Episode 69: Aliana de la Guardia (Mosesian Center for the Arts)

Meet Aliana de la Guardia! She's the Executive Director at the Mosesian Center for the Arts and a working artist herself. In this conversation we dig into her path into opera, what it's like to be a professional singer in the avant-garde world (from Cheerios to puppets and more), the behind-the-scenes of running Guerilla Opera for many years, and what led her to a sabbatical and rethinking of her direction. Then we talk about her joining the Mosesian Center for the Arts, the relationships she's building, and some of the new ideas she's bringing into the mix.

Released November 21st, 2025

(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)

Find out more about the Mosesian Center for the Arts at mosesianarts.org

Find out more about Aliana the artist at alianadelaguardia.com

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Transcript

Matt: 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This time I sat down with Aliana de la Guardia, who's the new executive director at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. And a quick reminder before we dive into the conversation that the Little Local Holiday Giveaway is going on until the day before Thanksgiving. So if you listen to this one that comes out, still have a few more days to sign up to support the podcast at the Little Local Friend. One of the many prizes being given away by local businesses and organizations. Lots of great stuff. So you can check that out at Little Local Conversations.com slash friend. One of the gifts is actually free tickets to a show coming up at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, among other things. So again check that out. Appreciate you supporting the podcast. All right. And now let's get into the conversation with Aliana.

Aliana: 1:00

My name is Aliana de la Guardia, and I am the executive director of the Mosesian Center for the Arts.

Matt: 1:07

Great. And you're pretty new here, right? How long has it been?

Aliana: 1:10

It's been since mid-July. At the time that we're recording this podcast, I'm coming right up on my 90 days.

Matt: 1:17

Nice. Yeah. So we'll get into all that and how that process has been and getting to know this place. But I always like to give people a little bit of backstory and insight into the person. So let's go back in time. Where did you grow up? Are you from around this area? All that type of stuff. And then, you know, how did you get into the arts?

Aliana: 1:34

Well, I grew up in New Jersey. I was born and raised in North Jersey. And depending on how tired I am, you can certainly still hear it. And as a kid, I always played an instrument. I played violin in orchestra. And then when I got into middle school, I played the double bass. Just starting in middle school, I had started to experiment with some theater. I sang in the choirs. And then getting into high school, I decided that I wanted to do choir instead of orchestra. Really fell in love with singing. And then little by little fell into the theater crowd, started doing the musicals, but I also did the straight plays. And so when it came time to decide what I wanted to go off to college for, I knew I wanted it to be performance, but I just wasn't sure which track, if I wanted to go towards music or if I wanted to go towards acting. And, you know, when I was calling around and doing some pre-college interviews, someone asked me if I was an actor who sings or a singer who acts. And I was like, uh 

Matt: 2:41

Because they couldn’t possibly both be on equal footing.

Aliana: 2:43

Yeah, right. I was like, what, you know, and I guess one is more the idea is one is more music forward. And I guess in my time in high school, I just really fell in love with classical music. I was already exposed to classical music. And my high school music teacher, her name is Susan Toll. I'm still in touch with her today. And I really credit her with really starting me on this life, like, really set me on this direction. And but also was just an incredible educator. Like, really cared about her students, cared enough to like organize these incredible trips to New York, took us to see the New York Phil, took us to the Met in our music appreciation classes, would play opera, would play all different kinds of music. I think it was one opera, it was a movie version of Carmen. And I was like, wow, operas can be movies? Because it was not on a stage. Like it was on site. They filmed it in Spain, like by a river. And I thought, wow, you know, because I had never seen opera as a film before. I thought that was like the most incredible combination of what I felt were like were my talents. So I decided that opera was the way I wanted to go in classical music. And I got accepted to the Boston Conservatory, and that's how I got to Boston. I went there for voice and opera and graduated with a bachelor's and a master's. During my time there, I met a lot of composers and a lot of other instrumentalists and singers that performed new music. And I don't know why I didn't think that like composers were a thing. You know, you just don't think about it until you're immersed in the culture. And it's kind of like rare to be in that culture in high school because the focus is on performance and instruments and not really on that form of music creation.

Matt: 4:40

Right. Like high schools aren't performing a play written by someone at the high school.

Aliana: 4:44

Someone at the high school or like a string quartet written by someone at the high school. It's like a really specialized thing. And it's I think it's kind of rare. You'll probably find it more on like very arts forward high schools. I think also like a young person at the level to be able to write music is rare as well. So the number of composers you meet is less. 

