DEERFIELD — Historic Deerfield will honor Massachusetts Cultural Council Executive Director Anita Walker with the museum’s President’s Award Friday.
This award is presented to the person whose outstanding support and consistent collaboration has helped Historic Deerfield fulfill its mission. In addition, the museum chose Walker to recognize her statewide advocacy for arts and cultural organizations.
The award will be presented at the museum’s annual awards dinner.
“Anita Walker has been an aggressive and effective advocate for arts and cultural organizations in the Commonwealth for nearly a decade,” said Philip Zea, Historic Deerfield’s president. “She has worked closely with legislative leaders to increase funding and publicize the major impact that these organizations hold on tourism and the state’s economy at large. Her contribution has been profound.”
Walker has served as executive director of the council since April 2007. She is the state’s highest ranking cultural official, overseeing a range of grant programs, services, and advocacy for the arts, humanities, and sciences.
She led advocacy for the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, which has invested $82 million in arts and cultural building projects statewide over eight years. Its grants leverage more than $1.9 billion in spending on cultural building projects, providing more than 19,000 jobs, restoring many important historic structures, and attracting more than 18 million cultural tourists to Massachusetts annually.
Walker also launched the council’s Cultural Districts Initiative to help communities attract new visitors and commerce through arts and cultural activity. And she led the creation of a new Cultural Investment Portfolio for more than 400 outstanding nonprofit arts, humanities, and science organizations.
Walker also led development of the council’s new UP Initiative to support organizations that promote increased accessibility through the power of inclusive design to grow audiences and enhance cultural experiences for all, and embrace inclusivity as core to their mission. The intent is to generate transformational experiences for participants that will not only build capacity but fuel insight and action. Historic Deerfield was among the first participants in this program.
Before coming to Massachusetts, Walker was director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs for seven years, serving as executive director of the Iowa Arts Council, administrator of the State Historical Society, and the state historic preservation officer.
Walker is a California native and a graduate of The University of Arizona. She lives in Beverly.