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Innovation Fund Invests in Cultural Organizations’ Institutional Accessibility

Charles Baldwin, Program Officer

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photo of a man playing guitar on a stage. on one side of him stands an ASL interpreter. on the other side of him captions are showing on a large screen for the audience.
Tony Memmel’s keynote address at the 2025 ABLE Assembly conference, with ASL interpreter and live captioning. Photo: Dave Green.

This year Mass Cultural Council is proud to continue its investment in cultural organizations’ institutional accessibility.

Through our Universal Participation (UP) Initiative, $465,000 in Innovation Fund grants have been awarded to 93 UP Designated Organizations.

These organizations are committed to building and improving their institutional access and to enacting the four key characteristics of the UP Initiative:

  • Vision. Equity and inclusion are baked into systems of governance. A shared sense of purpose informs the entire organization and shapes priorities, policies, and practices.
  • Education. Professional development in cultural equity, inclusive design, assistive technology, disability justice, and/or civil rights legislation is continually provided.
  • Representation. The institution centers the perspectives of people with disabilities to inform strategies. “Nothing about us, without us!” is the directive when seeking a reliable means of continuous improvement.
  • Innovation. Fresh ideas come from fresh insights and a willingness to engage in trial and error. Creating great places and experiences that work for everyone is the challenge.

An UP Innovation Fund award comes with one restriction: to be invested in access. How access is realized is determined by the priorities and capacities of each institution.

Candor over perfection is encouraged as part of Mass Cultural Council’s annual reporting requirements. Through reporting, the Agency can see emerging trends and patterns, and identify successful organizational improvements in staff training, physical and digital site evaluations, and community outreach.

Additionally, these reports reveal ongoing challenges UP Designated Organizations have with staff capacity, sustainable funding, information silos, and a changing social, recreational, and political landscape.

The 2025 UP Innovation Fund reports highlight an enduring, hardworking community, consistently listening, learning, and relying upon community participation. Humans are always at the center of this work. Success is achieved by recognizing the pace of the work as determined by a slow and steady commitment to trust building.

Several organizations joined an Inclusive Hiring cohort offered by Lincoln Center Education with Community Access to the Arts reporting, “a key part of our strategic plan is developing new programs for artists with developmental disabilities to step into leadership roles.” Berkshire Pulse said they plan to implement “the access ambassadors program modelled by Lincoln Center”.

UP Designated Organizations also hired evaluative experts, teaching artists, and counsel from the disability community. Of note, On With Living and Learning commissioned a new play, Disability on Trial by Jim Wice, and was able to provide cast stipends at just the right amount so as to not impact the players’ disability benefits.

The badge of UP Designation was a stepping stone to additional funding and support as reported by a number of organizations, including New Bedford Art Museum, Paul Revere House, Gnome Surf, and Grub Street.

A few organizations took broad, innovative action; the procurement of health insurance coverage, the development of a trauma informed curricula, and the creation of 3-D tactile interpretation of visual imagery.

And within the UP cohort, a few capital campaigns are nearing completion. Look for new or renovated accessible spaces at Community Music Center of Boston, Boston Lyric Opera, the Zieterion in New Bedford, and at the Hancock Shaker Village and Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in the Berkshires.

Additionally, the 2025 reports reveal the struggle of several UP Designated Organizations with operationalizing access into business and production models. A connected and well-informed individual should not be an institution’s solution to access.

Developing an Access Plan is one method for addressing this challenge. Access Plans outline a cross team, multi-department strategy. They are an institutional road map that identifies gaps, timelines, resources, and the humans supporting operational improvements. (Remember, this work is collective work!)

Organizations receiving 2026 UP Innovation Fund grants are required to develop an Access Plan.

Join an Access Office Hour

Mass Cultural Council is hosting monthly conversations with experts and artists, supporting the goal of continual improvement and highlighting the humans and resources available for improving inclusion. Register – and share with a colleague:

  • January 27, 2026, 11am: Access Now
    Fresh New Year and Fresh New Ideas. What is the state of Access Now?
  • February 24, 2026, 11am: Service Organizations
    How is access built in and out of the work of a creative service organization?
  • March 24, 2026, 11am: Small Shops
    Access work at small organizations: nimble and adaptive or just one too many hats?
  • April 28, 2026, 11am: Large Institutions
    What are the expectations and measures for accountability as large institutions embrace access as more than a legal obligation?
  • May 19, 2026, 11am: Budgets & Funding
    Budgeting as a moral compass directing resources to serve your institutions’ mission/vision.

See the Full List of Innovation Fund Grant Recipients

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