Matt: 5:07

It's interesting. Because I was a composer. That's what I went to school for. And uh yeah, I wasn't involved with my high school music program because there wasn't really the opportunity there.

Aliana: 5:14

Yeah.

Matt: 5:14

Interesting.

Aliana: 5:15

Yeah. The high school music and just arts culture is about learning through performance and the actual act of creating, you know, like writing that music down or like devising a piece of theater is more rare. And I know that there are educators out there that are doing that, but it's still quite rare. So getting into college and like meeting composers and learning that music was still alive and it's vibrant and it's changing, and sometimes it can get quite crazy. And, you know, but sometimes it's very traditional and quite nice. And just being involved with composers writing in all these different mediums and all these different genres, combining genres was very fascinating to me. I learned that I was pretty darn good at rhythms and learning rhythms. So that got me into like a little bit more complex music.

Matt: 6:07

And is there any reason for that, you think? To have to do with like your upright bass days, rhythm section?

Aliana: 6:14

I don't know. I maybe an ability to count or just that I had the focus to sit down and like really learn. I don't know that it was something that necessarily came easy to me, but I do remember like sitting down and writing in my beat marks and making sure I understood what was happening and like conducting myself and practicing.

Matt: 6:32

Because a lot of new music is very rhythmically complex.

Aliana: 6:35

It can be, absolutely, yeah. But I liked that about it. It was a challenge, a different kind of challenge. So that kind of set me on the path to performing almost exclusively a lot of new works, really specializing in working with composers, became a little bit of an improviser, and I still do that to this day. In the middle of that, I started with a cohort of artists, Guerilla Opera. That was 18 years ago. And for 18 years, we performed something like 40 new operas with the works being commissioned. We've done that all around the Boston area. I'm super proud of our work and everything that we've done as a group.

Matt: 7:15

Yeah. So a couple things there. So what was your first jump from college into the professional world? Was their first job where you're like, ooh, I'm a professional artist, or you know.

Aliana: 7:24

Oh, yeah. I was hired by Boston Lyric Opera. So I think that was in like 2003 or 2004. I just went through their audition process and I was hired as part of their choir and performed with them. And I became a member of the, I forget the name of the union for a bit. And then I was not a member because I didn't do that work anymore. But that was a whole different level that introduced me to like really the professional realm and signing contracts and doing things like that. Because before then it was just really like singing in churches. That's different. Yeah, from there, just being more in the community and getting gigs here and getting gigs there, and really developing the word of mouth.

Matt: 8:09

Yeah.

Aliana: 8:10

Yeah.

Matt: 8:10

What's a little behind the scene? Like, what's it like being a professional singer? Like people think, you know, diva, queen, like what's the life like of a opera singer?

Aliana: 8:20

Yeah. I would say that like until you're in the rehearsal room, it's a little bit lonely because you really, it's a lot of solo preparation. You're in the room on your keyboard or piano and you're just learning the music, memorizing it. You're staring at your score. If it's an opera that exists already, you have your favorite recordings, you're listening to them all the time so that you really embody the music and know what to expect. Then you're in the rehearsal room. And it's a lot of preparation with the conductor, getting used to how they move. Then once you start staging, it's like you're moving around the stage and making sure you can see the conductor and, you know, understand the way they move from like that angle. At least that's the way in opera. When you're doing more of a concert gig or, you know, a concert work or a small concert work, it's very much about being a part of the ensemble. For me, at least. It's very much about being a part of the ensemble, active and I'll say aggressive listening, right? Because it's you're not just actively listening and receiving, but you're like receiving and you're putting something out there. It's like a tide where you're putting something out and then it goes to somebody else and then it comes back to you. I really do love performing in small chamber settings. I really prefer it just because of the level of agency you have over what you do and the direct collaboration you can engage in with your musician peers in that time.

Matt: 9:59

Yeah. And do you have a favorite performance that you've been part of?

Aliana: 10:04

I'll say that I don't have like a favorite, but I have very memorable ones. You know? Right before the pandemic, I was hired to do a gig in New York where I was charged to co-compose some songs with another singer whose background was jazz and Indian classical singing. And that was like I mean, collaborating with her was like really eye-opening to me about how different styles can be and how varied virtuosity can be. You know, there are also some like opera performances that I really like love and enjoy. You know, the first time I performed Benjamin Britton's Midsummer Night's Dream was very formative. It was a great time, it was a fun time. I felt like I knew that score inside and out. Like I could jump in at any point and just sing a role. It's just a really wonderful feeling when you know a piece of music so well and have studied it, but you can still be in it and it feels fresh and new. That particular performance really felt like that. And oh, there's a number of Guerilla Opera performances that I just, you know, I could list off as being like really incredible. You know, Gallo by Ken Weno was a really incredible, beautiful performance with a lot of audience interaction. Heart of a Dog by Rudolph Rojan, who's also a like a co-founder of Guerilla Opera. That was kind of one of the most intense and physical opera performances both times. So we performed it twice with two different directors, and I think 10 years apart. And that was when I first like noticed my age. I was like, wow, this was 10 years ago.

