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Did you get a call from a new non-profit art organization asking to get on your roof this past month?
Yes, that was us. February may be a short month, but we were climbing high on every tall structure surrounding Custom House Square.

2018 was an exciting year for DATMA. Thank you to the many businesses, organizations, foundations, and individuals who have signed on to help launch DATMA and prepare us for our inaugural programming season called, Summer Winds.

DATMA was awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts (CFSEMA) recently. The $27,500 in funding will support DATMA’s inaugural exhibit, Summer Winds, taking place in summer of 2019.

The Massachusetts Design Art and Technology Institute (DATMA) will launch this September. The institute is a 21st century museum based in New Bedford, Massachusetts with a goal to presents international exhibitions and programs showing the impact of new technologies in art and design, on educational, economic, and cultural life in the Southcoast Region and beyond.

It’s not clear if Mary Poppins will be attending next year’s kite festival, but so far we’ve got a good list of kite groups who promise to bring their wildly colorful wings, tethers, and anchors to Fort Taber the last Saturday of July in 2019.

Out of the many organizations in the SouthCoast, AHA! brings the entire city together each month to celebrate the arts and culture of New Bedford. AHA! is one well-oiled machine running now for over 20 years. So, when it’s Director, Lee Heald suggested we dedicate next August to DATMA’s programming theme, wind, we blushed with honor.

Thanks to “The Z,” the scent of butter is somehow filling my office air. New Bedford’s own, Zeiterion Theater has offered to feature a windy talkie at the 2019 Mayor’s Classic Movie Series. We’re excited to add another Summer Winds collaboration to our list of 2019 events.

Our DATMA Board knew launching the organization’s logo would have its challenges, which is why we chose to work with American Typographer, Cyrus Highsmith. With his designs seen all over the globe, Highsmith has kept busy as RISD faculty, Senior Designer at Boston’s Font Bureau, and founding his own type foundry Occupant Fonts in 2016.

SouthCoast, Massachusetts is brewing with creative energy. Thanks to Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville, New Bedford has a historic reputation known around the world. Yet the city seems undiscovered. Inside this hidden gem, exists endless culture. In the heart of downtown, The Co-Creative Center offered a comfortable spot for our DATMA institute to set up shop providing access to New Bedford’s businesses and organizations making it easy to collaborate with the city’s leaders.