Hamilton-Wenham Cultural Council is Looking for Your Grant Request

The Hamilton-Wenham Cultural Council will award more than $7,000 toward arts programs, performances and events that will take place in 2011.

The local Cultural Council consists of six volunteers - three from each town.  The volunteers will review about 30 grant requests this fall for its $7,740 in grant money and typically fund about half the requests.

"The Local Cultural Council program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences annually," according to the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

All of the council's funding comes from the MCC.  Although the local Cultural Council is allowed to do independent fundraising and can accept gifts from other donors, they do not actively solicit other benefactors right now, according to Chairwoman Meredith Gisness.

The funding guidelines are actually quite simple - the program must be hosted locally.  The request does not have to be made by a local business, but there does have to be a recognizable local connection, Gisness said.

For example, a puppeteer performing at the Hamilton-Wenham Library may make a direct grant request; the library would not have to make the request. But in many circumstances it would be the local host, such as the library, that would submit the application.

The application would also have to fit the mission of the council, which is to bring arts, humanities and science programs to as many people as possible and to "serve the greater good," Gisness said.

Finally, the local Cultural Council is always looking for something new and different that will generate considerable interest.  They may not fund the same programs every year for the same amount - a directive from the state Cultural Council - because that would indicate that the program has a dependency on the Cultural Council. 

Last year, the local council funded 16 programs with topics ranging from Mark Twain to Going Green. The title of some of the programs that received funding include "Going Green with Peter and Ellen Allard," "Creative Kite Building Challenge" and "Edible Wild Plants Walk." All three of those programs fell in the interpretive sciences category.

A complete  list of the groups and programs that received funding last year is available on the Cultural Council's website.

According to Gisess, the council is always interested in funding school programs directly corresponding to curriculum and programs for the senior centers programs that involve many people in the community. 

The submission deadline is Oct. 15. For detailed guidelines and to download the submission form, go to the state Cultural Council's website.