Belmont Cultural Council Awards Grants for 2022

State Representative Dave Rogers, State Senator Will Brownsberger and Chair of the Belmont Cultural Council Vicki Amalfitano recently announced the award of eleven grants totaling $7,900 for cultural programs in Belmont during 2022, through Belmont’s allocation from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

As COVID-19 restrictions have been of continued concern, the Cultural Council looked largely to support those long-standing institutions that have enriched the Belmont Community with music, fine arts, interpretive science, and humanitarian initiatives throughout the years.

The 2022 grantees are:

• Belmont Porchfest Mural Project, received $1,300

• Belmont World Film’s 20th International Film Series, received $800

• Payson Park Musical Festival Concert, received $1,100 •

Belmont Art Association: Beautifying Belmont’s Transformer Boxes, received $1,000

• Belmont Chinese American Association Documentary Screening and Discussion with the Filmmakers, received $400

• Daniel Butler Elementary School Multicultural Fair, received $400

• Musical Baseball Show at the Belmont Senior Center, received $300

• The Dorothy & Charles Mosesian Center: ASL Interactive Storytime Workshop Program, received $600

• International Asian Music Festival, received $900

• The Benton Lending Library, received $500

• Powers Music School: Musical Storytelling Program, received $600.

Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a council of municipally appointed volunteers who are all Belmont residents. The members of the Belmont Cultural Council are Chair Vicki Amalfitano; Secretary Jenny Angel; Evelyn Corsini; Volkan Efe; Treasurer Annette Goodro; Kathleen Hagan; Non-voting member Nancy Linde; Gloria Pimentel; Co-Chair Millie Rahn; Non-voting member Rebecca Richards; and May Ye.

Representative Rogers endorsed the work of the Council and the grant recipients, commenting, “What a wonderful group of grant recipients this year! These grants ensure that every Belmont resident has greater access to arts, humanities, and science programs. Investing in our creative sector is essential, and these grants foster the creative community here in Belmont. I applaud the Belmont Cultural Council for its outstanding work; it is always great to partner with them.”

Senator Brownsberger stated, "I'm so grateful for to the Belmont Cultural Council for the work it does to identify and support the creative talent in our community. I'm always pleased to vote for funding for the cultural councils."

The Belmont Cultural Council is part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s (MCC) network of 329 Local Cultural Councils (LCC) 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.

Statewide, $4,785,000 will be distributed from the MCC to local cultural councils in 2022. While all programs in this unusual year are required to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions, grants support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, school, and 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.

The Belmont Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. For guidelines and complete information on the Belmont Cultural Council, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BelmontCulturalCouncil/, the website at https://www.belmont-ma.gov/cultural-council or email belmontculturalcouncil@yahoo.com. Applications and information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at https://mass-culture.org.