Submitted by the Bedford Cultural Council
State Senator Mike Barrett, State Representative Ken Gordon, and Kelley Dadah and Barbara Purchia, co-chairs of the Bedford Cultural Council, have announced the award of 23 grants totaling $6,370 for cultural programs in Bedford or for Bedford residents. According to Purchia, “A new electronic process was implemented by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and we had a record number of applicants this year. Over 95 percent of the awarded grants are from Bedford residents or for events occurring in Bedford. The award recipients are helping enrich Bedford’s cultural community. There are so many opportunities for Bedford residents to enjoy the events that are sponsored in part by a grant from the Bedford Cultural Council.”
Grant recipients include the Multicultural Diversity Town Event, the Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet, The Bedford Citizen, the Bedford Historical Society, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Council on Aging, and the Bedford Arts and Crafts Society. A complete list of recipients and grant amounts can be found below.
The Bedford Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC 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 an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.
Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers. The members of the Bedford Cultural Council are: Barbara Purchia and Kelley Dadah – Co-Chairs; George Epple – Treasurer, Linda Connelly – Secretary, Gyasi Burks-Abbott, Elaine Grace, Charles Lipson, Judy Mabry, and Leslie Wittman.
“These grants ensure that Bedford’s wealth of cultural groups will continue to thrive,” Senator Barrett said. “From the looks of it, local volunteers buckled down and stretched every dollar to support an impressive 23 organizations.”
“The work of the Bedford Cultural Council is an example of the best of our community,” said Rep. Gordon. “As a former Chair of the BCC, I am aware of the hard work and dedication of this group. Bedford residents should feel proud of their town and grateful to this group when they notice the wonderful statues, gardens, and art works on display in town, or when they read about musical, theatrical and educational opportunities provided through grants offered by this program.”
Statewide, more than $3 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in FY2017. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, nature and science education programs for families and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people.
The Bedford Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. Information and forms are available online at (www.masscultural council.org). The application process starts on September 1 and applications are due Oct.15.
“The Massachusetts Cultural Council encourages applications from local artists, educators, performers and those involved in the sciences and humanities,” said Rep. Gordon. “The application process takes only a few minutes to complete, and there is nothing to lose.”
This year’s grants include:
Bedford Arts and Crafts Society
Series of Artist Demos and Presentations, $450
Bedford Council on Aging
Art Matters, $200
Bedford Embraces Diversity
2017 Bedford Multicultural Festival, $500
Bedford Family Connection
BFC Playroom Arts and Crafts, $150
Bedford Historical Society, Inc
54th Mass. Infantry Regiment (Black Civil War Regiment), $250
Bedford Patrons of Music Students (POMS)
POMS “Meet the Teachers” Salon, $100
Charles Mazel
Photographing the Human Condition, $200
Denise Pruitt – MCC Pow Wow
Intertribal Pow Wow, $250
Hanscom Middle School
Uncovering Our Roots, $350
Henry Lappen, for the Month of the Military Child at Hanscom Air Force Base
Henry the Juggler Performance, $100
John Root, at the Council on Aging
Songbirds of the Northeast, $200
Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet
Three Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet Concerts, $1,000
Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet
Composition and Performance of a Music Work for Double Wind Quintet, $300
Renu Bostwick, for Girl Scout Troop 71627
Book Swap Box, $200
Renu Bostwick, for Mothers Out Front Bedford
Honorarium for speaker for Gas Leaks Public Forum, $100
Roger Tincknell at the Council on Aging
This Land is Your Land, $200
S. Carlough Faulkner-Carroll
Traditions Meet: A Cross-Cultural Musical Conversation, $150
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
ST. PAUL’S TONIGHT, $250
Steve Henderson, at the Council on Aging
Mabel and Jerry – a play, $250
The Bedford Citizen
One Book, One Bedford: “March” a History of the Civil Rights movement, $400
The Concord Chorus
Bach Mass in B Minor Lecture Series , $100
Troop 194 Bedford
Norman Rockwell Museum Trip, $270
True Story Theater, at First Parish in Bedford
Talking about death: illuminated through theater, $400