Matt: 11:51

What's physical about it? Like a lot of dancing or a lot of just.

Aliana: 11:55

Well, uh like the premise of the opera was that it's these scientists turn a dog into a woman. Like there's this transmutation idea. So there's like a lot of running around. And the second time we performed it, there was a larger concept. And so the dog woman was always a puppet. And so actually, I was the puppeteer manipulating the puppets and also singing the voice. And that was in terms of posture, it was very physically challenging. But also there were like fight scenes and different things we had to do, and it was not just one puppet, it was various iterations of different puppets. And so I would have to like run and grab one puppet and then put it down and then become a puppet where like my head is my head and my arms are my arms, but the body is like this stuffed mannequin. And then I would run and grab like another puppet. And so just the level of coordination was a very memorable challenge. And I think similarly, we did another opera called Giver of Light, which was based on the life story of the poet Rumi and philosopher and mystic. That was another small cast, and so there were scenic changes, and we were constantly running backstage and having to remember what scene we were in and grabbing things and changing them. And also it was a beautiful opera with a beautiful set, a beautiful lighting design. And in that way, that one is one of my favorites. It really stands out in the level of physical effort and that the beauty of what we were doing was really worth it.

Matt: 13:28

Yeah. And that first one you mentioned there was audience participation, which I think is an interesting thing because a lot of people might think of opera as like you sit there and you're perfectly quiet. So what was that like, the participation?

Aliana: 13:39

So in that particular opera Gallo, it was very avant-garde. And the narrative, it was not linear, it was just a kind of like string of thoughts in various scenes with some kind of strange characters, you know. And the audience participation, if I remember correctly, there was one scene that was just like oohs and ahs vocalizing. And while I was vocalizing, I was also flying a kite, but the string got longer and longer, and I would hand an audience member a piece of the string, and then they would hold it, and then I'd, you know, pull more string and hold the next audience member. And so it became this communal moment where everyone was flying the kite. And I think that audience participation is always really tricky because it has to do with consent. You don't want to make someone feel like they're forced into participating when they really don't want to, because that kind of ruins the experience. So for me as an artist, it meant really looking at a person, offering them the string, waiting for them to take it. And if they didn't want to take it, just to just like move on. You know, to understand that they didn't want to participate. Maybe this one does. And this way it's consensual. They would rather watch and they're happier that way. The next person really did want to hold the string. In that particular opera, too. There's so many memorable things about this opera. We created a basically a sandbox that was full of Cheerios, honey nut Cheerios, actually. And I could still smell them to this day. Like when I think of this opera, I remember the scent of the Cheerios. And at the end, we invited audience members, we put towels down as if it was a beach, and invited audience members to come into the sandbox and like lay down, just like, you know, with her hands up or whatever, as if they were hanging out at the beach or like in a kind of shivasana, you know, kind of like a meditative communal moment. And there was this elder woman in the theater. We were coming around and like inviting people to the stage, and she was just looking at me with these big eyes, like begging me to invite her to come on the stage. Like she, her eyes were like, please pick me. And so I did. And, you know, me and another cast member made sure that she safely made it over the little barrier. And we helped her down and lie down on the stage. And she sent a very nice email afterwards that was like, I'm the president of the New England Opera Club, and I've never been in an opera, and this was such a special experience. And, you know, when you hear someone say, I'm a member of the New England Opera Club, you're like, oh, they like Verity, they like whatever. But she came to this weird avant-garde thing and had a really unusual, memorable moment in a good way.

Matt: 16:32

Yeah.

