August has turned into fundraiser (friendraiser?) month for Salem Main Streets, and

First off, what is Salem Main Streets again, and why should you support it?

Salem Main Streets’ nonprofit mission is the continued revitalization of downtown Salem as a vibrant, year-round retail, dining, and cultural destination through business retention, recruitment, and promotion of the downtown district – a district of over one square mile that includes over 250 active storefronts, multiple cultural attractions and historic assets (including a National Park Service site), and almost a third of the city’s population.

We work with businessowners when they are first starting out, when they’re beginning to vend at events, when they’re ready to find their first storefront, when they’re ready to expand, and when they hit any number of setbacks along the way. We operate events that drive foot traffic to the downtown to support existing businesses as well as events that encourage new small business development. We weigh in on public art decisions, city policy improvements and construction projects, we even provide support to other peoples’ events! We strive to make downtown Salem a place where people can live, work, and play all year-round.

Much of this work is unseen and not particularly flashy – but it all pays off. In addition to a full calendar of community-focused events, from the Salem Arts Festival to the Howl-o-ween Pet Parade to the Salem Farmers’ Market, the downtown district now boasts an incredibly low commercial vacancy rate of ONLY 2%, and 90% of our storefronts are locally-owned and operated!!! Every little dollar we can raise makes that happen, and this month we have a ton of different ways you can help.

SMS Virtual 5K, all month – we are so excited to try this for the first time! For a pledge of just $25, participants may choose to complete a 5K at their own pace, on their own schedule, and in their own way (run, jog, walk, scoot, glide, bike, horseback ride, etc.) any time during the month of August. When you prepare for, progress along, or celebrate completion of the 5K, post photos to all social media platforms and be sure to include this hashtag #SMS5k2022 — and tag us using @salemmainstreets on Facebook or Instagram; or @salemmainstreet on Twitter — so Salem Main Streets staff and everyone else can follow along with you! Sign up here – https://justgiving.com/campaign/SMS5k2022

Ice Scream Bowl, Aug. 3 – did you know that the Ice Scream Bowl is actually (not-so-secretly) a fundraiser for Salem Main Streets? That’s why we’re extra grateful for everyone who comes to buy a ticket, and all the ice cream vendors who donate their product and their time!

Landing at Salem Ferry Fundraiser, Aug. 10 – one of the coolest views in the city! Our friends at City Experiences have offered their very first nonprofit fundraiser night to Salem Main Streets! Swing by for a drink on your way home, on your way out, walking the dog…

American Flatbread Fundraiser, Aug. 16 – when Flatbread re-opened this summer, they immediately brought back their nonprofit fundraiser evenings. Who were we to say no? A portion of proceeds from every pizza sold that night comes back to Salem Main Streets!

Peabody Stop & Shop community bags – last but not least, someone was kind enough to nominate us for a local Stop & Shop fundraiser (thank you, whoever you are)! For this entire month of August, SMS will receive $1 from every $2.50 Community Bag sold at the Stop & Shop located at 19 Howley Street in Peabody (the one close to Harmony Grove). Reduce your impact on the environment while supporting Salem Main Streets at the same time!

Whether you can give a little or a lot, whether your taste is more for a scoop of chocolate ice cream or a glass of Merlot, August is full of ways to help make Salem Main Streets even better! And of course, you can always donate directly to Salem Main Streets by clicking the Donate button on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/SalemMainStreets

Thank you to all of you who were able to join us for our 2022 Annual Meeting! If you missed out or if you wanted to review anything, you can access the full slideshow here. A few accomplishments we especially celebrated included a business GAIN since the start of the pandemic, incredibly low storefront vacancy in the downtown district, a steady increase in small locally-grown businesses opening in the past few years, the return of so many of our favorite SMS-run community events, and a BEAUTIFUL new brand video about Salem Main Streets and the downtown district, produced by Queer Videography with additional content provided by Creative Collective.

Thank you again to all our 2021-2022 supporters and sponsors, including the City of Salem, Mass Growth Capital Corporation, Salem Chamber of Commerce, Destination Salem, INSA, Creative Collective, Eastern Bank, and Fox Pest Control – and all our special event sponsors and individual donors who lend their support all year long!

The Salem Arts Festival announces an invitation for the community to participate in the festival’s 14^th year, running June 3 through June 5, 2022. Over 8,000 people regularly attend the family-friendly festival, transforming downtown Salem, MA into an opportunity for the arts community to showcase a wide range of talents. The festival includes a gallery of juried artists’ work in Old Town Hall, outdoor stage venues for performance and dance, an artist and artisan street fair, a collaborative public arts project, and much more! Special thanks to this year’s returning title sponsors Salem Five and Peabody Essex Museum for their continued support.

“The Arts Festival was the first community event we were able to hold when COVID-19 restrictions began lifting last year, and it was absolutely wonderful, but it was definitely in an adjusted form,” said Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets, co-organizer of the Salem Arts Festival. “We are so looking forward to bringing this special event back to full capacity in 2022.”

The Salem Arts Festival is especially pleased to announce that the festival, initially run as a project of Salem Main Streets, will continue to run in collaboration with the Creative Collective. Creative Collective LLC is a program with the mission of fostering the sustainability of the creative industries and supporting creative workforce development. John Andrews, founder of the Collective states, “The expansion of the event and overall celebration of arts and culture in Salem is so critically needed as we try and heal from the past and the creative community is still struggling to get back on its feet so we are excited to support and celebrate this critically important industry of creators.”

Applications for performers, street fair vendors, and the annual mural slam are now live at salemartsfestival.com, with deadlines in late March and early April. A juried gallery will be selected by an on-site review process again this year, to be held the weekend before the festival, May 27 through May 30. Artists interested in the gallery should complete an Intent to Apply online at salemartsfestival.com in order to receive the most up-to-date information about the gallery process.

For the 9th year, a community-built public art installation will be included as part of the festival, and the committee is currently in search of proposals from locally-based artists for this year’s project.  The project will ideally provide opportunities to create community engagement leading up to the festival, engage with a relevant issue in the community through the lens of art, and provide a compelling visual connection with this year’s festival theme of Connection and Connectivity.  The deadline for proposals is March 31^st. More information is available at salemartsfestival.com/community-art-project.

The Salem Arts Festival is organized by Salem Main Streets, the Creative Collective and a collaboration of Salem organizations. This festival and many others are supported by tourism dollars, Destination Salem and the City of Salem. If you would like to support this dynamic annual cultural mainstay and economic driver, please contact Arielle Kaplan at arielle@creativecollectivema.com or visit salemartsfestival.com/2022-sponsor-opportunities

For more information about the Salem Arts Festival, please see www.salemartsfestival.com or contact Kylie Sullivan at kylie@salemmainstreets.org or (978)744-0004 (x115).