Charlie Nanda, an arts administrator hired to help produce Needham’s arts and culture action plan, briefed the Needham Council for Arts and Culture on the plan during the council’s Sept. 30 meeting and urged the volunteer board to champion staffing and infrastructure changes to make the plan actionable.

Nanda said the plan, delivered in October 2024 after a MAPC technical grant, maps four goals and inventories more than 160 local arts assets. “I’m an arts administrator and advocate,” Nanda said. “My focus is connecting artists and audiences to the broader community.” She told the council that the town lacks a single municipal champion to keep the plan from “sitting on a shelf” and recommended pursuing a part‑time or funded staff position to coordinate programming, calendars and partnerships.

The plan grew out of a $40,000 technical grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Nanda said, and documents local assets and priorities intended to strengthen arts infrastructure and cross‑committee coordination. She cited examples in nearby towns that use a paid staffer to coordinate events, a centralized calendar and to pursue partnerships with schools, businesses and economic development staff.

Council members and Nanda discussed facility limitations, particularly the need for consistent technical staffing for school auditoriums. Nanda said her research found comparable towns using auditorium rental income to fund a technical‑director post: “Weymouth’s program generates about $100,000 a year in rental income that covers a technical director,” she said as an example of how rental revenue plus fundraising can be organized.

Council members raised the town’s current restrictions on for‑profit rentals of town property and the question of whether public–private fundraising partnerships would be allowable for an operations position. Nanda noted that Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) rules allow a council to allocate a portion of state funds for administration and council‑initiated projects, but she emphasized that larger staffing solutions would likely require town budgeting or outside fundraising.

The presentation included suggestions for near‑term, actionable steps: convene a local cultural roundtable; promote a shared events calendar; and approach the Select Board and Finance Committee with examples of awarded grants and funded projects as evidence of impact. Nanda encouraged council members to use the Select Board meeting on Oct. 29 as an opportunity to present the plan and the council’s municipal funding requests.

The council did not adopt any new citywide staffing or budget decisions at the meeting; Nanda and the council agreed to follow up with subcommittees and town staff to explore feasible funding vehicles, fundraising partnerships and next steps.

The council then moved on to other agenda items and an open house with local artists.