Aliana: 16:33

You know? And that to me, that's what audience participation is all about. And I think with Guerilla Opera, we always considered ourselves a black box group, mainly because we like to be really close together because the music is hard and we perform without a conductor and we want to like really see each other very well. But I think also we want the audience to be much closer to us, to experience the visceral connection that we have to each other as musicians and to really make them a part of that music making in that way. And like personally, for me, I feel like the black box is the best way to experience my unique talents because I feel that I'm very good in nuanced acting. I really wanted to be a film actor and to do television. And, you know, when you're in a black box and the audience is so close, you can't be like you can't overact, you know, especially if what you're trying to do is naturalism, like you're trying to be very natural. If you do just a little bit too much, yeah, it takes the audience really out. Because, you know, the audience is as close as you are to me, which is maybe like less than five feet. If my facial expressions start getting too big, you know, and if I start moving a little too much, you'll be like, Why is she performing like that? You know, like it looks like a performance. And sometimes that's fine.

Matt: 18:00

Like if you're on the big stage, you need that presence.

Aliana: 18:02

You need that in the big one. In the show where we were doing the puppets, you needed that because like obviously I was a puppeteer and I was not someone who was meant to move naturally, right? It's that balance. But when I can be this close to an audience member and sing something and really mean it, that's a special experience for me. And I know it's a special experience for the audience member because we're connecting.

Matt: 18:26

Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. When I used to perform in bands, I used to like doing house concerts over, like, you know, the rock clubs because you could get more intimate and exactly you didn’t just have to play as loud as you could. 

Aliana: 18:37

Yeah, totally. 

Matt: 18:39:

Yeah. Yeah. So cool. Do you want to talk more about running Guerilla Opera? Because that might kind of lead us into your role at the Mosesian. What's it like running an organization like that?

Aliana: 18:48

Yeah. Well, we started very scrappy and we ended very scrappy. I mean, we were a small budget organization and we were raising money to do like really specific projects. And, you know, I think that when you are starting a project of your own and you get used to creating the budgets, learning how the money flows. And that kind of became my role in Guerilla Opera is to be like the fundraiser, but also watching the financials and to make sure we had enough money to pay everybody. And, but also the people that we were paying were like my friends and my community. So it was that much more important that I made sure that there was money in the bank because I don't want to embarrass myself and I don't want to upset my friends. And you want the people that you're working with to feel respected. And, you know, even if you can't pay much, you can pay on time. And there's other things you can do, you know.

Matt: 19:44

Yeah. So why did you even start this group too? Like how did this group come together and how big was the group?

Aliana: 19:51

Yeah. So when we started the group, we generally like to perform works that are like four singers, four instrumentalists, no more than eight people on the stage. And there are some core members, there's some core sounds in the group that we like to have, like percussion and saxophone. We really like those sounds because they're very modern. And at least with classical percussion and with new music percussion, there's a lot of options for sound, you know? And I think sometimes when we do audience walkthroughs or we invite the audience to the stage, the percussion setup is like one of the highlights of their experience because there's some crazy stuff in there sometimes, like there's ratchet spinners and 

Matt: 20:30

Vibraslap is always everyone's favorite.

Aliana: 20:32

There's vibraslaps and ratchet spinners, there's cans, there's bottles. Sometimes there's like these warped, messed up cymbals. And it is fascinating because you know, when you think of percussion, you think of like a timpani or like a xylophone, and you don't think there's this huge setup with a million instruments all around like one person.

Matt: 20:52

Yeah. Running around like a madman too. 

Aliana: 20:54

Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, it's interesting in Guerilla Opera that like part of our rehearsal process is that we're with the musicians much longer because they have their own choreography, and we have to, we as the singers have to learn how to also like wait for what they have to do. So if we're like performing a particular piece of music and the clarinetist has to put down their big clarinet and then pick up their little clarinet, and then we have to like add three seconds for them to be able to do that. The singers who are the actors on the stage have to think about, gosh, what am I doing in those three seconds? You know, so it just it's like an added level of challenge as an actor to be like, okay, how do I fill these three seconds with something so that the people don't notice that the clarinetist is changing their instruments and the whole piece doesn't stop, you know? I digress from the anyway. So, you know, it was different in different years because the leadership kind of changed and I was kind of the through line in the leadership throughout, and I always played the executive director role, even when it wasn't called that. So, you know, it was about doing our fundraising and our fundraising strategy and reaching out to our donors and our larger donors and getting together our grant writing strategy. And as we grew, and particularly coming out of the pandemic, we got a little bit more money and I could hire more help and I trained more grant writers. And so, like by the time that I had left, there were basically two really great grant writers. There was three when there was me. I wouldn't say I was like a really great grant writer, but I'm a very effective grant writer. And we had two additional ones that were more involved. And so when I decided to take a sabbatical, I felt like, okay, now we're kind of in a stable place and uh I just need a break.

