Latest / City Vibes / CityVibes.tv Lifestyle program 1st episode

Transcript

CityVibes.tv Lifestyle program 1st episode · City Vibes

• 0:17
  SPEAKER_06: Hello and welcome to City Vibes TV.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_06: I'm Christina Andranopoulos.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_06: City Vibes is all about people, places, life, and stories happening throughout Worcester County and Central Massachusetts.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_06: We're coming to you from the beautiful view in downtown Worcester with an incredible setting from the 24th floor.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_06: City Vibes is back in a new digital format, bringing you great conversations and stories on the websites, YouTube, social media, podcasts, and more.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_06: So be here and follow and share and comment so we can grow this community together.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_06: Today I'm excited to introduce three people who are making an impact right here in the community.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_06: First, we have Karen Shea, owner of Shea Management, celebrating more than 45 years of launching careers in modeling and acting.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: We'll hear about her journey and about her for her models and all.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_06: And next, we have Tim Murray, President and CEO of Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_06: Tim is at the center of everything that's happening in the city, and I look forward to hearing about the exciting projects and opportunities here.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_06: And finally, Eric Butler, Executive Director of the Museum of Worcester.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_06: Eric will share what's happening at the museum and all the exhibits and everything, events bringing history and culture together.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_06: And a special thank you to our sponsors and brand partners who believe in local programming and make city vibes possible.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you to Beechwood Hotel, home of Sonoma Restaurant, to our media collaborators, Discover Central Massachusetts, along with all of our other partners.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_06: And thank you to Michael Vino and Nich Hospitality Group as our brand partner and offering this beautiful space as the set for City Vibe Studio.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_06: So, Kieran, here we are.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_06: I am so excited.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_06: Not only are you a successful businesswoman, but you are also a colleague and a friend.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_06: I'm so happy to have you as one of my premier guests.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you, and I'm so proud of you.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: This is exciting.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: This is such a beautiful location, and I'm so happy to see you.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_06: And tell us about Shea Management and uh what you know what it's evolved to these days.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Shea Management is 46 years old.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: We're located in Worcester on Water Street.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: But we started as an agency actually just modeling, and it grew into more than we'd ever expected.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_05: It's actors, it's dancers, it's models.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: It is enormous what has happened to us in the past 46 years it's taken.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: So it didn't happen overnight.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_05: And we've gone through the pandemic and all the ups and downs of life, so but we're still standing.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_05: That's my song.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_06: Girls on fire.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_06: Also, you some of your um actors, amazing, have been picked up by some of the international and and national agencies.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_06: So tell us a little bit about some of those success stories.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_05: Well, that doesn't happen necessarily here in Worcester.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_05: So what happens in Worcester is the mother agent as I find them or they find me, we then attend some conventions in New York, and um it's called IMTA, and I you I've been going there for years, and I took an Angelo Gray from Worcester, a young 10-year-old boy, and he's a triple-threat singer, dancer, actor.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_05: And um, I had to take him there because he needed someone other than me.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_05: So he has his own Los Angeles manager, and he's been in his first film, and that was a few years ago, The Running Man in a lead factor.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_05: Since then, he's been in at least three or four uh movies, and he still continues to uh actually train with us with Siobhan Petrella.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_05: He does her um vocals with her.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: So it never ends, no matter what happens to you.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_05: It's a beginning, not the end of it.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's a start.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_05: Along with Serenity Jackson.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_05: She's just 17 years old and she's from Worcester, and she is a poet a poet laureate and writes wrote her own book and writes her own music, and she went to IMT with me and won an$80,000 scholarship, and she'll be going to school in um California next year, right here from Worcester, Massachusetts.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_05: She's also going to Paris Week.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_06: That is amazing.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_06: And then um Serenity is a rapper, which is amazing.