Wednesday afternoon, Governor Patrick submitted his budget to the Massachusetts House of Representatives detailing his allocation to the creative community through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).

His proposed FY14 budget for the creative community is disappointing.  I believe we can do better.

The Governor’s budget allocates $9.6 million for the MCC to invest throughout the Commonwealth’s creative community. This total is similar to last year’s MCC budget and remains stuck at less than half of what the Commonwealth invested in arts and culture ten years ago.

Yes, we have more work to do and we will need your continued help. Click here to help MASSCreative as we shift our campaign focus to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, MASSCreative, Sarah Berry from the Art Connection and Pat Hollenbeck of the Boston Musicians Association delivered signatures to the Governor from more than 5,000 Massachusetts residents urging him to increase the MCC budget $3 million to a total of $12.5 million. Thank you to all who signed the petition and especially those who recruited their friends, colleagues and audiences to sign.

Now we need to take our message to the 160 local Representatives who will begin creating their own House Budget for release in the middle of April. Through February and March, MASSCreative will be working to set up local meetings with Representatives so you can tell them about the impact the creative sector has on your community. Click here if you want to help organize a meeting in your community.

And stay tuned. We are busy developing our campaign tools and determining our key targets to make sure the House budget increases the Commonwealth’s investment in the creative community.

Our petition to the Governor engaged more than 5,000 residents.  We are united around a narrative of investing in the arts and cultural community to build more connected and economically vibrant communities. Let’s keep up the momentum and make sure our voices are heard.