Matt: 22:49

Yeah. Yeah. You want to talk a little bit about, because again, this is relevant, the funding, like for people who don't understand how important grants are to the arts and what are the funding sources for arts organizations usually.

Aliana: 23:03

Yeah. I would say that there are some funding sources that were really specific to music and new music that we identified and we would apply for year after year. And then a lot of local and state grants. That was one of the larger sources of funding for us was the local cultural council grants. Being able to receive those consistently really helped. And at the state level, the MCC grants, and especially in recent years when the MCC grants have been a little bit more like open. I felt like in previous years there was kind of a lot of gatekeeping. It was really hard to get into that organizational funding grant. Like Guerilla Opera had tried for years and years, and they kept basically telling us that we were too small. And we were like, well, how are we supposed to get bigger if we don't have operational funding? You know? And I feel like there's a little bit still of a lack of that. Like there's a lack of a trust in small organizations. But something that you're seeing now, at least on the state and the local level, is that they are really uplifting individual artists and really small organizations and giving them the opportunities to truly grow through funding. I guess when I say that there's not trust in small organizations, it's more like from private funders and private foundations. I do see the climate changing a little bit, but there's still like there could always be more. You know?

Matt: 24:38

Yeah. And oh, for people listening, MCC is the mass cultural council. Can listen back to an earlier episode I did with Michael Bobbitt if you want to learn more about that, who was the executive director. So you said you took a sabbatical after you got to the end of your time there.

Aliana: 24:52

That was last February.

Matt: 24:53

Yeah. And how long did that sabbatical last? And did you have a reshifting of what you want to do with your time?

Aliana: 24:59

And yeah, I think that at the time that I took that sabbatical, I had kind of been questioning what I wanted to do already for about two years. I went through like a really big life change and that just kind of shook up everything. It just had me rethinking my direction, what I was doing, you know, where I ended up. Like nothing was working out for me in the way that it did before. And even though I was basically doing the same things and like pounding the pavement, it just wasn't the same. Like my studio didn't build up in the same way. And it just wasn't what it was. It took me a like a really long time. Like I went through a lot of therapy, basically two years of therapy, like rethinking my entire life, really questioning, like, what do I do with these skills? You know, like I went through this training and I had mentors and I spent money on additional education to be, you know, a good fundraiser, to be able to manage staff, to be able to do all these things. And I guess the largest question I was asking myself was, do I want to be in a full-time position somewhere? And what kind of position would that be? Like, what would it take for me to be happy in a position like that? And where? Where do I go? 

Aliana: 26:16

I was debating whether or not to stay like in classical music or in opera or to like maybe broaden and expand. And then this position came up at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton. And I was in Western Mass at the time. So I started doing the fundraising and marketing there, mainly just to see if my skills transferred. Could I take these skills that I learned in starting a small opera company and basically being self taught, not to discredit all the amazing executive directors I took out for coffee. I can't tell you how many people were like really super generous to just take me out and talk about their experience, like Carol Charnell, who's now at the Children's Museum, Pat Kral, who is the executive director of Emmanuel Music, Richard Ortner from the Boston Conservatory. He's now passed. I consider him an early mentor of mine. He just like really super believed in me. You know, we would have coffee and they would tell me about their experience and, you know, what this is like and what that is like and when this happens, and you should be looking here for money and you should be asking this person or whatever. They were very generous of their time. That's something that really sticks with me, and that's why I feel very strongly about mentorship. Mentorship at any level that you're at, because someone can always learn something from you. And mentorship always goes both ways, right? So you learn something from the person who you're mentoring, and they learn from you. So so yeah, it took me like kind of a long time to rebuild my confidence. And in taking that job, I started to feel very confident in my skills and my ability, also in my leadership skills and the vision that I can bring to the work. And then this position opened up. I had already put in my resume for like a couple other director level positions. And they would have been great jobs, and I would have been happy, I would have been happy in them for a while. But then this one came up and I felt like, oh, this is one that would be really interesting for me. You know, I'm also a person like I'm not interested in the ladder, you know, like jumping from one job and then another better one comes up, and then I'll go to that one, and then a bigger organization has a position and I'll go to that one. Like I'm really interested in digging in my heels and building things. I feel like my strength is always in a startup mentality. And in coming here, it was very much like a startup. You know, there was a lot of things starting up, and immediately I could apply those sort of skills, like the entrepreneurial skills, the scrappy skills, skills that see, okay, now we need this, and now we need this, and this is how this is working, and should it work this way? So, yeah, that's what led me here, and that's been my experience here, and that's what made me feel like confident I could be instrumental here.

