Power of Culture Blog
The Danger of Disinvestment
Who loses when government walks away from the arts, humanities, and sciences?
Bethann Steiner, Senior Public Affairs Director
This week the FY26 state budget building process transferred out of the West Wing of the State House, which hosts the offices of our state representatives, over to the East Wing of the building, where Members and staff of the Massachusetts Senate work.
On May 6 the Senate Committee on Ways & Means released its FY26 spending recommendation. As with the Governor’s FY26 H1 budget and the FY26 final House budget, Mass Cultural Council is funded at $26,045,152 by the Senate budget committee.
As an independent state agency, most of Mass Cultural Council’s operating budget comes from the annual state budget, and, as such, the largest investment that the Commonwealth makes each year into arts and culture is through the Agency’s budget line item.
A $26M budget appropriation represents a 0.58% increase to Mass Cultural Council’s current operating budget. We are so thankful to the Massachusetts Senate for their partnership, support, and continued investment in the cultural sector. A special thanks to Senate President Karen Spilka, Senate Ways & Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, and Tourism, Arts & Cultural Development Chair Paul Mark for their leadership in this matter.
We note with appreciation the commitment of our partners in advocacy, MASSCreative, as well as Mass Humanities, our partners working to steward arts, culture, creativity, and the humanities across all of Massachusetts, who join us in raising awareness about the power of culture and the need for sustained, robust, state funding for the cultural sector, especially now, when federal funding for arts, culture, and the humanities is under attack.
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