Headline Message

The Commonwealth needs a timely release of $575 million in American Rescue Plan funds to immediately begin rebuilding the Commonwealth’s arts and culture infrastructure over the next four years. 

Investments made in the arts and cultural sector

• generate business and employment throughout the Commonwealth;
• create community connections across racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic divides; and
• change lives by building empathy and compassion for others and helping us better understand ourselves. 

A $375 million investment in the Mass Cultural Council would adequately fund grants to:

• support the recovery, stabilization, and re-opening of independent commercial venues and cultural service organizations
• assist artists in their career recovery and professional development
• support the recovery and sustainability of municipal performing arts organizations, cultural service organizations and venues
• support the recovery and sustainability of our museums, and our visual arts, humanities, and cultural heritage organizations.

A $40 million investment in the MA Office of Travel and Tourism would adequately fund a four-year marketing campaign to promote all aspects of our creative and cultural sector—including its relationship to our hospitality, travel and dining sectors.

• The campaign must be geographically representative of the Commonwealth.
•  It must promote both popular and lesser-known community attractions through a variety of communication vehicles.
•  It must encourage cultural and linguistic diversity, and racial equity.
•  The campaign should be developed in collaboration with the MA Cultural Council and other arts and tourism stakeholders. 

The pandemic exposed or heightened the sector’s need for digital and physical infrastructure upgrades. A $60 million investment would adequately fund:

• a Cultural Facilities Fund grant program for organizations to create or upgrade virtual programming options to enable additional revenue streams. Funding would go toward new computer systems, video and audio recording systems, and software to create hybrid programming and digital-only programming.
•  $20 million for a MA Cultural Council grant program to fund infrastructure and equipment upgrades to art and cultural nonprofits to safely and sustainably re-open.
• $20 million for a MA Office of Travel and Tourism to assist with facility upgrades. 

Arts and culture don’t exist without artists and the robust non-profit community organizations that provide arts education and enrichment to our youth and our neighborhoods. A $100 investment in this area would adequately fund:

• a $25 million MA Cultural Council capacity-building grant program to help organizations and artists operate more efficiently and thrive professionally (by funding staff positions, consultants, strategic planning, and technology)
• a $25 million grant program to support community-based culture and creativity like festivals, street fairs and public art, with an emphasis on historically underserved communities.
•  incentives for developers to create live/work space for artists—and to be held accountable for fulfilling their obligations in this regard.
• $50 million to create subsidized arts programming for youth that promotes accessibility to arts and cultural centers
• an increase in funding for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to support professional development for arts educators and arts administrators
•  the promotion of collaborations and partnerships between museums, arts organizations, other nonprofits to developing more holistic programs to serve the community and increasing the number of people served