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_06: She's a female rapper at 17, and she writes her own music.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_06: I think she's got a good ticket here, and you helped her on her way fulfilling those.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_06: Totally different people.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_05: And everyone is totally different.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone who walks through that door has something unique and they have to be able to act.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't happen without acting.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_05: So they have to be able to read script, they have to be able to become an actor.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_06: And you teach them.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, you know, you help them, you train them, you coach them.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_06: Another thing I wanted to ask you is I know that you've been having open casting calls.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_06: So there might be somebody out there that has a dream and says, Oh, maybe Karen Shea can help me fulfill that dream.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe she can, maybe she's not.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_06: But tell the audience, um, our viewers, uh, what they can do in order to get recognized.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we have castings, well, we should say an open call every Sunday, and that's but they have to be registered because otherwise it would be outrageous.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_05: And they let us know that they're coming in and they go in front of the acting coach, vocal coach, the modeling coach, and we see if this is gonna fit.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_05: I'm part of casting networks and it's enormous.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_05: The castings that we have daily are over 50, and it's extremely hard to keep up with them.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_05: So we're constantly looking for everyone.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_05: We're looking for talent uh singers, but we're also looking for that actor who you may not think is a star, but they are.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: And that's that person who could be an extra, but that also could be a second factor that they are not the leading man, but they are as equally as good as the leading man.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_05: You have no idea what we have.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_05: And we're so proud of it because it's so diverse.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: It is huge.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_06: So let me give you an example.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_06: I always look at those commercials and then I see the OZEP and I see this regular woman who's jumping up and down and probably making lots of money on this commercials.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so how can somebody who's watching this be able to get in touch with you and maybe be part of this commercial?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: That's a very hard.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_05: That's a really hard.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_05: Well, first of all, it isn't that simple.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_05: Wouldn't that be nice?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_05: I think when the casting comes up, we have all of our roster.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_05: We go through them to see who they're looking for, what they're looking for.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_05: Hands are important, headshots are important, self-tapes are important.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_05: And so a person walks in the door and they always say, I want to be famous.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_05: What have you done?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_05: Nothing.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I want to be famous, and I so it does take you to be taught.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_05: And that is no matter where, in colleges, take classes, take acting classes, vocal, voiceover.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm you know how many voiceovers we do?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's amazing.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_05: So when you listen to the radio, that's a voiceover.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: That's what we do too.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's this big.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: And it started this big.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_05: That's great.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_05: But you have to earn it.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: You have to you have to train, you've got to get the right photos, you have to be able to have strong shoulders because when you get the rejection, which you do, if you get the rejection, so do I.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: So it's a reflection.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: So we have to make sure that the training is brilliant, and it is.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_06: Well, Karen, thank you so much.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_06: This here's to another 50 years.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_06: And again, as you were speaking, your information on how to contact you both online and at your office, and also how to get in touch with you in reference to learning about open calls.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_06: All ages.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_05: All ages, all heights, and all sizes.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_06: All ages, you heard that?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_06: All heights and all sizes.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_06: And all sizes, and male, female, or not.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, yes, everyone.
