|
THE
FOLLOWING APPREARED IN THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN ON MAY
14, 2009.
Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund arts grants aid sites in Western Mass.
By Patrick Johnson
SPRINGFIELD - Two Springfield organizations were among the recipients
of $12.4 million in arts and culture grants awarded Thursday by
the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund.
The Springfield Museums Association will receive $307,000 for the
Museum of Springfield History, the newest part of the museums at
the Quadrangle scheduled to open this fall.
The Community Music School of Springfield will receive $391,000
to be used to convert the first-floor lobby of its 127 State St.
location into a performing arts space.
"It's a winner for the community, for the city," said
Eric Bachrach, executive director for the Community Music School
of Springfield.
"I'm pumped," said Joseph Carvalho III, president of
the Springfield Library and Museum Association, which operates four
museums at the Quadrangle.
The funding is an endorsement from the state and speaks to the
importance of the project to the city, its history, and area tourism,
he said.
The grants are designed to boost tourism by investing in what is
called the state's "creative economy infrastructure,"
or the various museums, art galleries, and performance spaces throughout
the state. The Cultural Facilities Fund was created three years
ago as an economic stimulus for cultural facilities across Massachusetts.
In all, the $12.4 million will be used for 61 separate capital
projects, 17 feasibility and planning studies and 17 replacement
plan grants.
Adam M. Bickelman, director of communications for MassDevelopment,
said nonprofit cultural organizations are the fourth largest segment
of the state economy, accounting for $4 billion in economic activity.
The $12.4 million in funding comes from a $13.5 million fund created
last year by a combination of legislative funding and bond money,
he said.
The legislature last year allocated $6.5 million in funds in the
current 2009 budget for the Cultural Facilities Fund and Gov. Deval
L. Patrick included $7 million in funding for cultural projects
as part of an April 2008 bond issue, Bickelman said.
The remaining $1.1 million in the $13.5 million fund is going toward
administrative costs.
None of the money issued in the grant package comes from the 2010
state budget under deliberation by the Legislature, he said.
Funding is a sensitive issue with the state economy in recession.
The state Legislature is considering slashing local aid to cities
and towns by 30 percent.
"This is last year's money," he noted.
Bachrach said the funding will allow the school to proceed with
plans to relocate its administrative offices and create a performance
space and concert hall in the first-floor of its building, a former
State Street bank that is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Bachrach said the building's beautiful Art Deco interior will be
a magnificent performance space that will contribute to the city's
cultural scene. He said the school envisions lunchtime performances
and other events to draw the public inside.
"We expect we can really amplify our visibility and public
presence," he said.
He expects the project to be completed by the fall in time for
the school's 25th anniversary celebration.
Carvalho said the money will be used to complete the $7 million
renovation of the former Verizon building on Edwards Street into
the Springfield History Museum.
The museum is scheduled to open Columbus Day weekend in October,
and the money will help it meet that schedule, he said.
The size of the grant, he said, speaks to the importance of the
museums at the Quadrangle and the new museum in particular as an
investment in the area's cultural climate.
"This year is the 75th anniversary of the D'Amour Museum of
Fine Arts," one of the museums at the Quadrangle, he said.
"Seventy-five years ago in the middle of a deep depression,
the community made a commitment to build a museum for the arts,"
he said. "The significant investment they made reaped a century
of service."
In the same way, the investment by the state in the Springfield
Museums will yield similar returns for the next 100 years, he said.
© Copyright 2008 MassLive.com LLC
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| ©
Massachusetts Cultural Council 2010 |
| |
|
|
