Chief of Arts and Culture | City of Boston
Moderator | Placemaking in Action
Kara Elliott-Ortega is an arts advocate with a focus on culture and city planning. Prior to becoming the Chief of Arts and Culture, she served as the Director of Policy and Planning for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. Since leading the office, Kara has overseen creation of new temporary and permanent public art, created the City’s first artist workforce development programs, and led COVID-19 relief efforts for Boston’s arts and culture sector. She has directed cultural planning resulting in hundreds of new units of affordable artist housing, placekeeping projects for cultural districts, and most recently the acquisition of two buildings for long-term affordable cultural use. Kara has also developed new new grants, policies, and collaborations that advance intersectional racial equity in and through the arts, such as the Radical Imagination for Racial Justice program in partnership with Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Rooted in community organizing and the intrinsic value of culture, Kara believes that creativity is an inseparable aspect of daily life and a requirement for realizing equitable futures. She received her Masters in City Planning from MIT with a focus on urban design and the role of design thinking in federal climate resilience policy. Originally from Providence, RI, she spent a decade in Chicago where she graduated with degrees in English Literature and Human Rights. Her previous experience includes the Society of Architectural Historians, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, and Project Row Houses in Houston. Kara also serves as board chair for MassCreative, the Massachusetts arts advocacy organization, and is an intermittent radio DJ.