Sheila McKenna, president of the Pittsfield Cultural Council and Jen Lawless, program manager of the Mass Cultural Council announce a new Special Collaborative Grant Initiative for the Pittsfield Community of $100,000 for this upcoming year.
This grant is in addition to the regular cycle of community grants funded each year by the Pittsfield Cultural Council. The Council, which was established in 1980, has served the Pittsfield by distributing over a half million dollars to local artists, organizations, schools and festivals. Funded grants range from artists in residence programs at the Berkshire Museum, the Ethnic Fair, Shakespeare in the Courts, free dance programs at Focus is my Children, productions of children’s theater to the memorial booklet for the Veteran’s monument.
The grant requires at least three partners, and must meet these new criteria: have an educational component, provide an opportunity for a wide participation, meet a local cultural need and have an impact on the community.
The grant application and requirements can be downloaded from the web site www.mass-culture.org/Pittsfield. The deadline is October 15, 2010. For questions, email the council at pittsfieldculture@yahoo.com.
The Pittsfield Cultural Council is a part of the Local Cultural Council Program, the second largest grant program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is a grassroots complement to the state agency’s centralized grant programs. Allocations are made to all of Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns to support community cultural activities. The LCC Program is the most extensive system of its kind in the nation to support arts, sciences and humanities.
