Apply for a Lincoln Cultural Council grant by Oct. 15

The Lincoln Cultural Council (LCC) has announced that the postmark deadline for organizations, schools and individuals to apply for grants that support community-oriented arts, humanities, and science projects is October 15, 2013. This year the LCC intends to award about $4,250 in grants to multiple recipients.

These grants support a variety of artistic projects and activities, including exhibits, festivals, short-term artist residencies or performances, workshops and lectures. Grant recipients need not be residents of Lincoln, but a Lincoln tie-in is a plus and a Lincoln venue is preferred. All events should be open and easily accessible to the general public and should be events that Lincoln residents will likely attend.

The LCC strives to support a wide variety of cultural activities and is particularly interested in proposals that combine the interests and resources of several different culturally oriented entities so that all of our respective resources can be leveraged. Cultural projects are intended to represent in the broadest sense the study, pursuit, performance, exhibition, and/or appreciation of the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences.

The LCC is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns. The program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities every year. The state legislature provides nearly $2 million each year to the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), a state agency. The National Endowment for the Arts also contributes funds to the MCC which then allocates funds to each community. The MCC distributes more than $3.3 million to over 5,000 projects across the state.

Projects previously funded by the Lincoln Cultural Council include:

• Travis Roy’s motivational talk on Living with Disability (sponsored with others)
• Buccaneers of Buzz: Celebrating the Honey Bee, a multimedia event and concert was presented by Rialto Arts (awarded a 2009 Gold Star Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council)
• A new mural celebrating language and culture at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High (sponsored with others)
• Historic New England lectures and presentations at Gropius House and Codman Estates
• Various concerts, poetry, and theatre performances, and even an edible wild plants educational session
• Startup funding for an after0school Printshop at Lincoln Public Schools
• Design and development of an interpretive wetlands walk through Lincoln’s conservation land

More information:

• Local Cultural Council – Lincoln page
• Lincoln applicant guidelines

…or contact co-chairs Melinda Abraham (mkabraham@att.net, 781-257-5353) or Lisa Putukian (lputukian@verizon.net, 781-259-0885.