Mission
AHA! invigorates downtown New Bedford through collaborative
community engagement — like its popular monthly AHA! Nights—to celebrate art and culture, foster a thriving economy, and create a vibrant, welcoming downtown for all.
AHA! Night offers a meeting place for over 60 community partners on the 2nd Thursday of the month, when artistic expression is everywhere and open to everyone: encouraging fun, provoking-thought and nurturing the soul. Join us and come downtown for your own AHA! moment!
For over 25 years, AHA! 2nd Thursday events have provided community partners with a time and place to shine. AHA!’s collaboration with state, municipal and private funding partners is leveraged to attract local, regional and long-distance visitors to downtown New Bedford, revitalizing the city through a growing creative economy.
Accomplishments
A pre-pandemic visitor survey completed by the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass Dartmouth found each month’s themed AHA! Night consistently drew upwards of 2,000 visitors from the city, surrounding towns, Providence, and Cape Cod. The study revealed that every $1 spent by AHA! returned $2.50 to the New Bedford economy, and each dollar invested by the State returned $33.
AHA partners enjoy a collective marketing program that contributes significantly to the New Bedford economy through expenditures at retail stores, eateries and cultural institutions. A 2015 survey revealed that AHA! Night brought 24,000 visitors to downtown, resulting in $887,000 in economic benefit to local businesses, cultural organizations and eateries that year.
Meet the Staff
Kim Goddard
AHA! Executive Director
Contact: director@ahanewbedford.org
Kim Goddard is the Executive Director of AHA! New Bedford. Over a 35-year career, she has focused on marketing, program management, and team leadership at organizations such as Lucasfilm Ltd., Bose Corporation, and the SouthCoast Community Foundation. Kim has served on the Coastal Neighbors Network Board and has consulted with several other organizations, including the Buzzards Bay Coalition, Our Sisters’ School, Superflat NB, the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, and United Way of Greater New Bedford. Kim has been a passionate New Bedford advocate since she moved to the South Coast in 2015 and has been part of the AHA! team since the fall of 2023.
Khepe-Ra Maat-Het-Heru
Program Coordinator
Contact: programs@ahanewbedford.org
Khepe-Ra MAAT-Het-Heru has a lifelong history using stories, speeches, and songs to help express the essence of movement music and grassroots pedagogy internationally. As a community leader, Khepe-Ra created The ESHU Collective in 1999 and The Spiritual Warrior Society in 2010, securing funding and establishing arts, eco-education and leadership development programming in New Bedford. Through ESHU’s work with YouthBuild USA, she created a national training-of-trainers model from conception to fruition that increased representation of youth, low-income, and African and Indigenous peoples. During her time as faculty for NeighborWorks America in Washington, DC, she applied spirituality and personal healing practice to the nonprofit management and leadership departments and created new opportunities to place young people on boards of directors. As an artist, organizer, peacemaker, and project leader, Khepe-Ra helps to nourish many justice-focused community leadership initiatives. As an event designer, she leads and manages organizational reflection activities and guides transformational evaluation opportunities for personal and organizational growth. Her life’s work is about “The Spiritual Warrior Approach” – a sacred rite of passage curriculum that helps support deep relationship building with The Divine using African Wisdom Teachings and self-initiation practices.
Elizabeth Aragao
Marketing Associate
Contact: liz@elizabetharagao.com
Elizabeth Aragao is a marketing leader focused on the intersection of arts and community. Her professional career is rooted in storytelling, beginning in her days as a news writer, producer, and reporter at neighborhood newspapers and television stations in Boston and Providence. After a decade in corporate marketing, Liz began her own marketing company supporting arts and nonprofit organizations and women-owned small businesses in Boston and the South Coast, working as a fractional marketing director. In addition to her marketing work with AHA! New Bedford, the Somerville Theatre, and the Capitol Theatre, Liz is the owner of the jewelry company Individual Icons.
Meet the Board
Cheryl Bartlett
President
Cheryl Bartlett is the President and CEO of the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center. Cheryl is an accomplished professional with over 35 years of leadership experience in nursing, health care administration, public health and health policy positions. Cheryl served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health under Governor Deval Patrick, implementing many innovative public health interventions and programs. She was the first nurse appointed to serve as Commissioner. Cheryl has served on numerous boards of nonprofit organizations and currently serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Public Health Association and Community Care Collaborative (C3). Cheryl is a member of the inaugural Women United Leadership Council for the United Way of Greater New Bedford, which has prioritized improving financial literacy for women. She is a member of One SouthCoast Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee and the New Bedford Economic Development Council’s Regeneration Committee. Cheryl has served in elected positions, including the Nantucket Board of Selectmen and Board of Health, and chaired the Nantucket Council for Human Services for over a decade. She joined the of AHA! New Bedford in 2025 and was elected president of the Board in July 2026.
