Natick Cultural District Gets $15K From State Grant

NATICK, MA — The Mass Cultural Council has awarded 50 state-designated cultural districts with grants through the Cultural District Investment Grant Program, the organization announced.

In total, $750,000 was awarded to those districts, with each receiving $15,000 to support “activities and goals that encourage its development and success, such as marketing and promotion, capacity building, artist or vendor fees, the development or implementation of creative community placemaking, placekeeping, or public art, collaborative cultural policy or strategic planning processes, or community-engaged and informed data collection and/or reporting.”

This includes $15,000 to the Natick Center Cultural District.

The $750,000 represents Mass Cultural Council’s largest grant round in the history of the Cultural District Investment Grant Program. The $15,000 grant awards made recently are double the $7,500 awards approved a year ago, which comes thanks to an increase in the council’s Fiscal Year 2023 state budget appropriation.

“A decade ago, our partners in the Legislature asked Mass Cultural Council to develop and administer this initiative to spur cultural and economic activities in cities and towns of all sizes and in all regions of the Commonwealth,” said Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director, Mass Cultural Council.

“We are immensely proud of this powerful network that works every day to uplift the diversity of creativity and culture living and working in Massachusetts, and the exciting programming the districts provide their host communities.”