• 7:45
  unknown: Thank you.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Karen.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Christina.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: This is wonderful.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: Good luck.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: And we'll be right back.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the Beachwood Hotel, home of Sonoma Restaurant.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: Perfectly situated adjacent to the Biotech Research Park and minutes from downtown Worcester, we put you right in the center of it all.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: From the DCU Center and Holy Cross to UMass Medical School, everything you need is just around the corner.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: Whether traveling for business or leisure, discover comfort in our 52 boutique guest rooms and 21 elegant suites.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: Reserve your stay today at the Beachwood Hotel.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome back.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_06: And now I have the great pleasure of introducing Tim Murray, who is the CEO and president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_06: How are you?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: Good, Christina.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: Good to be here.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for being my premier guest.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: Premier guest, I don't know.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's uh nice of you to say.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_06: I'm thrilled.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_06: And one of the reasons why everybody said, Who did you pick?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_06: And I said, Tim Murray.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_06: It one of the reasons why I did is because you know what's going on in the city, and you've been knowing you knew this for 13 years, and then you knew what was going on in Massachusetts because you were Lieutenant Governor.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_06: Why don't you tell us some of the projects that are happening now in our city?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I you know, I've been around a little bit, and my job as president CEO at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce is to advocate and represent for our members with the team that we have at the chamber, uh, and you know, the business community uh writ large, but also to be an advocate for economic development and growth for the for the city and region.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in the chamber, you know, we're busy, we run a lot of programs and events.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of them focus on key issues for our members, but also the broader community.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: And one of those is housing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you know, back in 2019, we spent about$100,000 on a very detailed housing study for Worcester and the region, and working with the city and others use that study to recruit developers and bring investment into the community.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh housing, you know, that that that study played a role in a lot of projects that have been completed and underway as we speak.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: But housing continues to be a top issue, and so this year again, we're gonna make uh housing the topic of our Game Changers Business Conference and Expo on October 9th.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's a half-day conference.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And Dave Grainy, the owner of this building where we're taping, uh, and the old Chestnut Place or Fallon building, which has been has been converted into housing, will be our morning keynote speaker.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: We have several panels in between, and then our lunch keynote will be Lieutenant Governor uh uh Kim Driscoll uh to talk about the administration and some of the the projects that they've helped move forward in Worcester and the region.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_06: And that's October 9th.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: October 9th, the mechanics hall uh starts at uh 8 a.m.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: We'll wrap up about 1.30.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh already have a couple hundred people signed up, but really focused on housing, what's done what we've done well, what policy things the city and state have done, but what more we can do because it's still a top issue.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_06: So I was driving on Shrews Radio Street the other day, and there's another beautiful apartment complex, and then there's they're all over.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_06: Can you share with us?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_06: I I mean it's obvious why we need uh housing, but could you share with us how it affects economic development also?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think the one railroad lofts, I think, is the one you're talking about.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, I mean, number one is there's probably half a dozen projects that are under construction in the downtown.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: You put men and women in the building trades to work that are doing that, that, that, uh, that work in construction.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you see them during lunch visiting the downtown businesses and on Highland Street uh at the end of the day.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so you're putting people to work in the building trades.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the materials that construction materials come from local companies.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I remember a few years ago we're the project uh over at uh the Remington over at Polar Park was being compl near completion in Percy's, you know, a local appliance company had trucks pulling up and you know the the builder you know was buying from a local vendor.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: So those are the things that create economic activity that are good for the city and put money in people's pockets.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_06: Which keeps us as the second largest city of New England.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the other piece about Christina downtown housing, uh and in particular at this moment in time, and housing that's out around the city, uh, it creates density, more people living in the neighborhoods, supporting those local businesses in that neighborhood.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: And now it's you know, downtown's no different.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: In many ways, we're going back to the future.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at old pictures of Worcester before 290, before the mall, before the West Side Artery, it was a very dense, yes, it was the central business district, major companies and businesses, but also it was a place where people lived.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: And we're going back to that.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, Chestnut Place, the largest office to residential conversion in the state, uh, is being leased up now.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: 200 apartments.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh next door to it, 22 affordable condominiums.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh construction underway at the old firehouse cafe exchange, 40 new units that will also have affordable and uh uh uh ADA uh accessible apartments, uh shacks building will be starting uh within the year.