Massachusetts Cultural Council 10 St. James Ave., 3rd Floor Boston, MA 02116-3803 Tel: 617-727-3668 Toll Free (in MA only): 800-232-0960 Fax: 617-727-0044 TTY: 617-338-9153 mcc@art.state.ma.us

We want the Commonwealth to support arts and culture as much as arts and culture support the Commonwealth.

OUR MISSION
The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) is a state agency that promotes excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the economic vitality of our communities.

OUR VISION
The arts, sciences and humanities have the power to build healthier, more livable, more vital communities. They enrich, exalt and provoke. They are an essential part of a strong educational system. They contribute enormously to our economy. They build bridges across cultures. They can be used to address - or better yet, prevent - some of our most stubborn social problems. They help us interpret our past and shape our future. They help us understand what it means to be human.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council is committed to building a central place for the arts, sciences and humanities in the everyday lives of communities across the Commonwealth. The Council pursues this mission through a combination of grant programs, partnerships and services for nonprofit cultural organizations, schools, communities and individual artists.

OUR FUNDING
MCC receives an annual appropriation from the state Legislature and funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Foundation, and others. Details on our budget are available online. In turn, MCC makes thousands of grants directly to non-profit cultural organizations, schools, communities, and individuals artists, through funding programs that use arts, science, and the humanities to build strong, diverse, livable communities. The beneficiaries of these programs comprise a cross-section of the population and citizens in each Massachusetts city and town.

OUR IMPACT
There are few places in America as rich in arts and culture as Massachusetts. From Boston to the Berkshires, from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, our state boasts an array of exceptional cultural organizations, beautiful and distinctive communities, and thousands of talented artists and educators. The MCC nurtures the creative life of Massachusetts. We help organizations grow and change. We help schools enrich students' lives by weaving quality arts, humanities, and science programs into their curricula. We foster dialogue among cultural leaders on issues of shared importance, and make connections between artists and businesses. And we advocate on behalf of the cultural community--ensuring that arts, humanities, and sciences have a voice in discussions about the future of the Commonwealth and its communities. The Council recently completed a five-year strategic plan designed to strengthen support for arts and culture in the Commonwealth.

For feedback or technical questions on this site, contact the Webmaster.