Jason Costa
Treasurer
Jason Dana Costa is a mission-driven executive, nonprofit finance leader, and strategy consultant with experience supporting healthcare, arts, culture, education, and social enterprise organizations. A New Bedford resident who grew up in Dartmouth, Jason brings both professional experience and a personal connection to AHA!’s community-centered mission. He currently serves as President and CEO of Horizon Pharmacy and is the founder of JDC Strategies. Jason recently joined the board of AHA! as Treasurer and is proud to support AHA!’s work bringing people together through creativity, history, place, and community life in New Bedford.
Rebecca Barnes
Clerk
Rebecca Barnes is an architect, planner and writer whose work has focused on collaboratively envisioning, planning and designing humane communities, institutions and campuses, and transportation infrastructure in Boston, Providence, Seattle, Puerto Rico and now New Bedford, MA. She helped shape the future of places for people through community development projects that include Boston’s Big Dig and Rose Kennedy Greenway, Seattle’s first growth-management comprehensive plan, the University of Washington’s new 20-year Campus Master Plan, and Brown University’s recent growth in Providence’s historic Jewelry District. Rebecca was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She holds degrees from the University of Oregon (Architecture) and from Brown University (American Civilization). Her work in supporting strong communities included journalism as columnist, feature writer and editor of ARCADE, a Pacific Northwest design publication. After retiring, she relocated to New Bedford, where she is a founder and advisory board member of The New Bedford Light, an independent, online, nonprofit community news source. In addition to being Clerk of AHA!’s board, she is vice president of the Board of Trustees of New Bedford’s Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Gardens Museum. As a volunteer and professional advisor, she has assisted the city with the Route 18 Pedestrian Bridge design process that is a component of the MBTA’s Commuter Rail Extension, planning for the replacement of DeValles and Congdon Elementary Schools, and planning and design for a Global War on Terror Memorial.
Marcus Coward
Marcus Coward is a New Bedford native and local community activist dedicated to helping others. He is the creator and host of his own YouTube channel/local TV show, Wake Up New Bedford!, where he interviews people to create positive news for his hometown. He is the director of operations for the New Bedford Health Initiative, which meets monthly to give away various free items and services to those in need. He leads the monthly Ward 5 Neighborhood Association meeting. Marcus has served on the New Bedford Human Rights Commission since 2025 and sits on several boards, all based in New Bedford. He lives to see his city thrive! He’d be nowhere without the support of his religion, family, friends, and mentors. As an Army veteran, he sees it as his civic duty to help those around him wherever, whenever, and however he can. Marcus is a deacon and Sunday School Superintendent of the New Bedford United House of Prayer for All People. He is currently a recovery coach with Stepping Stone Inc., counseling people who struggle with substance use. He is also a proud alumnus of Nativity Preparatory School New Bedford, where he volunteered in 2023 and was subsequently hired as a paraprofessional for the 2023–24 school year. With a history of a cappella singing, theater acting, and improv, Marcus greatly appreciates the arts and looks to support local artists however possible. Marcus dreams of being the change he wishes to see in the world, with love and honesty, always. He works every day toward that dream.
Anthi Frangiadis
Anthi Frangiadis is an architect and artist whose professional career is based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Art History; her artwork complements her professional career as an architect. The joy and creativity infused in her architectural projects eventually spilled over into The Drawing Room, an art, wine, and design shop she founded and ran in downtown New Bedford from 2019 through 2026. Committed to community involvement, Anthi has served as a board member for multiple South Coast nonprofit organizations and was recognized by the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District for her volunteer work with the Town of Wareham Planning Board. She joined the AHA! Executive Committee in 2020 and went on to serve as President and Chair of the Steering Committee, working closely with staff, overseeing the leadership transition from the former executive director, guiding a comprehensive strategic planning process with TDC, and helping carry AHA! through its incorporation as an independent 501(c)(3). She continues to serve on the AHA! board of directors.
Eric Paradis
Eric Paradis is a 20+ year volunteer and current board member at Your Theatre, Inc., a community theatre founded in 1947. He is the founder and chair of New Bedford JazzFest, established in 2012. Eric is a member of the AHA! and New Bedford Creative Consortium. Eric, a Fairhaven resident, is a key member of the Your Theatre team that worked with Waterfront Historic Area League (WHALE) to purchase, modernize, and repurpose the c. 1829 First Baptist Church building into the Steeple Playhouse, a mid-sized performing arts center in historic downtown New Bedford. Professionally, Eric has been a financial advisor for nearly 30 years and is the owner of Massachusetts Financial Group based in Dartmouth, specializing in holistic financial planning and investments.
