Power of Culture Blog
Senate FY26 Budget Recommends $26M for Arts & Culture
This represents a 0.58% increase to Mass Cultural Council’s current operating budget
Bethann Steiner, Senior Public Affairs Director
Happy Fiscal New Year! Today is the first day of fiscal year 2026 and for the first time in nine years, the Commonwealth has a timely state operating budget. Yesterday the House and Senate adopted and enacted the FY26 Conference Committee budget. This $61 billion spending plan is now under review by Governor Maura Healey; she has 10 days to act on the bill.
Mass Cultural Council, an independent state agency, is primarily funded through the annual state operating budget. In FY26 the Agency’s appropriation is $26,975,152. This figure breaks down to $26,045,152 for Agency operations and $930,000 to support 19 legislative earmarks for specific arts and cultural projects. In particular, we are pleased to see an earmark, secured by Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Committee Chair Senator Paul Mark, which provides a $25,000 honorarium for the Commonwealth’s first-ever Poet Laureate.
We are grateful to our partners in the House of Representatives and the Senate for funding arts and culture with almost $27 million in this fiscal year. This is the highest operating budget ever provided to the Agency through the General Appropriations Act. At a time when the cultural sector is watching federal government support be discontinued, we are thankful that the Commonwealth continues to prioritize arts and culture as an essential economic sector that provides so many benefits to those who live and work in Massachusetts.
Once the Governor signs the FY26 budget into law, the Agency will finalize its FY26 spending plan. This will be presented to the governing Council for approval during the August business meeting, and upon its approval we will be able to launch our FY26 grant cycles. Updated information will be available by late August on these funding opportunities.
Also yesterday, the Healey-Driscoll Administration released its 5-year capital spending plan. Unlike the annual state budget, which is funded primarily through tax revenues, the capital spending plan is funded through borrowed monies.
The Governor’s capital spending plan invests $16.6 billion in state resources over five years to increase housing affordability, fund economic development programs, and improve transportation and public infrastructure across the state.
We are grateful that the FY26 the capital spending plan invests $10 million into the Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF), a capital grant program the Agency administers in coordination with MassDevelopment, to ensure nonprofit and municipal cultural facilities are maintained in a state of good repair. Just last week we celebrated the recipients of the FY25 CFF grant awards at Zumix in East Boston.
This good news means that a FY26 Cultural Facilities Fund grant round will open in the fall! We appreciate the continued investment into CFF by the Healey-Driscoll Administration.
To stay up to date on Mass Cultural Council funding opportunities, follow the Agency on social media – @MassCultural – or sign up for our monthly Power of Culture enewsletter.
