Southbridge Cultural Council

Our mission is to support diversified programs in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences for the cultural benefit and well being of the citizens of Southbridge, first and foremost.

Contact

Ted Bartlett
margbart@yahoo.com
508-764-7909

Address
Southbridge Town Hall
41 Elm Street
Southbridge, MA 01550-2645

Application Information

FY26 Allocation

$24,700

FY26 Local Priorities

FY26 Southbridge Priorities: Southbridge artists, individuals, performers, private non-profit organizations, schools, library, or other non-profit agencies, religious groups, applicants from other parts of the state, new applicants with projects interested in promoting cultural diversity in the community are all considered. As required ALL applicants must read, understand and follow MCC and SCC criteria requirements before completing and submission of the online application. All applicants must be Massachusetts residents.

FY26 Local Guidelines

Our mission is to support diversified programs in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences for the cultural benefit and well being of the citizens of Southbridge, first and foremost.

LOCATION and Venue: The venue must take place in Southbridge. The VENUE and DATE must be confirmed BEFORE submission of the online application to Boston, MA. The SCC funds for grants are for and remain in Southbridge. In all instances, a change of venue date of the grant event requires a written job modification letter MAILED to the Southbridge Cultural Council for prior approval before the grant event can take place. The required address is the letterhead of the January Acceptance Letter of 2026. No emails are accepted since this request is date and time stamped when received at the Southbridge Town Hall.

MARKETING and PROMOTION: The event must be promoted according to the online criteria requirements of MCC and SCC. Refer to the Grant Acceptance Letter Packet of 2026 which has more information for compliance of your grant contract. The Southbridge Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council strongly recommends using the required MCC and SCC recognition statement found in the Acceptance Letter of January 2026 for your publicity of flyers, news releases, social media and other promo materials used. While the MCC Logo is useful, when used alone it tends to eliminate the specific recognition of the community cultural support you are in with your grant program. This is the reason why you received the grant. While social media is acceptable, news releases especially to the local newspaper once a week issue on Thursday (Southbridge News, Editor, P.O. Box 90, Southbridge, MA 01550 and to the Southbridge Cable Access TV, 41 Elm Street, Southbridge Town Hall, Southbridge, MA 01550. BOTH should be mailed three weeks before the date of the event. The individual in charge of publicity for the event (if not the grantee) must be made aware of the MCC and SCC criteria compliance for publicity and reimbursement. Lastly the grant applicant/grantee recipient must not rely solely on the host venue for any publicity. Why? The grantee is the recipient of the grant and not the host venue. Publicity by the grantee is also required.

REIMBURSEMENT: The Southbridge Cultural Council participates in the Grant Reimbursement Form of payment procedure after the event with all the necessary and required criteria documentation. All publicity published copies of news releases, social media copies, copies of flyers, programs, tickets, performance invoice and comment, etc. must accompany the reimbursement request. Again, the mailing address is the letterhead of the Acceptance Letter of January 2026. No emails will be accepted as noted earlier. Valid reimbursement is one year from the date of the Acceptance Letter of January 2026. Reimbursement process may take 3 to 4 weeks before a check is issued. Failure in the submission of the required documentation may cause a delay of payment or some forfeiture for lacking grant compliance.

PUBLIC BENEFIT: MCC and SCC funds must be used to support activities that contribute to the cultural vitality of the community rather than benefit any private individual or group as noted in the 2025 MCC Guidelines, Page 10. The event must also be open to the public and must be accessible for handicapped individuals. Field trip applications use the standard online MCC application form. The SCC with discretion funds only a portion of the student admission to an event.

How Grant Recipients Are Paid

Reimbursement Grants

FY26 Funding List

A grant list will be published here after January 17, 2026 and once the Local Cultural Council has finalized their decisions.