A Brief History of AHA! New Bedford
How It Began
New Bedford convened a Regional Community Congress which brought together six sectors of society: business, education, health and human services, arts and culture, the environment, and communities of faith. Working together, the vision of New Bedford as a vital regional hub of commerce and culture was launched, and a new identity was born. The result was the AHA! (Arts, History, Architecture) project and New Bedford’s free Downtown Cultural Night was launched, starting on the second Thursday of July, 1999. Why Thursdays? Thursday was the chosen evening in honor of the late shopping night offered in New Bedford from 1940’s through the 1960’s with the intention of bringing vibrancy to downtown.
Cultural Exploration and Adventure
AHA! monthly events have become a showcase for the talent and vitality of the New Bedford community. Taking place every 2nd Thursday since July of 1999, AHA! Nights feature area artists and performers, while bringing thousands of people downtown. Each month there is a theme for distinctive programming (Kids Rule, Art in Tune, Pride, etc.) presented by AHA! and our partners across New Bedford’s museums, galleries, arts organizations, shops, hotels, and restaurants. AHA! draws area residents, visitors from surrounding towns, and travelers from afar.
The Pandamic and AHA!
AHA! Night was the last public event before the City of New Bedford locked down in March 2020. By the 2nd Thursday of April, AHA! had pivoted to a virtual format and VAHA! (Virtual Art, History, and Architecture) was launched, complete with our signature logo wearing a mask! Throughout 2020 and into 2021, VAHA provided a heartbeat for the arts community, with online content created by our partners and available to visitors 24/7 from the safety of their homes. This format offered new opportunities to work with partners outside the downtown walking footprint, and we explored sites, themes, and speakers not normally available to our audience.
AHA! Night Returns
AHA! Nights returned in September 2021 bringing a very welcome change for the city and visitors alike. With an outdoor format, residents and visitors were able to start venturing out again while following common sense safety protocols. Emerging from the pandemic changed us all, but one thing is certain: AHA! Nights are here to stay.
AHA! @ 25
In 2024 we celebrated our 25th anniversary with an extra-sized AHA! Night. The following years would lay the groundwork for AHA!'s future.
Today
In the fall of 2026, AHA! New Bedford officially became a 501(c)(3) and established its first Board of Directors. Why? To build a stable and sustainable foundation for the organization as it continues to create memorable moments for the people who love, work, and live in New Bedford.
History
There were the early years: 1997 – 2001
New Bedford convened a Regional Community Congress which brought together six sectors of society: business, education, health and human services, arts and culture, the environment, and communities of faith. Working together, the vision of New Bedford as a vital regional hub of commerce and culture was launched, and a new identity was born.
The result was the AHA! (Arts, History, Architecture) project and New Bedford’s free Downtown Cultural Night was launched, starting on the second Thursday of July, 1999, Thursday was the chosen evening in honor of the late shopping night offered in New Bedford from 1940’s through the 1960’s with the intention of bringing vibrancy to downtown.
Nearly Two Decades of Cultural Exploration and Adventure: 2001 – 2018
AHA!’s monthly 2nd Thursday events have taken place continuously since July 1999 and with participation from downtown New Bedford’s museums, galleries, arts organizations, merchants, hotels, and restaurants. Each month’s event is themed so that distinctive cultural programs can offer a wide range of opportunities for performers, artists, and humanitarians of all disciplines and levels to engage the public.
AHA! succeeded in attracting people who might not normally visit downtown New Bedford, visitors from surrounding towns as well as travelers from afar. The last pre-pandemic economic impact report revealed over 24,000 total visitations to AHA! Thursday Nights in 2015, with a total economic impact of $877,000.
Funding by the Adams Arts Program from the Mass Cultural Council allowed AHA! to thrive for the 18 years, when the funding opportunity existed. AHA! was the only continuously funded project in the cohort group and as part of that initiative, AHA! undertook a variety of incubator and demonstration projects. (Show graphics and posters.)
The Pandamic and AHA!: 2019 – 2022
AHA! Night was the last public event before the City of New Bedford locked down in March of 2020. By the 2nd Thursday of April, AHA! had pivoted to a virtual format and VAHA! (Virtual Art, History, and Architecture) was launched with our signature logo wearing a mask.
Throughout 2020 and into 2021, VAHA provided a heartbeat for the arts community, with on-line content created by our partners and available to visitors 24/7 from the safety of their homes. The new format offered new opportunities to work with partners outside the downtown walking footprint, and we explored sites, themes, and speakers not normally available to our audience.
The Future for AHA!
September 2021 saw AHA!’s return to the streets of downtown: a very welcome sign for the city and visitors alike. AHA! Night’s outdoor format provides a measure of confidence for audiences, and our community partners are opening their doors while following common sense safety protocols.
Emerging from the pandemic by rebuilding the AHA! audience and partner participation is underway. With 25-years of success to guide us, AHA is developing a strategic plan for the next 25-years. Valuable lessons learned during the pandemic about communications, platforms and content will be retained and integrated into future AHA! programming. Together with our community partners, we’re shaping the future and using our shared experience with adversity as an opportunity to define a new and vital future for arts and culture in the City of New Bedford.
