Mass Cultural Council Staff
Each month Mass Cultural Council shares a round-up of grants, trainings, technical assistance resources, and opportunities for cultural organizations (a companion to our Useful Links page). This list is not meant to be exhaustive but a glimpse of what is on offer in the coming weeks. (We also publish a weekly Artist Opportunities listing.)
Funding
Mass Cultural Council grant opportunities:
- YouthReach grants support Creative Youth Development programs that integrate substantive and ongoing arts, humanities, and science opportunities into a collaborative community response. Deadline: April 2, 2026.
- Creative Experiences provides grants of $2,500 or $5,000 to organizations, creative businesses, government entities, and schools to fund festivals, projects, residencies, and other cultural activities in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Deadline: April 30, 2026.
The Boston Foundation’s Equality Fund invests to advance equity for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) individuals and their families. The fund aims to support research, public forums and convenings, strategic partnerships, and grantmaking to nonprofit organizations that provide critical services to our diverse LGBTQ+ community. Deadline: March 6, 2026.
Music in Action’s 2026 grant program is designed to help small venues engage with their audiences and communities through imaginative programs that bring people together with shared purpose. Deadline: March 12, 2026.
Citizens’ Bank’s 2026 Champions in Action grant program helps nonprofits build AI readiness and organizational capacity to strengthen its impact in the community. The grant aims to support a local nonprofit ready to responsibly integrate AI into its work. Deadline: March 13, 2026.
New England Foundation for the Art’s National Dance Project Production Grant is accepting applications for projects led by professional choreographers or companies to support the creation and U.S. touring and/or sharing of a new dance project. Deadline: March 16, 2026.
Yawkey Foundation is accepting initial proposals for its Program and Small Capital Grants, which may fund a discrete timebound program need, one small project, or a piece of equipment aligned with a nonprofit’s purpose. This submission period is specific to Education and Conservation & Wildlife. Deadline: March 20, 2026.
The National Endowment for the Arts offers two funding opportunities for research projects:
- RESEARCH GRANTS IN THE ARTS support research studies that investigate the value and/or impact of the arts in American life.
- NEA RESEARCH LABS funds long-term research agendas that include multiple empirical studies and the dissemination of various products or services for promoting public knowledge about the arts and their contributions to American life.
The upcoming deadline for both is March 23, 2026.
The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, the nation’s leading private grantmaking program supporting energy efficiency and sustainability in the visual arts, is accepting applications for its 2026 grant cycle. Nonprofit entities based in the United States and Territories that regard the visual arts as the primary focus of their mission and activities may apply. Deadline: March 27, 2026.
T-Mobile’s Hometown Grants – for communities with populations of 50,000 or less – provides grants of up to $50,000 to help build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities. Deadline: March 31, 2026.
New England Foundation for the Arts’ New England States Touring (NEST) funds public performances, readings, and screenings of work by regional artists presented by New England-based nonprofit organizations. Next deadline: April 1, 2026.
The City of Boston is accepting applications for City Hall Plaza Engagement Grants, offers funding to events and event series for fall 2026 that are free and open to the public, and that celebrate Boston’s diverse communities, ignite the arts, and reimagine the Boston City Hall Plaza iconic space. Deadline: April 3, 2026.
IMLS’s Native American Library Services Enhancement Grants program assists eligible Native communities in sustaining and improving library services with their communities. Grants: $50,000-$150,000. Deadline: April 10, 2026.
Things to Attend
Register for a Mass Cultural Council regional grant celebration:
Arts Action Consortium is hosting a Non Profit Inc. Seminar for all nonprofit start-ups that will be led by experienced nonprofit attorneys. Are you a leader of an existing nonprofit organization or have an interest in creating a new one? Do you have questions and concerns about incorporating and/or filing for tax-exempt status? Register now. March 12, 2026 at 4pm.
Join Access/VSA Network for Disability, Artistry, and Community: Forging a Future, a free performance and panel discussion centered around empowering disabled artists now and in the future. Panelists will explore career pathways, reflect on how disability shapes artistic voice and innovation, and share best practices for building an inclusive classical music community. March 16, 2026 from 7-8:30pm.
Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) is a participatory, story-driven process that helps groups understand the effects of their work—both the results they expected and the ripples they didn’t see coming. Over time, it has been adapted and used in all sorts of settings from strategic planning to team development, community engagement, partnership building, and systems change. Grant Street Consulting, REM Studio, and The Harbinger Consultancy are presenting three 2-hour video conference sessions – March 18, April 1, and April 15, 2026 from 2-4pm.
Building Creative Climate Futures, hosted by Mass Cultural Council and MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, is an interactive workshop on envisioning creative climate futures through storytelling. Attendees will learn how the state is tackling climate change and opportunities to incorporate the cultural sector into this work. March 19, 2026 at 11am.
The BEST Initiative’s Youth Worker Certificate Training is an eight-session, 32-hour foundational training that establishes core competencies for successful youth engagement grounded in the Positive Youth Development Approach. The training will take place weekly every Tuesday from March 24-May 19, 2026 from 9:30am-2pm.
A new Arts Entrepreneurship course offered through MITx begins on March 25, 2026. This free, online course offers artists and creatives a professional development opportunity to help them build financially sustainable careers while staying true to their creative vision. (Register for a March 20 info session featuring the course instructors.)
Register for Social Prescribing USA’s The Art of Social Prescribing: Advancing Arts-Based Pathways to Health, a webinar that will explore the growing momentum of arts-based approaches within social prescribing frameworks. Featured panelists include, Dr. Daisy Fancourt Author, “Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives” Dr. Jill Sonke U.S. Cultural Policy Fellow, Stanford University Dr. Mark Clague Executive Director, Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan. March 26, 2026 from 3-4:30pm.
Join Mass Cultural Council and the ArtStaysHere Coalition for a new Creative Space Development Network Accelerator (DNA) online discussion for those who are developing, operating, and advocating for a healthier creative space ecosystem across the state. March 27, 2026 at 12pm.
Other
HowlRound’s Justice in the Rehearsal Room is a six-week co-learning journey for theater practitioners to reflect and build knowledge about the way justice shows up in rehearsal rooms. They’re looking for a cohort of up to 15 folks with a range of theater-making experiences—from students to established practitioners—who are interested in connecting with other values-aligned makers to share their own experiences, learn from each other, and build relationships with an aim toward making our field more just and equitable for all. Deadline: March 8, 2026.
Building Common Ground’s Fieldwork is a new national program supporting rural and Tribal communities through design, planning, and project development assistance. Deadline: March 27, 2026.
The NAN Project provides proactive suicide prevention education through hopeful stories of lived experience to young people and their communities. Interested in becoming a peer mentor? Deadline: Rolling.
Read Previous Months’ Listings
If you have an opportunity or resource for cultural organizations that you’d like to pitch for our monthly round-up, please email us. Efforts to submit the opportunity in a format similar to our standard (see listings above) are deeply appreciated. Because space is limited, the best submissions are 60 words or fewer and include links to web pages with more information.