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Home / Artists & Creatives / Support for Artists & Creative Entreprenuers

Support for Artists & Creative Entreprenuers

Creative entrepreneurs – artists, designers, performers, makers, and cultural innovators – are economic and community assets. They are business owners who generate revenue, employ workers, pay taxes, and strengthen our local and state economies.

Mass Cultural Council is working to connect artists and entrepreneurs with business resources to help turn creative work into sustainable enterprises, strengthen networks of peers and partners, and expand opportunities for long-term growth.

Grants

We encourage artists to investigate all of our programs, but the following represent the grants we believe most directly benefit individual artists.

  • Grants for Creative Individuals: Unrestricted, $5,000 grants to Massachusetts artists, culture bearers, and creative practitioners to equitably advance creativity in the Commonwealth
  • Local Cultural Council Program: Project grants to artists and groups for the benefit of local communities
  • Creative Experiences: Grants to organizations to fund festivals, projects, residencies, and other cultural activities in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Teaching artists can receive support for school and other residencies (but schools/organizations need to apply)

Mass Cultural Council Partner Organizations:

Additional resources for finding grant opportunities

Services

Business Resources for Creatives & Entrepreneurs
State and local offerings for business development, mentorship, technical assistance, and financing to help transform creative work into sustainable enterprises

ArtSake
Our blog celebrating art and the creative process.

Artist Opportunities
Every week, we compile calls to artists, publications, artist residencies, contests, and more.

Opportunities & Resources for Orgs
A monthly round-up of grants, technical assistance resources, and opportunities for creative and cultural organizations.

Technical Assistance
Numerous toolkits and resources developed by Agency staff to champion the sector’s collective needs and to expand cross-sector opportunities.

HireCulture.org
A free, online listing of creative employment opportunities in Massachusetts that includes administrative, production, volunteer and intern opportunities.

CreativeGround.org
A platform that celebrates and reflects the vital work of artists, creatives, culture bearers, and creative organizations and businesses across New England. A project of the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Useful Links
An additional compilation of funding, services, blog posts, and other forms of support to serve as useful tools in your work as an artist.

Creative Spaces

Community Development Resources

Main Street America’s Small Business Hub
A place to connect with other small business owners across the country, get free small business education, and more. Find curated resources, join discussion forums, build your peer network, explore grants and opportunities, and access learning experiences.

Workforce Development Resources

Commonwealth Corporation
A quasi-public workforce development agency partnering with state agencies, employers, education and training providers, and community-based organizations to strengthen the Commonwealth’s workforce and enhance economic competitiveness. They invest in and manage training programs to help youth and adults build the skills they need for high-demand careers.

Registered Apprentice Program
A program through the Executive Office of Labor that helps small businesses and nonprofits develop their own talent pipeline by hiring people, paying them while they learn, and providing structured, hands-on training. Massachusetts recognizes more than 1,000 apprenticeship-eligible occupations across traditional and emerging industries (not just the trades).

Executive Order 627
Promotes skill based hiring for the Commonwealth rather than just degree or credential based hiring.

MassHire Workforce Boards & Career Centers
Offers direct, hands-on assistance to employers with hiring, recruitment, workforce planning, and employee training. It’s a statewide network of regional workforce boards and career centers that connect employers with workers and workforce development resources.

Massachusetts Promise Fellowship
Americorp program that could support artists working with youth in Creative Youth Development programs.

Arts & Health Resources

Utilizing Opioid Settlement Funds for Social Prescriptions
Massachusetts municipalities are receiving opioid settlement funds as part of nationwide legal agreements with opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies. These funds represent a once in‑a‑generation opportunity to invest in long-term, community-centered solutions to the opioid crisis, including treatment and prevention. The state has already set a precedent for spending these funds on practices like social prescribing.

Social Prescription
A brief history of Mass Cultural Council’s Social Prescription work

Social Prescription Research & Resources
Data to help you make the case.

Data Supporting Partnerships in Health
A broad resource of research that support the use of the arts for patient needs.


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