Matt: 29:08

Yeah. Yeah. So take us through. So, first of all, were you familiar with the MCA before?

Aliana: 29:12

Yes. So I had been coming here to the MCA when it was called the Arsenal Center for the Arts. And New Repertory Theater was here, and I took classes with New Repertory Theater. So I did like scene study, I did advanced scene study, like all these different things because I just love studying, I guess. But I also I do love the craft of acting. And so when I was able to take additional classes and to explore in different forms, that was really great for me. And it that's what drew me here. I lived in Cambridge, near Fresh Pond at the time.

Matt: 29:44

Yeah. So then take me through getting here. What was the situation like learning about that? And where have you kind of moved things in the past 90 days?

Aliana: 29:54

Yeah. When I first got here, the MCA had gone through a couple of transition periods. There were several staff transitions in key roles. I think that kind of left some things to clean up. And so when I got here in the first few days, I was really starting to notice that. And what I've been doing in these 90 days is changing processes. In the last year, you know, it was a difficult time for the MCA, and they were trying to really raise a lot of money, and they were very nervous about money and having enough of it. And, you know, I think they thought that they were gonna be bankrupt and close their doors. And Roberta came in and really miraculously raised a lot of money, also through her connections with these generous community members that care so much about this space. That form of generosity that is really inspiring here, that people cared enough to save the space. The board was also very active in running the space. And so, you know, when I came in, it was about relearning the relationships. And what I think about a lot now is that A, I have a really active and engaged board, and that is a blessing, you know, for all these nonprofit executives out there. It's really hard to find a board that is so engaged that they will like jump behind the bar and sell beers for you, or even just help you carry things up the stairs. You know what I mean? And then carry them back down when you made a mistake and realize you didn't need that thing. Or will show up and sit at a booth with you for a couple hours shift.

Matt: 31:45

Yeah, I have a memory of one of them. Shout out Jay at the River of Light last year, pouring out I don't know how many hundreds of cups of hot cocoa.

Aliana: 31:54

But that's a great board to not only like support you with money, but to physically show up and to say, like, I'm here, I'm helping, I care. Right. So I guess my overall goal is for the board to feel confident that like I'm here and I'm taking care of things and there's not gonna be fires, don't worry. But also keep the engagement going because you know, I still need them. We still need them and they're ready. They wanna do things. So I think that that's a great relationship to have. There's a lot of trust there, also with the staff, building trust that I have vision and that we're gonna be okay and we're moving forward now. Because, you know, when there's so much changing, it can cause like a lot of doubt and a lot of questioning in the leadership specifically, like, well, what's gonna happen to me here? So for me, it was building transparency and decision making, financial transparency, also giving each department head agency to run their department. I basically gave them their budget and I was like, here's your budget. This is what you're expected to make, this is what you're expected to spend, these are my ideas on how to break it up. But like, if you want to change it, you can just change it. It's yours. Just like let me know so I can explain it to the board when when they see that it changed. You know, but as long as the numbers at the bottom and at the top stay the same, you know, it's your department. And then to trust that they're experts in running their department and that they know what to do, which they do. So I don't feel the need to.

Matt: 33:35

Micromanage. 

Aliana: 33:36

No, not at all. No, no. And that's really not my style. My style is like I have my own work to do, these are my duties. You're the head of that department. I trust you know what to do. Let's check in regularly, so that I know what you're doing. And the first thing I did when I got in here, I had one-on-ones with everyone. Almost all of the board and all of the staff. At least what really struck me about the staff was that they all had really strong, concrete visions for their departments and how they saw their department. And I did not need to like come in and restructure a lot of things. My vision really is only about like how can we creatively engage the cash flow, you know? Like, how can we always make sure that money is flowing? And a lot of people talk about revenue, right? But I think about how the money is flowing, like it comes in and it comes out. And that's the nature of money. You don't just get, get, get, or like give, give, give. It comes and it goes. There are some periods where you get more, and some periods where you don't. And so it's learning those ebbs and flows and saying, okay, there's a big ebb here. How do we creatively get it to flow? Or do we not? And we just have to like tighten our belts those months. What's going on in those months that's causing the ebb?

Matt: 34:59

Yeah. So what are some of these new ideas that you're trying out? What are some of the new creative ideas?

Aliana: 35:05

Yeah. Well, I don't know that they're new ideas. 

Matt: 35:08

Well maybe new for here.

