On Friday May 20th State Senator Ed Kennedy; Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development, along with Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council Michael J. Bobbitt, toured two culturally significant sites in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The first stop on the tour was to the Whistler House Museum of Art, where they were joined by President and Executive Director Sara Mezian Bogosian, Mass Cultural Facilities Fund Program Director Jay Paget, and Chair of the Lowell Cultural Council Joe Pyne for a tour of the facility and discussion of their new art center construction project. The Whistler House Museum of Art is the oldest incorporated art association the United States and has featured prominently in the history and culture of the City of Lowell. Located in the Acre neighborhood, the Whistler House Museum of Art provides services to a diverse population of varying socio-economic backgrounds and is an internationally known attraction for visitors from the city, region, and abroad.
The next site they visited was the St. Jean Baptiste Church where Senator Kennedy and Executive Director Bobbitt met with Jack Kerouac Foundation Secretary Steve Edington, Foundation Executive Board member Dave Ouellette and Foundation Executive Director Sylvia Cunha. The Jack Kerouac Estate recently announced the formation of the Jack Kerouac Foundation which is intended to further the creative legacy of the world-renowned American writer and artist. The Foundation’s first initiative will be to pursue funding for the establishment of a Jack Kerouac Museum and Performance Center in the magnificent former St Jean Baptiste Church, which was constructed in 1896 to serve Lowell’s Little Canada neighborhood. The church was the parish for most of the city’s large French-Canadian population. It was also the site of Jack Kerouac’s funeral Mass in 1969.
