Framingham Cultural Council Awards 35 Grants

The Framingham Cultural Council is awarding 35 grants totaling $25,428.

The Council received 48 grant applications requesting a total of $50,762.

Of these grants awarded, 29 are for artistic projects and 6 provide subsidies for school children to attend cultural field trips.

“Our grant recipients give us wonderful examples of cultural expression, which serve Framingham and Metro West,” said Framingham Cultural Council Chair Diane Hartung.

The grants are for exhibits, festivals, short-term artist residencies, performances in schools, workshops, and lectures. The artistic projects are:

• Access Framingham AF-TV for an after-school cable club
• Amazing Things Arts Center
• Barbieri Elementary School for a Flame the Band concert
• Barbieri Elementary School for an Explore the Ocean World program
• Brophy Elementary School for an Young Audiences of Massachusetts, Abe Lincoln program
• Brophy Elementary School for a Museum of Science program on forces & work
  
• Callahan Center
• Callahan Center for a Great Moments in History series
• Creative Arts Council of Framingham for a Lexington Symphony Concert for Framingham 4th graders
• Danforth Museum of Art for a MLK/President’s Day Drop into Art Family program
• The Brad Ellenberg Quintet
• Fountain Street Studios for expenses for 22nd Fountain Street Open Studios
• Framingham Downtown Renaissance, Inc. for its Front Door Framingham| Gateway Mural project
• Framingham High School for Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild Semi-Final
• Framingham History Center for A Civil War Living History Encampment
• Framingham Makerspace, Inc. for a 3D Printer Training
• Framingham Parks & Recreation Department for its Framingham Concerts on the Green
• Framingham Public Libraryfor its Every Hero Has a Story Summer Reading Adventure
• Framingham Public Library for its Summer Concert Series 2015
• Framingham State University for its Lifelong Learning Lecture Series
• McCarthy Elementary PTO for its Read Across America program and an author visit (Grace Lin)
• McCarthy Elementary PTO for Improve Boston, an anti-bullying performances
• Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, Inc. for a Metrowest Symphony Concert:Youth and Experience
• Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, Inc.for a Metrowest Symphony Family Concert: Broadway!
• Performing Arts Center of Metrowest for scholarships for its spring musical production
• Stapleton Elementary School for a Life in 1627 Plymouth Colony program
• Walsh Middle School PTO for its Midsummer Night’s Dream play
• Walsh Middle School PTO for a Chariots of the Sun program
• Woodrow Wilson School for a bare necessities jungle program
  

The field trip programs are:

• Dunning Elementary School - Museum of Science
• Dunning Elementary School - Museum of Fine Arts
• Framingham Housing Authority (Musterfield) - New England Aquarium
• Potter Road Elementary School - Museum of Fine Arts
• St. Bridget School - Tsongas Industrial History Center
• Wilson Elementary School - Harvard Museum of Natural History

The Framingham Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities every year. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

This year, the Framingham Cultural Council reached out to businesses and corporations in MetroWest to augment the funds we receive from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The Council received significant contributions from Bose Corporation and Middlesex Savings Bank, said Hartung, in a press release.

Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by the Framingham Cultural Council, volunteers, appointed by Framingham Selectmen.

The members of the Framingham Cultural Council are: Diane Hartung, chair, Mary Jane Dotson, clerk, Rita Collins, treasurer, Norma Kent, and Judy Levine. Associate Members are Cindy Camuso, Mary-Ann Stadtler Chester, Nandi Varris and Joel Winett.