retrospective devoted to a nineteenth-century sculptor who was told, in every way a society can tell someone, that
February 13, 2026