Somerset Cultural Council announces grants awarded to 18 cultural programs in Fall River area

Representative Patricia Haddad and both Scott B. Barnett and Carolyn Lazaris, co-chairs of the Somerset Cultural Council, have announced the award of 18 grants totaling $12,600, for cultural programs in Somerset and the surrounding region.

Grant recipients include the SouthCoast Open Air Market, the Somerset Council on Aging, and several local artists. A complete list of recipients and grant amounts can be found below. Co-Chair Scott B. Barnett stated “it was a great round of applications this year and we used the funds across many diverse activities to benefit the community’s cultural health.”

The Somerset Cultural Council is part of a 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 Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed resident volunteers. The members of the Somerset Cultural Council are:

· Scott B. Barnett, co-chair
· Carolyn Lazaris, co-chair
· Gayle Ulrich, Treasurer
· Manya Bark
· Diane Goodwin
· Denise Jordan
· John Larsen
· Liam Murphy

“It’s these local volunteers in Somerset who really make this process work,” said Representative Haddad. “They make limited resources go as far as possible, and the tough decisions about which projects should be supported. It’s a great state and local partnership. Thanks to them, we all see that the arts, sciences, and humanities are part of people’s everyday lives in and around Somerset.”

Statewide, more than $5.5 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2023. Additional cultural program funding in Rep. Haddad’s district totaled over $74K in 2022. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, field trips for schoolchildren, senior art and activity programs, workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, activities for families and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people statewide.

The Somerset Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. For guidelines and complete information on the Somerset Cultural Council, contact the council at somersetculturalcouncil@gmail.com. Applications begin in September and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at www.mass-culture.org.

The SCC is also seeking members, visit the Town of Somerset application bank to apply to be a member at https://www.townofsomerset.org/home/pages/board-committee-vacancies

This year’s grants from the Somerset Cultural Council include:

Bridgewater Antiphonal Brass Society, Inc.
Bristol Chapter of Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Inc.
Karen A. Chace
Girl Scout Somerset Service Unit
Kaye Kelly
Little Theatre of Fall River, Inc.
MUSIC Dance.edu
MUSIC Dance.edu
Steven Rodrigues
Somerset Council on Aging
Somerset Economic Development Committee
South Coast Community Chorale
Southcoast Open Air Market
Spirit of Somerset, Inc.
Town of Somerset
Matt York