FALL RIVER – The Fall River Arts & Culture Coalition starts the new year with a new face at the helm, hiring Ashley Occhino to be the group’s executive director. The position is a new one for FRACC, which was formed in 2019 and is a collaborative, member-based organization dedicated to advancing arts and culture in Fall River. Occhino was most recently the Executive Director of the New Bedford Art Museum and will officially assume her duties in Fall River on Jan. 18. She will be based at the Fall River office of One SouthCoast Chamber, which acts as the fiscal agent for the Coalition.
“It is my pleasure to welcome Ashley Occhino to the Fall River Arts and Culture Coalition’s team,” said Kathy Castro, co-chair of FRAAC. “The City stands poised for an Arts Renaissance, and I can think of no one better to lead this movement than Ashley. The experience and knowledge she brings will take us to new levels of growth in serving our arts organizations and independent artists. Working together, there is so much we can accomplish.”
In early November 2021, FRACC held a launch event for the City’s first Arts & Culture Plan, commissioned by the group in late 2020 and completed in 2021 by the hired consultancy, CivicMoxie, a planning, urban design, and placemaking group located in Brookline, MA. As Executive Director, Occhino will be tasked with shepherding the implementation of the multi-year plan and will be pivotal in FRACC toward its goal of fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable creative economy in the city.