BOSTON, MA—November 13, 2025 Boston Art Review, a nonprofit organization committed to facilitating discourse on contemporary art in Boston and beyond, is pleased to announce the launch of a new editorial vertical focused on arts policy and civic engagement, helmed by Kim Córdova, thanks to a generous two-year grant from the Barr Foundation.
“Our creative sector is at a critical inflection point,” said SueEllen Kroll, senior program officer of Barr’s Arts + Creativity program. “There are so many policy changes happening at such a rapid pace. It is overwhelming for artists, arts administrators, and engaged citizens to keep track of and fully understand the impacts. Barr is proud to support this area of growth for Boston Art Review—to leverage the organization’s storytelling and editorial talents as powerful tools for bringing forward stories that will inspire, inform, and motivate us to be better advocates for the field.”
As news outlets continue to slash cultural reporting, Boston Art Review’s executive director, Jameson Johnson, is committed to strengthening the magazine’s role as an essential independent platform for artists, cultural workers, and creative communities. With this new vertical, the publication will expand its coverage to examine how cultural policy, public investment, and other structural forces shape the arts—and how the arts, in turn, strengthen democracy by creating opportunities for participation in civil society.
“We are thrilled that Boston Art Review and the Barr Foundation are investing in independent journalism that’s focused on cultural policy,” said Emily Ruddock, executive director of MASSCreative. “In this moment, our sector needs more transparency around how our state is planning to fund and defend arts and culture. Boston Art Review’s focus on this issue will help all of us hold our elected leaders accountable when they are inevitably faced with tough budget decisions in the coming years.”
The Civic Culture Desk will investigate the public, institutional, and civic dynamics shaping New England’s arts ecosystem and situate them within broader national and historical contexts. Through reported stories, op-eds, interviews, and commissioned essays, this initiative will deepen public discourse around arts policy, civic life, and the cultural economy—publishing writing that serves not only as documentation, but also as infrastructure for collective action.
“Art doesn’t exist outside the political economy—it is part of it. The arts shape how we see ourselves, how we govern, and how we build equitable futures. Boston Art Review’s creation of an arts policy & civic engagement editor is a bold recognition that the cultural sector must not only make work, but also make meaning in the public square. Kim Córdova’s appointment signals a growing movement to position artists and thinkers as essential participants in civic discourse and systems change,” said Massachusetts Cultural Council executive director, Michael J. Bobbitt.
Córdova is a Mexican American journalist whose writing explores the intersection of the arts, technology, and politics. Her work has been recognized with an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, a Critical Minded Fellowship, and has been short-listed for the International Award for Art Criticism. She first began writing about the relationship between art, policy, and politics as a student at SOMA, an artist-run, MFA-equivalent program in Mexico City. She has since deepened her research while earning her MA at Harvard University, as a Fulbright Public Policy Scholar in Bogotá, Colombia, and as a fellow with the German Marshall Fund and the Atlantic Council.
“BAR’s growth over the last seven years is a testament to Jameson Johnson’s leadership and the efforts of the entire Boston Art Review team and board to support art, artists, and arts administrators working in Boston and throughout New England. I look forward to learning from them and our community here and I hope to expand this work by publishing writing that will build a framework and vocabulary for publics to imagine and articulate how journalism and criticism form a cultural infrastructure that supports democracy,” said Córdova.
Since joining the team, Córdova has covered two bills before the Massachusetts State Legislature, the PLACE and Creative Space acts, which aim to support the arts in Massachusetts through new public policy as well as initiatives that make museums more accessible to audiences by lowering the cost of ticketed admission fees.
Córdova is currently taking meetings with regional leaders and local stakeholders. In January 2026, Boston Art Review will unveil website updates to accommodate the new vertical. For news tips or coverage ideas, contact kim@bostonartreview.com or fill out the tip line submissions form.
