Massachusetts Cultural Facilties Fund

Frequently-Asked Questions

What is the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund?
What is the history of the Cultural Facilities Fund?
How much money is available through the Fund this year?
What kinds of grants are available through the Fund?
Who manages the Fund?
What kinds of projects will the Cultural Facilities Fund support?
Who is eligible to apply?
Is there a matching requirement?
Have review criteria been established?
When is the application deadline?
Are guidelines available?
How does the application and grant approval process work?
Who received grants in the 2007/2008 round of the Cultural Facilities Fund?
Who can I contact for more information?

What is the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund?
The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund is an ambitious new initiative of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Fund offers Capital Grants and Feasibility and Technical Assistance Grants to help nonprofit cultural organizations renovate, expand, and repair their facilities, and to increase contributions from private funding sources. The Fund is a landmark investment in the infrastructure of our state's cultural resources.

What is the history of the Cultural Facilities Fund?
The Cultural Facilities Fund was passed on July 13, 2006, as one part of a far-reaching economic stimulus bill. The legislation received nearly universal, bipartisan support from the Legislature.

Passage of the legislation marked the successful completion of a campaign for cultural facilities that was spearheaded by the Boston Foundation, Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities (MAASH), and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and involved hundreds of advocates across the state.

The leaders of the campaign are profoundly grateful to the Massachusetts State Legislature for its vision and leadership in the passage of this bill.

How much money is available through the Fund this year?
This is to be determined once the fiscal 2009 budget is finalized in late June or July of 2008. However, the bill calls for $13 million to be appropriated to the Cultural Facilities Fund each year. The bill also calls for an annual distribution (amount to be determined) from the Massachusetts Tourism Fund. The amount to be distributed from the Tourism Fund will depend on the rate of growth in state hotel-motel tax revenues.

The bill calls for both of the above distributions to be made on an annual basis. As a matter of procedure both allocations are "subject to appropriation" each year by the Legislature and the Governor. This means that funds must be secured each year through the regular state budget process. For more information on this process, please visit the online resources at MAASH.

What kinds of grants are available through the Fund?

Feasibility and Technical Assistance Grants: For expenses related to planning and feasibility assessment for a proposed project.

Capital Grants: For the acquisition, design, construction, repair, renovation, rehabilitation or other capital improvements or deferred maintenance ("Eligible Projects") of a cultural facility. All of the following would qualify for consideration under this description:

New construction.
Additions to an existing structure.
Renovations or repairs to an existing structure.
Any combination of the above.

Who manages the Fund?
The Fund is administered through a collaborative arrangement between MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Governor-appointed Cultural Facilities Fund Advisory Committee advises on the operation of the Fund.

MassDevelopment has authority on all matters of Fund administration, including final approval of all grant decisions.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council is responsible for managing most aspects of the grant review process, through a contractual relationship with MassDevelopment. This includes distributing guidelines for the program, offering technical assistance to applicants, and reviewing grant applications.

The Cultural Facilities Advisory Committee is responsible for advising MassDevelopment on the management and operation of the Fund. The Committee consists of nine members, six appointed by the Governor, plus the President and CEO of MassDevelopment, and the Executive Directors of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. The six members appointed by the Governor represent six different geographic regions of the state, as called for in the statute.

What kinds of projects will the Cultural Facilities Fund support?

Capital Grants: For the acquisition, design, construction, repair, renovation, rehabilitation or other capital improvements or deferred maintenance of an eligible cultural facility.
Feasibility and Technical Assistance Grants: For expenses related to the undertaking and completion of a planning and feasibility study for a proposed eligible project.

Who is eligible to apply?

Nonprofit cultural organizations - 501 (c)(3) organizations that are primarily concerned with the arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences. The legislation includes but is not limited to museums, historic sites, zoos, aquariums, theaters, concert halls, exhibition spaces, classrooms, and auditoriums. Eligible facilities must be owned, leased or used by one or more nonprofit cultural organizations, and must be accessible to the public.
Municipalities that own cultural facilities - provided that the cultural facility is at least 50,000 square feet in size, and at least 50% devoted to cultural purposes.
Public or private institutions of higher education that own cultural facilities - provided that the cultural facility provides service and open access to the community and the general public beyond their educational mission, and can demonstrate financial need.

Is there a matching requirement?
Yes. The legislation calls for all grants to be matched as follows:
Grants under $1,000,000: 1-1 match
$1,000,000 to $2,499,999: 2-1 match
$2,500,000 to $3,999,999: 3-1 match
$4,000,000 to $5,000,000: 4-1 match

Remember that the total appropriation to the Fund in the first year was $13,000,000 and the largest award was $675,000, therefore all grants were subject to the 1:1 match requirement

Have review criteria been established?
The legislation establishes broad review criteria:

There must be a demonstrated community need for the project.
The project must be able to demonstrate that it will benefit tourism in the local area.
There must be a demonstrated financial need for a grant or loan.
The project must be able to demonstrate local support.

Additional criteria are laid out in the guidelines for the 2007 grant cycle.

When is the application deadline?
This is to be determined once the fiscal 2009 budget is finalized in late June or July of 2008.

Are the rules and guidelines available?
We expect to have new guidelines available July, 2008. The guidelines for the 2007 grant cycle are available as a reference (PDF).

How does the application and grant approval process work?
The MCC administers the application and grant technical assistance process. After grant applications are received, the MCC convenes panels to review all applications. The panel makes funding recommendations to the Cultural Facilities Fund Advisory Committee. In turn, the Advisory Committee makes recommendations for approval to MassDevelopment's Board of Directors.

Who received grants in the 2007/2008 round of the Cultural Facilities Fund?
A funding list is available online.

Who can I contact for more information?
Please contact Jay Paget, Program Director, or Rebecca Polan, Program Coordinator, at 617-727-3668 for additional information. They will answer your questions or direct your calls accordingly.