Aliana: 35:10

They're new for here for sure. I think, you know, when I came in and also a couple other of our staff members were noticing too, is that over the summer and into like September, we are getting a lot more requests from visual artists to show their work here in the galleries. And we had never had a process for receiving and selecting who gets to show their art here. So starting this season, actually, we're gonna have a three-month call for art where artists can submit their proposals for gallery shows that can be solo artists, it can be group work. And we're going to accept those works from I think November through January. Don't quote me, but just like follow us on the website because we're gonna post this. This is what I'm remembering in the moment. And that is gonna be a call for artwork to display in the coming season. And it's only gonna be once a year for those three months. Because we also have our regular gallery exhibits throughout the season. In addition to that, some things were shifting around here, and it just ended up that we opened up two artist studios. And so when I interviewed here, one of my big pitches was an artist in residence program. And then it just happened that two studios are becoming available. And I was like, guess what? We're gonna do it. And everyone was like, when? I was like, next month. And I wrote three grants about it, and I like wrote out a whole proposal and we really worked it out. And so what I think it's going to be, and we're gonna launch it soon, and it's finalizing, we're gonna do three-month periods for artists, and one room will be single occupancy and one room will be double occupancy. And this way we can have more artists in our space. Some of it will be paid residency, and we're also gonna have one fellowship available, and that will be free. So one fellow can utilize the space. And we're calling these the Ignite fellowships, and they're really meant to address systemic barriers to access to artistic and working space.

Matt: 37:21

Yeah. And are these open to all mediums?

Aliana: 37:24

I would say that we haven't discussed it that much. I would welcome varied artistic mediums, maybe not percussion. Well, you know, the rooms, they just don't have like sound barriers.

Matt: 37:38

You don't want the person taking an art class next door hearing the vibraslap all day?

Aliana: 37:42

Well, I mean, that would be kind of just like disorienting because the vibraslap is just like a weird 

Matt: 37:47

More the timpani. 

Aliana: 37:48

Yeah, there you go. But also like the studios, one is on one side of my office and one is on the other side of my office. And like 

Matt: 37:55 

Self-preservation. 

Aliana: 37:56

There you go. But I would say like it's open to artists of multiple mediums. Like so, like certainly visual artists, filmmakers for sure, you know, writers who want to be in an artistic space where there's other things happening that kind of like thrive being in a community, for sure. I was thinking if there was like a book writer and an illustrator wanting to work as a team, that's where the double occupancy would be. That was at least my idea. So, you know, any artist that needs three months of space, ideally working on something large form that would take that amount of time.

Matt: 38:29

Yeah, gotcha. And the idea is it'd be rolling every three months to have new artists in there.

Aliana: 38:33

Yeah. Three months with some months off. So we think definitely we're gonna have one starting in January and then another one in the following cycle. And probably we're gonna take July and August off.

Matt: 38:46

Gotcha. I'm sure it will be high demand for this.

Aliana: 38:49

Oh, I certainly hope so. You know, I really feel strongly about access to space when the project is right and the artist feels like they're a good fit for the community that we're trying to build here. We really try to work with artists in a lot of different ways so that there can be access to this space. And we also work with community groups so that they can access this space too. You know, I just had a really interesting conversation with the Pigsgusset Initiative and hopefully we can bring them in for something. And also with the City of Watertown Senior Services, and you know, these are organizations that are like they're not large budgeted organizations, and if they were actually to pay what we fully charge for a space like this, they wouldn't be able to access it. So for me, it's balancing.

Matt: 39:38

Yeah. It's a balancing act, always.

Aliana: 39:40

It's a balancing act, is how do we make the space open and accessible and still keep the lights on.

Matt: 39:46

Right.

Aliana: 39:47

You know?

Matt: 39:48

Right. Enriching the space as much as possible and all the meanings of that word. 

Aliana: 39:52

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

Matt: 39:55

Cool. Well, maybe to ride it out here, we actually haven't for anyone who doesn't know what the Mosesian Center for the Arts is, we should state that and then, you know, maybe give a heads up for people of things to look out for in the coming months.

Aliana: 40:06

Absolutely. The Mosesian Center for the Arts, the full name is the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts. We are in Watertown, Massachusetts, and we are a multi-arts center. And here we really thrive on bringing excellent artistic experiences to our community. And we do a variety of things here that continue to bring the audience in.

Matt: 40:32

Cool. And other than the residency and call for art, what type of programming can people expect in, you know, by the time this comes out, you know, in the winter months?

