FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2009
Contact: Susan Madigan, Georgetown Cultural Council
Phone: 978-352-8396
The Georgetown Cultural Council has announced the award of 13 grants totaling $4,425, for cultural programs in town. The grants were awarded from a pool of funds distributed to Massachusetts cities and towns by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that supports public programs and educational activities in the arts, sciences and humanities.
Grant recipients include Georgetown Peabody Library, the Council on Aging and a variety of local and area artists and performers. According to Susan Madigan, Chair of the council, the Council looks especially favorably on those events that cut across more than one demographic. One example she cited was grant recipient John Root who, in partnership with the Perley PTO and the Georgetown Council on Aging, will be presenting “Popular Music of the Gaslight Era” featuring a variety of musical styles popular during the first half of the 20th century.
The Cultural Council is part of a grass-roots network of 329 local councils that serve every city and town in the state. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which then allocates funds to each local council. Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of town-appointed volunteers.
“It’s through local volunteers that this system works,” said Madigan. “This year we were fortunate that our funding from the state remained intact, though we still receive far more in grant requests than we can fund. The council has to make tough decisions about which projects should be supported based on what we think the community wants and needs.”
The members of the Cultural Council are: Kate Hanlon, Faith Johnson, Patricia Durkee, Louann Graffam, Susan Madigan and Nora Cannon.
Statewide, more than $2.65 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in fiscal year 2009. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, nature and science education programs and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people, including the PASS Program, which provides subsidies for school children to attend cultural field trips.
The Georgetown Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. Information and forms are usually available at town hall and the library and are due Oct. 15, 2009. More information can be found at the MCC website.
This year’s grant recipients include: Museum pass membership at the library; children’s programming at the library, Maudslay outdoor sculpture exhibit; children and teen’s art workshops; various musical performances to be held at American Legion Park, Trestle Way, Perley and the Senior Center; and the Newburyport Literary Festival in April.