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: The old Olympic trophy, 20 units of construction of 20 apartments uh near completion across the mechanics hall.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Cunningham and Associates is doing uh, I think it's 30 units in the old Worcester Five Cent Savings Bank building right across the Mechanics Hall.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so that all creates, you know, you're adding hundreds of people downtown.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 18 hours a day, seven days a week, creating economic activity, visiting our arts and cultural venues, visiting the coffee shops, the dry cleaner, and just putting people on the street, which is always a good thing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_06: And we need more fashion retailers because my mom used to take us downtown as little girls, and we would buy our clothing at Denhomes, or she would walk over to learners.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_06: So I'll I talking about Back to the Future.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_06: When I first moved back to the city um over 20 years ago, I don't remember if it was before you had this role or not, but I went I came to a meeting on Main Street with one of the city, I think we were calling it City Square at the time when it was I mean at Union Station?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_06: It actually it was on Main Street.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_06: It was in some it was Mechanics Hall.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_06: But I when when you went up there and you talked about how you're gonna get rid of that wall that was blocking the east from the west, and I said, I hope it happens because that would be great.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_06: And the next thing we know, it's almost like you snap your fingers and look at it.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't snap your fingers, but you know, that was an urban planning mistake, the Worcester Gallery.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: It divided downtown from the east side neighborhoods, it it eradicated a logical street grid that people could walk and cars could could travel.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and what we've done is we've created development parcels.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: You've got a hotel there, you've got a 145 front with over 200 units of housing, uh, St.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Vincent Hospital built their cancer center, and uh, you know, a couple of a couple of restaurants, uh three restaurants that have opened up, and two parcels that are still ready for development.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so, and the other pieces, the two office towers that were built at the same time as as the galleria have been completely renovated, and an another office building was built.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a plus in terms of jobs and and economic activity.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and by connecting to Shrewsbury Street, we've seen some development, you know, along around Union Station.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: The canal district has, you know, also taken off.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do we knit those things back together so they can feed off each other?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: And density and people living in apartments, both market rate and affordable, are a big part of the strategy that we're advocating for at the chamber, working with the city and other partners like the Worcester Business Development Corporation and some of the CDCs, the development community, uh, the Worcester Housing Authority's done some really groundbreaking work as well.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_06: Again, thank you so much.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_06: As I said, you are a visionary, you love Worcester.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_06: Your family's here.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_06: And so you are the biggest advocate of Worcester.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's my job.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks, Christina.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_06: And as we spoke, a lot of the information you were saying was coming up in your event October 9th.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, October 9th.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: People can go to the chamber website uh to learn more.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_06: That'll be great.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Christina.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_06: And don't go away, we'll be right back.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Experience Niche Hospitality Group, where exceptional dining, inspired cocktails, and memorable moments come together.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Discover our distinctive family of restaurants, including the View, home of the CityVibes.tv Lifestyle Series Studio.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Niche Hospitality Group and CityVibes.tv, proud media partners celebrating the art of living well.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome back, and now I have the great pleasure of introducing Eric Butler, the Executive Director of the Museum of Worcester, also known as the Worcester Historical Museum.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_06: How are you?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, of course.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_06: And I wanted to have you because I serve on the Board of Trustees, and also because what's happening with the Museum of Worcester and how it's evolving to make it the Museum of Worcester.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_06: And so tell us about it's your first year there.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_06: So what's going on?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, one of the things that always attracted me about the museum is it's it's evolved with the times, right?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not only the stories we tell, but how we tell them, who gets to tell them.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's continued to share.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we launched uh the calendar year with the Robert Goddard Centennial Exhibit.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're opening uh in uh this month uh an Arab American exhibit, partnering with so many wonderful community uh organizations.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're also getting ready for the Harvey Ball in October, which is the signature event in Worcester.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's so exciting to be a part of that.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_06: And this year we're honoring Bill Wallace, who is uh executive director Emeritus.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Emeritus, he was executive director for 49 and a half years, which is incredible to think of.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_06: Incredible, talking about a half a century, yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_06: That is great.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I love the Museum of Worcester, but you know, I've been in Worcester my whole life, and then we knew about it.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and then I moved back, and then I got involved.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_06: And that let me share something that is so new and evolving there.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_06: So I have a nephew who's six years old, and he loves rockets in space and all that, and he participated in the Goddard um exhibition as well as when you were shooting rockets.