Mechanics Hall in good fiscal health, Portraits Project moving ahead, annual meeting told

WORCESTER — The 180th annual meeting of the Worcester County Mechanics Association had several items of good news to share with members at Mechanics Hall on Tuesday evening.

The association owns and operates Mechanics Hall, a historic venue built in 1857.

“I am pleased to report that the overall financial health of Mechanics Hall is good,” said treasurer Peter Alden.

Financial highlights of the association for fiscal year 2023 include gross revenue of $3.2 million, including $1.4 million from rental activities.

Mechanics Hall hosted 187 events in 2023, 73 more than in 2022, resulting in increased hall rental income. It reopened for live in-person concerts in August, 2021, following the pandemic shutdown.

Association president Tom McGregor thanked supporters for continuing to bolster the operations and maintenance of Mechanics Hall.

Mechanics Hall executive director Kathleen M. Gagne reported on new initiatives that have been taking place. Many Voices: Mechanics Hall Youth Singers, is a free choral group, open to all Worcester fifth and sixth graders, which made its debut in October 2022. Club 321 is a new monthly contemporary music series with an artful, coffee house ambience in Washburn Hall at Mechanics Hall.

Meanwhile, the Portraits Project, first announced to great interest in 2020, will add commissioned portraits of four 19th-century Black Americans to the Great Hall in 2024.  Portraits of 19th-century national and local notable persons hang in the Great Hall of Mechanics Hall, but currently none of them are of Black Americans.

The commission of three paintings includes: one depicting Worcester business owners and abolitionists William Brown and Martha Ann Tulip Lewis Brown; one depicting former slave, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth; and one depicting former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Both Truth and Douglass spoke in Worcester. The cost of the project is $500,000.

"The new portraits of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William and Martha Brown will honor the impact these inspiring Americans had on the evolution of our country,” Gagne said. “They will also draw attention to the role our city and the Mechanics Hall stages played in the highly contentious social reform issues of that time:  abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and temperance.”

Carolyn Stempler, a co-chair of the portraits fundraising campaign, reported that donations and pledges total $402,000, or 80% of the goal. Stempler officially announced the public phase of the campaign with the goal of raising the additional $98,000 needed. The project includes commissioning the portraits, framing, transporting, re-positioning portraits in the gallery, preservation work, and educational programming for youth.

William Brown was a successful 19th century Worcester upholsterer and carpetmaker. He and his wife, Martha operated the business located in the Central Exchange Building, in the heart of downtown. He became the first Black member of the Worcester County Mechanics Association in 1867.

The guest speaker at Tuesday's annual the meeting was James Goldsberry, a Mechanics Hall trustee and a great-great-grandson of William and Martha Brown.

Goldsberry, who is the founder and CEO of NextUp2Lead, a management and leadership coaching and training firm, said, "It is an absolutely exciting time to be on the board, as there is a once-in-a-generation major initiative underway: the Portraits Project, which will add portraits of Black Americans to the Great Hall. Our family is honored that one of these portraits will include my great-great-grandparents William and Martha Brown in recognition of their significant contributions to the Worcester community.”

Officers elected at the meeting included Thomas McGregor, president; Peter Thomas, first vice president; Anthony Consolmagno, treasurer; Ellen Conte, clerk; Jamie Leehy, vice president (governance); Satya Mitra, vice president (membership and development); and David Smith, vice president (property co-chair).

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mechanics Hall in good fiscal health, Portraits Project moving ahead