WEM Executive Director Sebastian Belfanti Named WECA President

West End Museum Executive Director Sebastian Belfanti is now also the president of WECA, the West End Civic Association. We spoke to Belfanti about his newest role and how WECA and the Museum can work together.

WECA, and its many committees, serves as an advocate for the West End and West Enders and an interface between neighboring communities and political representatives. WECA has very active Zoning & Planning and Greenspace Committees. Zoning & Planning is the most important committee, as it plays a major role in shaping development in the neighborhood.

WECA’s president serves as a public face for the organization, and as a primary contact. There’s a lot of overlap in contacts between this role and my work at the Museum, but WECA is an advocacy-focused organization, and a 501(c)4. WEM is a 501(c)3 public charity, which limits the amount of advocacy we can do, though WEM often supports WECA programs and pushes for the neighborhood when it can. WECA’s big targets right now include increasing green space in the West End, preventing over-development and improving public safety—especially related to traffic and illegal parking.

WECA has struggled a bit through the pandemic, and the organization needs to rebuild its membership base this year, while continuing its extensive work advocating for the public good of the community. WEM and WECA are working together on an interesting project around historic preservation that meets both organization’s missions. We’re hopeful that there will be more chances like this to work together down the line.

WEM and WECA are largely symbiotic. The Museum benefits from people knowing what and where the West End is, and WECA benefits from the sense of community provided by organizations like the Museum, the West End Community Center and others. The biggest chance for us to do something together in the past year was around redistricting. Former WECA President Joe McDonald (who is also on WEM’s Board) and I both spoke at public hearings on redistricting. Joe offered a practical argument for reuniting the West End, and I offered a historical and emotional justification. Those efforts, supported by a lot of letters, were ultimately responsible for the political reunification of the current (and historical) West End for the first time since it was ripped apart by urban renewal. I know both organizations are very proud of that. Together, we’re proving strong enough to heal some of the scars left on this neighborhood.