Contact Your Representatives Today
This week, the Massachusetts legislature weighs an important decision: how to allocate funds provided to the commonwealth by the American Rescue Plan. At Mass Humanities, we believe the cultural sector is a vital part of the recovery from the ongoing impacts of the pandemic.
We join our partners at Mass Cultural Council and MASSCreative in thanking the House of Representatives continued support, most recently evidenced by its adoption of a Resolution celebrating October 2021 as National Arts & Humanities Month, and the proposed $125M investment into artists and cultural organizations contained in H. 4219, An Act relative to immediate COVID-19 recovery needs.
Mass Cultural Council, MASSCreative and Mass Humanities worked with Tourism, Arts & Cultural Development Committee Vice Chair Rep. Dylan Fernandes on an amendment to increase the $125M appropriation to $175M. The House convenes on Thursday to debate the bill and amendments.
Please contact your representative today to ask them for their support of this crucial legislation.
Before the pandemic, arts, humanities and cultural nonprofits generated over $2.3 billion in spending, brought in nearly $100 million in state tax revenues, and supported more than 73,000 full time jobs. A larger look at the cultural sector shows that pre-COVID the arts and cultural sector in Massachusetts accounted for 4.3% of the Commonwealth’s GDP and 142,578 jobs.
We believe this funding will strengthen the capacity of humanities organizations across Massachusetts to rebuild and develop new ways to serve their communities.
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