What do a tea party and a one-man circus in a suitcase have in common? They are two of the 16 programs awarded grants totaling $5,000 this year from the Harvard Cultural Council. Chairwoman Alice Bartram explained, “Each year, we try to find the right balance of funding as many applications as possible versus funding larger projects.” Bartram said she hoped that in the future, new larger projects could “grow organically” from current recipients’ exploring creative ways to work together.
The 2016 recipients are
- Bromfield Celebration
- Fitchburg Art Museum
- Fresh InkK
- Friends of the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge
- Fruitlands Museum
- Harvard Council on Aging
- Harvard Parent Teacher Organization (two grants)
- Harvard Pro Musica
- Harvard Public Library
- Nashoba Valley Concert Band
- Old Frog Pond Farm and Studio
- Concord Band Association
- Discovery Museum
- Virginia Thurston Healing Garden
- Worcester Chamber Music Society
A sampling of projects awarded includes the Council on Aging’s upcoming presentation of “Teas in Time,” a portrayal of a 1908 tea party in the life of a middle-class housewife. Circus Minimus, the one-man circus in a suitcase, will be returning to the children’s library courtesy of the Cultural Council’s grant. Being presented at Old Frog Pond Farm, the free Plein Air Poetry Walk and its accompanying chapbook (a small collection of poetry, generally no more than 30 to 40 pages, that typically centers on a specific theme), will be supported next September—coinciding with apple picking. Naturalist John Root will give a talk about birds at the new Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge facility’s grand opening in Devens this May. Two enrichment programs sponsored by the PTO at Hildreth Elementary School and Bromfield will be supported. The Cultural Council grant to the Fitchburg Art Museum will be applied to its juried regional art exhibit over the summer. Fresh InkK, the literary series featuring local artists, will present an evening of stories about medicine. The Healing Garden will use the grant, with other grants, to offer an Express for Arts therapy program throughout the year, consisting of a variety of artistic endeavors aimed at healing.
The Harvard Cultural Council’s charter is to promote and support the vitality of cultural resources within the Harvard community, through the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s local cultural council grant program, according to the local council’s page on the town of Harvard website. The money for the local grants, distributed by the state council, comes from the state Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources.
“It’s the local volunteers who really make this system work,” said state Senator Jamie Eldridge. “They make limited resources go as far as possible, and they make the tough decisions about which projects should be supported. Thanks to them, the arts, sciences, and humanities are part of people’s everyday lives in every community across the state.”
Laura Vilain is a recipient of a 2016 Harvard Cultural Council grant for her work on Fresh InkK, a literary series.