Aliana: 40:40

Yeah. Well, in the winter months is a great time to come here because we're cozy, we have a bar. During creative chats, we have coffee at the bar, we have muffins. So we have creative chats ongoing throughout the winter. We have every other month, we have a series of open mics that we co-produce with a local artist collective. We have our chords and cocktails series, which feature jazz performers. Some come from Berkeley College of Music. Some are, you know, national touring. We have our main stage productions. Paula Poundstone is coming in December. I think she's basically sold out. So keep your eyes open. And then we may be even welcoming a new company in residence. We also have the Actors’ Shakespeare Project here as a current company in residence. They'll be having another show in February, Little Women, and other large-scale events too. The River of Light is happening here again this year. And there's the big Treaty Day celebration in the summer that we're also a part of. So we have a lot going on pretty consistently. And I would say, you know, come to our website and check out what's happening because a lot of our renters, they're producing really interesting work, and a lot of them come from here within the community, and you wouldn't like really know their work unless you were here in the community. So we have really interesting renters that produce work by Indian artists who are Indian artists, Indian from India, and just a number of renters that really like fully represent the diversity of Watertown. I was very happy to walk into that and to see that it was happening here already. There was very little work for me to do, at least on that part. So that was a really nice discovery.

Matt: 42:34

Nice. Yeah, so everyone can check out the website to keep up to date or follow on social, put links for all that in the show notes. Well, I know also you're still doing your stuff too. You're saying you're gonna be performing at the ICA probably before this actually comes out.

Aliana: 42:49

Before this comes out, I'm performing at the ICA. They're doing a composer takeover of the whole museum, I think, activating galleries. And yeah. So that's me still performing and doing this little avant-garde things and things pop up here and there too. And I do have a website. I haven't been good about updating it, but I'm much better at updating my social.

Matt: 43:10

Cool. Well, we can put links to that in the show notes too. But yeah, it's good to know that we have like an active artist who is actually running this artist space. So I think that's an interesting perspective to have in there.

Aliana: 43:20

Thank you. 

Matt: 43:21

Well, thanks for taking the time to sit down and chat. And yeah, this has been great. 

Aliana: 43:25

Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

Matt: 43:28

So that's it for my conversation with Aliana. You can find out more information about her and the Mosesian Center for the Arts at MosesianArts.org. I'll also link to that in the show notes. And since we had this conversation, they did announce their artists in residence and other calls for art. So you can go look that up on their website now and apply for that. And they have announced their new company in residence, which is the Boston Dance Theater. Can check out their social media for more information about that. So lots of exciting stuff coming up at the Mosesian Center. Check it out. One of the things going on at the Mosesian Center that Aliana mentioned is Creative Chats, which is a monthly live podcast event that I do on the first Friday of the month. In the morning, we gather creative people to listen to a conversation that I have with a creative guest on the topic of creativity and creative life. Anyone interested in creativity is welcome. The next one coming up is on Friday, December 5th. With guest Marija Draskic Brancazio, who is a Serbian artist, musician, and community organizer working in Cambridge and Watertown. She's also one of the founders of the Open Mic series at the MCA. You can find out more information on the website at LittleLocalConversations.com. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter there to keep up to date on all this. And when new episodes drop, when new events are coming up. And again, that's where you can sign up for the Little Local Holiday Giveaway, where anyone who supports the podcast, as a monthly supporter, little local friend, have a chance to win one of the many prizes I'm giving out from local businesses and organizations. Give you a quick rundown. We have gift cards, prizes from Arsenal Yards, including Buttermilk and Bourbon, Condesa, Medium Rare, Mighty Squirrel, Tori Jiro, also involved is the Boston Gold Kings, Campolongo Cookie Company, Cass School of Floral Design, Farina’s, Gore Place, Mosesian Center for the Arts, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Revival Cafe and Kitchen, and Ritcey East. So if you'd like to help support the podcast, keep these conversations going, and have a chance to win a prize for one of those local businesses and organizations, head to Little Local Conversations.com slash friend. You have until the day before Thanksgiving to sign up. The day after Thanksgiving, I'm going to give out the prizes to those winners, so get in while you can. 

Matt: 45:33

Alright, and I want to give a few shout outs here to wrap things up. First one goes to podcast sponsor, Arsenal Financial. It's a financial planning business here in Watertown that's owned by Doug Orifice, who's a very committed community member, and his business helps busy families, small businesses, and people close to retirement. So you need help in any of those areas, reach out to Doug and his team at arsenalfinancial.com. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at watertowncultural council.org and Mass Cultural Council.org. And a couple more shout-outs to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that's bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Find out more about them at Watertown Business Coalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.