LYNN — With less than a week to go before the application window closes, the city’s cultural council this weekend renewed its call for proposals to distribute nearly $100,000 in funding.
The council receives an annual allocation of funding from the Mass Cutlural Council, which was set at $99,800 for fiscal year 2023. The council then divvies up the funding between a number of applicants, primarily for culture-related events and programming.
In FY22, the council’s largest allocation, $9,300, went to Michelle Richardson, a poet and community advocate, for DENCITY Soulcase and Open Mic at Lynn Parks. The deadline to apply for funding for FY23 is Oct. 17.
Ward 3 Councilor Coco Alinsug took to Facebook to throw his weight behind the council and encourage organizations to apply.
“People of Lynn and surrounding areas, I hope you can help me spread this far and wide,” Alinsug wrote. “Lynn Cultural Council is now accepting applications to receive grants for next year. … These include school field trips, afterschool programs, concerts, festivals, lectures, theater, dance, music, and film.”
On the Mass Cultural Council website, Lynn Cultural Council lists five “local priorities” for grant applications, essentially laying out how funding proposals are going to be selected. The first priority is that the applicant be able to “collaborate with multiple organizations & individuals from Lynn.” The second priority listed is applications that “give a voice to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) populations.”
“Communities of color, immigrant & refugee communities, gender minorities, LGBTQ+, disabled, low-income, and other historically marginalized groups are strongly encouraged to apply,” the council wrote.
The third priority listed is applications that provide cultural opportunities for youth, and the fourth warns that “programs that have received LCC funding for multiple years or are submitting multiple applications, may have a lower funding priority so that we may equitably distribute funds to applicants who have not received funds in the past.”
The final priority listed by the council is applications that are focused on education in schools and beyond on the arts, humanities, and sciences.
Applications can be submitted via Mass Cultural Council’s website and the Cultural Council on Facebook assured those interested that the process is “easy, very easy.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].