Historical Society Celebrates State Grant

Representatives from the Statehouse were on hand at the on Thursday morning to present the Falmouth Historical Society with a sizable grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. The $100,000 grant will go toward completing construction of the society's new Education Center, in front of which the grant-presentation ceremony took place.

Historical Society Executive Director Mark Schmidt called the extension “a necessary step for us,” and said the space will provide much-needed room for public and private events, archiving, storage, and at least one other important consideration.

“We will finally have public bathrooms,” Schmidt joked.

Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the driving force behind the creation of the Cultural Facilities Fund, explained the motivations behind her work on behalf of cultural organizations across the state.

“The way that you enrich the lives of the people who live here, and the people who come here, is nothing short of amazing,” she said. “Our cultural organizations do such an amazing job at their core work.”

Senate President Therese Murray congratulated Walker on the success of the fund. “In the years since its creation, it's just been a phenomenal success,” she said.

Murray, who represents parts of Plymouth and Barnstable Counties, also highlighted a more pragmatic reason for supporting cultural organizations. “They're powerful economic engines,” she said, “and they're really important to our commonwealth. The commonwealth puts the seed money in, and you grow. You grow the flowers from that.”

As Murray pointed out, those flowers include drawing tourists—with the state's cultural organizations attracting a total of five million out-of-state visitors per year—plus providing employment to Massachusetts residents, to the tune of over $385,000 in salaries each year.

Senator Daniel Wolf of the Cape and Islands district told the assembled dignitaries, “The most important part of defining who we are as a community comes from the organizations we're supporting here today.”

Wolf also explained one of the issues he has encountered since going to work at the Statehouse, by dint of the area he represents. “There's a huge thing called district envy up there,” he joked.

Even within a district, there may be such a thing as community envy. Representative Tim Madden of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district explained that, of the many cultural organizations within that area, only two received grants from the MCFF this year, both of which are in Falmouth; in addition to the Historical Society, the was awarded $63,000. Madden said both organizations had done outstanding jobs of preparing their grant proposals.