We have a unique opportunity to increase state support for culture and ensure Mass Cultural Council continues its work in partnership with communities across the Commonwealth. Sen. Ed Kennedy of Lowell, Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development, has filed amendments to the Senate Ways and Means budget for the coming fiscal year that would accomplish two key goals...
Mass Cultural Council is much more than a grant maker. We provide the services, consultation, and support that assure that every tax dollar we invest in the cultural landscape of Massachusetts delivers meaningful impact for our residents. Our services are only possible because of the hours staff spend supporting constituents. Since July 1, 2018 Mass Cultural Council staff have...
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its version of next year’s state budget today, proposing $17 million for the arts, humanities, and sciences through the Mass Cultural Council. That would represent a $1 million increase in state support for the nonprofit cultural sector for Fiscal Year 2020, which begins July 1.
From toy drums to today’s premiere steam-bent drums made from locally sourced hardwoods, a family owned company in the Berkshires has stayed in business using good old Yankee ingenuity for 165 years! I credit Tim Lloyd, former executive director of the American Folklore Society, for introducing me to Noble & Cooley Drum Manufacturing Company.
We're proud to announce that our Universal Participation (UP) Initiative now provides a professional development grant to attend the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference put on by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Congratulations to the 10 recipients of this new $1,000 grant!
On Thursday the state House of Representatives approved a budget plan for the next fiscal year that calls for investing $16.6 million in the arts, humanities, and sciences through the Mass Cultural Council. The House proposal would add $533,000 for arts and cultural funding in Fiscal Year 2020, which begins July 1.
As Spring slowly inches across the Commonwealth, we’re reminded of all that the season evokes; hope, natural changes, and new growth. But for municipalities throughout Massachusetts the annual sentiment is more reminiscent to Leo Tolstoy’s words in Anna Karenina, “Spring is the time of plans and projects.” Nothing symbolizes this more than the creation, proposal, and adoption of a municipality’s annual budget.
Culture and community are intertwined, with each feeding into the other; neither can thrive in any meaningful way without individuals and institutions seeing and acknowledging the value of all those who make up our communities.
The Gaming Mitigation Program, established by MGL Section 59 chapter 23K, aims to mitigate a direct threat to the sustainability of nonprofit performing arts centers in Massachusetts by providing capital to preserve their ability to compete in a new, unbalanced marketplace.
It is both riveting and heartbreaking. Unbelievable. It survived 800 years, revolution, war, neglect. Yet, the live images don’t lie. Notre-Dame is in flames. The spire, a silhouette in orange glow, collapses before our eyes. The world feels the loss. An icon, that attracted 13 million visitors a year, has suffered catastrophic damage. It can be rebuilt...it will be rebuilt...but the layers of history cannot be recovered.