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_06: So this is what's so fantastic.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_06: You're appealing to everybody now.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and you're gonna have to bring your nephew to see our smile gallery.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a 550 square foot expansion of our old smile gallery, state-of-the-art, multimedia, uh, and it's so much fun.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: I say it operates like a Pixar movie.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So kids will love it, but the story is really fascinating because Harvey Ball was a phenomenal artist.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he has incredible sketches from his time in Okinawa and you know, sketches that he did did in ads that he created for commercial use.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, the smiley face that he created uh here in Worcester.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and thank you for bringing that up because um I know that every year we honor somebody and they give him the Smiley Award.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_06: And to learn about this Harvey Ball and the Smiley Award is that I call it, I called him, or I gave him the title of the godfather of emojis.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_06: Emojis are low all over the world, and it they all started with the little round face that was yellow with the eyes and the mouth.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_06: So that is so exciting that it came from Worcester.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everyone has a smiley face in their pocket, right, on their phone.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, you mentioned emojis.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be doing a lecture at the museum given by a professor at Holy Cross whose research is actually all around emojis.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll connect that to the opening of the Smile Gallery.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_06: That's wonderful.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_06: So it's um October and we're moving ahead to the end of the year.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_06: So, what are some things besides the Arab American exhibit, which is big and huge?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_06: Um, what are some of the other things that we're going to close the year off with?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we always do home for the holidays at the Salisbury Mansion.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you haven't been, it's a phenomenal experience.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the Salisbury Mansion was built in 1772 and is uh designed and decorated and restored to be uh representative of the 1830s.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine how amazing it is to see that uh home decked up for the holidays, which will be fantastic.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh around the Arab American exhibit, we'll be doing incredible programming.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna recreate the El Morocco at the museum.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have multi-course dinners with belly dancers and Arab musicians.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_06: I love that.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And American jazz.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna make the El Morocco come to life again.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh three nights in November, November 5th through 7th.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of opportunities to really sort of recreate history and make it come alive to the uh for the present day.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_06: And I love that our museum of Worcester is including so many different cultures that made Worcester.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_06: Worcester is like the melting pot.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_06: It's the tapestry of what's going on in the world, I think, and especially in the United States.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm so happy that we have such a rich uh so in order for the museum to exist, it exists, you know, attendance and uh admissions is a small part of what you you make, you get, but it's donations through our and so could you talk a little bit about donations, how important it is in, you know, minimally monthly, legacy, whatever.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_06: Talk a little bit about that, because that's that's the way we keep all of Worcester um spotlighted in historically at the museum.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it's a mission, as you mentioned, is a very small part.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we a mission to the museum for adults is$10 and it's free for for kids 18 and under.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it certainly doesn't um cover all of our operating costs, and over half of our operating costs come directly from direct philanthropy, whether that be individuals.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of wonderful corporate sponsors that come on board to help us.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're individuals who have made legacy gifts to the museum to help fund our endowment, to help uh fund us in perpetuity.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: But it's really um the philanthropy and the generosity of our community that allow us to collect, preserve, and tell Worcester stories.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: What you see in the museum is only a small portion of what we do.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Behind the scenes, under the museum, we have a collection of over 30,000 artifacts and miles and miles of paper archives and books and history that we're preserving for for researchers, but the everyday people that want to come in and learn about uh life in Worcester.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_06: Eric, thank you so much for opening the Museum of Worcester door again to our viewers of the City Vibes TV.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_06: I was so happy to have you here.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_06: And I am so thrilled and honored to be on the Board of Trustees that's helping bring culture and history to Worcester Central Mass and all over.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we appreciate all you do for the museum and helping us spread the word about the good work we're doing together.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_06: Well, thanks so much.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_06: Have a good day.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_06: And that's our show.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for spending time with us.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_06: We highlight people, places, life, and stories.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you to our guests and sponsors, the Beachwood Hotel, the home of Sonoma Restaurant, and to our media partners as well.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_06: Special thanks to Nietz Hospitality Group and the View, our incredible set of city vibes.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_06: I'm so blessed to have interns from Worcester State University's Communications Department and other schools helping out.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_06: And of course, thank you to Oprah Photography.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_06: Please comment, share, and um tell everybody about it so you can help grow the community together.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_06: Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you soon.