Miranda Cook, Program Officer
In FY21, the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF) invested $9.1 million in the planning and development of cultural buildings in Massachusetts.
Grants were made to 90 cultural organizations statewide to support projects in construction, restoration, and deferred maintenance. Grantees included community art centers, theaters, museums, libraries, nature conservatories, and more.
Every fall, MassDevelopment and Mass Cultural Council survey the field to assess the economic impact of the Fund on the Massachusetts creative economy. Recent grantees reported on jobs and organizational spending, and 271 cultural organizations detailed their future capital needs over the next two to three years. Many provided testimony on the necessity of CFF to help leverage the money required to execute their projects.
“The Cultural Facilities Fund is critical to smaller nonprofits like our organization in our ability to undertake much-needed capital construction. The grant not only helped us immensely in giving us significant funding but also encouraged the community to donate generously, since the Cultural Facilities Fund’s support boosted people’s confidence in our project and our ability to meet our fundraising goals,” said Sarah B. Ignatius, Executive Director of the National Center for Armenian Studies and Research in Belmont, MA.
Take a look at the 2021 Annual Report to learn more.
The application deadline for the FY22 Cultural Facilities Fund grant round is January 14, 2022. Grant notifications will be made in May 2022.