40 / matters magazine / spring 2026 I f you’ve ever walked through the Maple wood train station tunnel and been jolted awake by a burst of vivid artwork or paused in town to read a poem hanging in a public space, you’ve already encountered the work of the Maplewood Arts Council. Even if you didn’t know its name. That, in fact, is part of the story. Art seems to bloom naturally in Maplewood, on stages, in galleries, in parks, in libraries, in storefronts, in converted buildings and occasion ally in train tunnels. Behind much of that vision, advocacy and connective tissue is a volunteer ad visory committee that has spent the last 15 years helping make sure the arts are part of daily life. The Maplewood Arts Council, often called MAC, was created by the township committee in 2010 to support and enhance the town’s cultur al life. Its members are appointed residents who work closely with the Division of Arts & Culture. “We’re a group of Maplewood residents who serve on a volunteer advisory committee to the township, with the shared goal of improving the quality of life in Maplewood by helping the arts to flourish,” says Tricia Tunstall, a longtime member, co-founder and former chair of the council. In practice it means a lot of practical, behind- the-scenes work. Marcy Thompson, the council’s chair, says the council provides continuity, per spective and institutional memory. That continuity matters. The Division of Arts & Culture operates venues including the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts, the 1978 Maplewood Arts Center and The Woodland. The council advocates for these spaces, supports their use by local artists and ensures the town continues to think seriously about accessibil ity, participation and artistic diversity. The council is not an event-producing organi zation. It is not there, as Tunstall says, to produce your band’s live show, your stand-up comedy night or your quilting exhibition. MAC creates the con ditions in which those things can happen. It ad vises, connects, supports and advocates. It helps the township think about policy, public spaces, access and long-term priorities. Sometimes, when the bandwidth and fundraising are there, it also helps spearhead public-facing projects. Some of those projects have become memorable parts of Maplewood’s visual and cultural identity. One of the best known is Art in the Tunnel, the permanent gallery of paintings installed in the tunnel at the Maplewood train station. The idea, Tunstall says, was to bring some of Maplewood’s “creative heat and light” into what had been a dark and dreary commuter passage. The council raised funds to pay artists, issued a request for proposals and selected works by local artists that would in spire people on the move while reflecting Maple wood as a vibrant artistic community. The result is one of those quietly wonderful public experiences that can improve your day be fore you’ve even had your coffee. Another especially resonant project was the Black Lives Matter Poetry Project, mounted in 2020 and 2021 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the national reckoning that followed. The council displayed nearly 40 poems by nationally known, local and student Black poets on banners in Helping Art Grow All Around You The quiet force behind Maplewood’s arts scene BY ADRIANNA DONAT One of the best known projects of the Maplewood Arts Council is "Art in the Tun nel," designed to add "creative heat and light" into what had been a dark and dreary commuter passage.
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