McGRATHPR.com – Scituate Cultural Council announces the award of 13 grants totaling $5,243 in support of a diverse portfolio of applications to fund cultural programs in its community during 2019.
This year’s grants include Satuit Concert Band’s Summer Band Concerts, North River Arts Society’s 43rd Annual Festival of the Arts, Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2018-2019 concert season and outreach, Mass Audubon South Shore Sanctuaries’ program Your Neighborhood Fireflies, Fuller Craft Museum’s SENSEation Days, Choral Art Society of the South Shore’s 2019 choral concerts, South Shore Art Center’s 64th Annual Arts Festival, Scituate Community of Resources for Special Education (CORSE) Foundation’s music therapy programs for Children with Special Needs, Northeast Storytelling’s South Shore Perspectives storytelling performance, Scituate Art Association’s Arts Exploration school vacation programs, Scituate Town Library’s Drumming at the Library program with All Hands Drumming, Pilgrim Festival Chorus’s 20th Anniversary Choral Season with Scituate High School Select Choir Collaboration, and South Shore Natural Science Center’s Water Watch Lecture Series.
Scituate Cultural Council is a member of the 329 Local Cultural Council (LCC) network, 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 Mass Cultural Council (MCC), a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.
“I have always appreciated how our local volunteers partner to make this funding system work,” shares recently elected State Representative Patrick Kearney, a Scituate resident, serving the Marshfield and Scituate Plymouth County 4th District. “They stretch limited resources to go as far as possible, and make tough decisions about which projects should be supported. Thanks to Council volunteers, the Arts, Sciences and Humanities are part of people’s everyday lives and life-changing experiences in every community across the state.”
Scituate Council on Aging’s 2018 Community Drumming Circle program, image courtesy of Scituate Council on Aging
Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers. The current members of Scituate Cultural Council are Danielle Driscoll, Robin Glazier, George Humphrey, Tracey Kelly, Stacie Madden, Michelle McGrath, Janice Murphy, Deanne Noiseux, Denise Parker, Susan Scavo-Gallagher, Sarah Smith, Joyce Wilson and Christine Zaremba.
In 2018, Scituate Cultural Council funded many successful programs to benefit the community. Scituate Council on Aging’s Community Drumming Circle program, offered as part of its wellness programs for healthy aging, benefited those with physical and/or emotional challenges as well as older adults that discovered pleasure in hearing and producing music – an experience with health benefits as well as community connectedness, spiritual and emotional enrichment and fun.
The Cushing School’s Ball in the House A Cappella Group concert offered a performance by the Boston-based R&B/Soul/Pop a cappella group. The five-member veteran vocal band follows in the path of classic harmony groups, while incorporating the pop and neo-soul influences. This program relates to the school music curriculum on many levels, like singing in harmony, which is one of the biggest goals for grade 4 and 5 chorus. The band’s high energy inspired students to sing and beatbox right along with them. Students experienced professional singers modeling the principles of great singing practiced at all grade levels. Students experienced the arts in action as a creative act that communicated a message and made them feel good.
The James Library’s Robert Frost: Light and Dark program brought America’s great Pulitzer Prize winning poet to life in this highly-praised one-man show. Portrayed by local actor J. T. Turner, the remarkable journey of Robert Frost was presented in stories of his life, the tragedy as well as the humor, including readings of some of his most popular poems.
Statewide, more than $3.3 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2019. Grants 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, First Night celebrations, nature and science education programs for families and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people.
Scituate Cultural Council seeks new applications again this fall, and online applications will be available September 1. For guidelines and complete information about Scituate Cultural Council, contact Council Chair Sarah Smith by email at jssmith01@comcast.net. Applications and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at www.mass-culture.org.
About Scituate Cultural Council
The Scituate Cultural Council (SCC) is part of Massachusetts Cultural Council’s (MCC) Local Cultural Council Program – the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation. Each year, the MCC distributes funds to the SCC, which grants these funds to local individuals, schools and organizations in support of arts, humanities, and interpretive science projects for the benefit of Scituate residents.
The SCC is comprised of volunteers appointed by the Scituate Selectmen and are responsible for reviewing grant applications and awarding monies. The most-recent grant cycle awarded 13 grants, for projects benefiting the Scituate community featuring a wide range of cultural disciplines.
The SCC partnered with the Town of Scituate, the Scituate Harbor Business Association, and the Scituate Arts Association in spearheading a successful application process to obtain Cultural District designation for Scituate Harbor, and continues to support the Scituate Harbor Cultural District.
For more information, visit scituatema.gov/cultural-council, email Council Chair Sarah Smith at jssmith01@comcast.net, or follow Scituate Cultural Council on Facebook.
