Cecilia Méndez-Ortiz chosen for Kennedy Center Next 50

Celina Colby

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Boston-based artist and Massachusetts College of Art and Design administrator Cecilia (Ceci) Méndez-Ortiz has been selected as a Kennedy Center Next 50 awardee. Méndez-Ortiz is the executive director of MassArt’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships and co-director of the Radical Imagination for Racial Justice re-granting program. She is one of just two Massachusetts artists chosen for the award, joined by violinist and disability advocate Adrian Anantawan.

The Next 50 initiative celebrates artists and changemakers in honor of the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary. The 50 honorees were selected from crowd-sourced nominations made by cultural leaders and community members. Méndez-Ortiz’s work at MassArt includes “sparc! The ArtMobile,” a traveling arts van that brings workshops, paint nights and artistic partnerships into underserved areas of the community. Roxbury’s Ekua Holmes currently runs the program, which recently celebrated 10 years bringing art accessibility to Boston.

Méndez-Ortiz’s work at MassArt includes “sparc! The ArtMobile,” a traveling arts van that brings workshops, paint nights and artistic partnerships into underserved areas of the community. Design by Super Sobek and Apeks. PHOTO: Courtesy of MassArt Center for Art and Community Partnerships.

“Our work really is about offering radical access to transformative and creative experiences, and we do this in so many different ways,” says Méndez-Ortiz. “Ultimately it’s about radical welcoming and offering access to creative opportunities so people can be expressive, and really shine, and encounter talents and skills and abilities to expand their awesomeness in the world.”

The Next 50 program is less about a splashy celebration and more about a community of artists coming together to discuss their work and their changemaking efforts. Throughout the year, the 50 artists involved will engage in programs, workshops, residencies and networking events aimed at envisioning a brighter creative future. Though the artists are receiving an award, the program is an active platform for dialogue, growth and change rather than merely a congratulatory ceremony.

Méndez-Ortiz believes this group is uniquely suited to use their talents for social change. “If you’re a maker you have capacity to not just envision, but to bring into being what you want to see in the world, and that includes change,” she says. “I think everyone who’s being honored in the Next 50 are disruptors, changemakers, creatives, people pushing for a better world.”

The roster includes a mix of well known and up and coming artists including esperanza spalding, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Camille A. Brown, Chef Kwame Onwuachi and Amanda Gorman, among others. The creative talents include a soccer player, a chef, a ballerina, a comedian and other artists working in a wide sweeping range of media and industries.

Méndez-Ortiz was surprised and delighted to be honored with this award, but she emphasizes that no creative work, including her projects at MassArt, happens in a vacuum. “There’s very little that I do alone,” says Méndez-Ortiz. “My work is guided by deep collaboration with other creatives and artists and community-builders, and I would love to bring light and shine to all of the collaborative work that we do at the Center for Art and Community Partnerships.”