For her work in expanding, influencing, and continually evolving the Marblehead Festival of Arts as its president, and for her countless hours of work volunteering and teaching for numerous organizations locally, nationally, and internationally, Jodi-Tatiana Charles is Essex Media Group’s Person of the Year in Marblehead.
For more than 60 years, the Festival of Arts has been led by town volunteers in order to celebrate the arts through an annual festival that has become one of the town’s most iconic events.
Last year, Charles took over as president after volunteering with the festival for nearly a decade, and it has only grown and flourished since taking the role, with 2023’s festival showing evidence of that.
In addition to the festival, Charles also volunteers her time with two other nonprofit organizations. Growing up in a Catholic family, she said that volunteerism was a big part of her upbringing.
“In my family, it was just automatic. We always, always, always gave back,” Charles said. “It was a great way to understand and know your community.”
From a young age, Charles was always surrounded by the arts, both in her own home and wherever she traveled. Her family was always taking trips to museums and galleries as her father taught her their value in learning about a community’s history and culture, which is a primary reason for her love and involvement in Marblehead’s art community today.
“To live in a coastal town where there’s so many amazing artists, I wanted to volunteer,” she said.
Now, her focus is to improve and expand the festival to reach as many people as possible. That goal began at last year’s festival, with a number of new events and activities being implemented. A 5K run and walk was added, in addition to Chalk this Way, which aimed to incorporate a street-art element to the festival.
By adding more events containing various forms of art, Charles is hoping to provide different avenues for a more broad and diverse audience to enjoy.
The festival also partnered with local business Hestia Creations to create a scavenger hunt where nonprofits partnered with artists to paint orbs that were then hidden along the trails in town, which when found, taught people about the various organizations, generating more traffic and publicity on their websites.
Those additions are just some of the ways that under her direction, Charles is hoping to bring in new ways of thinking to allow for events to evolve to reach all demographics.
“It brought the community together, young and old. So for me, it’s all about how do we sit there and make this festival for everyone of all ages, all sizes, all ethnicities,” Charles said.