Our annual Gala is known as a unique, not-to-be-missed event that celebrates art, artists, and our creative community. Your sponsorship is an excellent way to highlight your business while supporting inclusive and accessible art education for the benefit of Newton and the Greater Boston area. We invite you to join us as a sponsor and help us continue to build community through art.

The POPpin’ at the FACTORY Gala will support New Art and provide funding for all of our free community programs including Art as Therapy for teens and women survivors of domestic abuse; programs that serve adults with developmental and communication disabilities; and our young leadership programs that empower the next generation of artists and creatives. 

We are pleased to introduce the New Art Community Advocacy Award. This award will be presented annually to community members who uphold New Art’s commitment to building a thriving, inclusive community through the arts.

The Board and Staff of the New Art Center thank Representative Khan for her vision and commitment to elevating the role of Arts & Culture in the Commonwealth during her three decades of service as an elected official.

State Representative Kay Khan has represented Newton in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1995. She currently represents the 11th Middlesex district. She was honored to serve as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities for 12 years, until 2021. Some of her recent legislative victories include a ban on conversion therapy, the creation of the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health, and a complete ban on child marriage without exception. She is a Commissioner on the Permanent Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, a 23-member, independent state agency established in the Massachusetts General Laws in 2020. Among other areas of note, she is the founder and co-chair of a legislative Mental Health Caucus, the first of its kind in the country. As a former chair of the Caucus of Women’s Legislators, she is the founder and continues to co-chair the Taskforce on Women in the Criminal Justice System.

Representative Khan earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University School of Nursing and started her first job as a Pediatric Nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital. Later, she earned her master’s degree with honors in Psychiatric Mental Health from Boston University School of Nursing and worked in a private practice in Newton for close to 20 years. From her first years as a freshman legislator to her status today as a senior-ranking legislator known for her leading progressive values, she has earned countless recognitions and awards such as the Abigail Adams Tribute Award of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (2015), the Women Bar Association’s Legislator of the Year Award (2004), the Distinguished Legislator Award of the Boston Bar Association (2017), the Massachusetts Association of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses Lifetime Achievement Award, and the UNICEF USA’s Unite for Children Leadership Award (2019).

Representative Khan has had a passion for arts and culture throughout her entire life. She has served as a Board Member of Newton’s New Philharmonia Orchestra since 1995, is a founding Board Member of the Newton Cultural Alliance which recently finished the restoration of The Allen Center in West Newton. In her early life, she was devoted to the study of ballet as a student of E. Virginia Williams, founder of the Boston Ballet Company. As a teenager, she opened a ballet studio out of her mother’s home and taught young girls the basics of ballet. As a parent, she served on the Arts & Culture section of the Newton Parent Teacher Association and became involved in bringing arts and culture into the classrooms. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of JALSA and the Advisory Board of the John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club of Newton.

Representative Khan has lived in Newton for more than 40 years, where she and her husband raised their three children and where she now enjoys spending time with her seven grandchildren.