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Date: 2/8/2022
AMHERST – The Amherst Cultural Council has announced they are awarding 65 grants totaling $61,475 for cultural programs in Amherst and nearby towns.
Notable grant recipients include Amherst Ballet, Amherst Cinema, The Hitchcock Center, Gallery A3, and the Amherst Business Improvement District’s signage for The Drake performing art space. Funding for these grants comes from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives an allocation from the state lottery and uses a specific formula to apportion funds to cultural councils across the commonwealth.
More than $3.3 million will be distributed to local cultural councils in 2022. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren and much more. Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by the local cultural council.
Matt Holloway, co-chair of the Amherst Cultural Council, said in voting on which projects are worthy for funding they prioritize projects for and by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities as well as individuals with disabilities and low-income communities.
“Applications are prioritized based on the benefit they bring to the Amherst community and that is actually the main criteria for the review process. How much benefit does this grant bring to the Amherst community versus another one,” Holloway said. “If it makes an attempt to impact the broader community, we will definitely consider it.”
Holloway added that the council likes to also be diverse in how they allocate their grants in town, from large cultural institutions that may need some funds, to within the community through individual artists and artisans who are looking for funding in their project. He also added even college students have requested this grant funding for their thesis, but like Holloway said it has to bring something bigger in impact to the community to be approved.
“We want to make sure that we’re representing all of the great cultural work that happens in our community, both with the large organizations and the small individual grantees,” Holloway said.
In terms of distributing these grants the Cultural Council has historically used a reimbursement model. In years past, grantees would be approved, spend their own money on a project, and then provide the Cultural Council with receipts for which they would be reimbursed.
This year, in partnership with the town offices, Holloway said they are piloting a direct granting model which gives grantees the funding up front so they don’t have to work out of pocket at any time on their projects while having applied for this grant.
“We had done a lot of community engagement, a lot of public sessions, and we heard from people that for some you just can’t afford to float several hundred or thousands of dollars on a project and then come back for a reimbursement,” Holloway said. “We really want to make a more accessible set of grants to a broader and more diverse section of our community.”
Holloway feels this year’s recipients reflect well on their goal of keeping a diverse portfolio of grantees. One project that received $450 is titled “East Meets West – Tagore and Dickinson” by Maitreyee Chakraborty, and it is a comparison of traditional Indian Hindu art and poetry compared to the work of Emily Dickinson.
There are also notable upcoming events scheduled for some time this year selected to receive grant money including two separate Amherst Juneteenth celebrations, funding for this summer’s Odenong Powwow on Amherst Town Common, and a virtual dialogue titled, “Shedding Light on the Namesake Amherst.” Holloway said the council was very happy to assist in these two events that will coincide with one another.
“We were really excited to provide support to the Powwow. There’s a support project that is going to draw some of the attendees from the powwow,” Holloway said on the Shedding Light project. “It has you considering the name of the town in the context of the Native American community.”
Holloway says even a project like the opening of The Drake has provided a new space for artists and is a place the Cultural Council will always be interested in supporting in some way. He added that several of their grantees would be taking advantage of the performing space for their projects.
“We really think it [The Drake] is going to represent a huge step forward for the cultural life of the town. Several of our grantees are either happening in direct relationship with The Drake, or happening at The Drake,” Holloway said. “It’s not even open yet and it is already enriching the grant applications we get because performers have a go to space whereas previously you had to hustle to find a spot in Amherst for performing arts.”
With so many projects receiving grants, it is sure to be stacked year from projects to events with help from the Cultural Council. To view the full list of this year’s recipients you can visit the town website under news and announcements.