Building Blocks. The Grants We Received in 2020.
by John Mayer, ACM Executive Director
Members of the Rye Beach Landscaping crew are laying granite blocks for the Industrial History Center plaza. (Photo by John Mayer.)
2020 will be a year never forgotten. It was the year of COVID with challenges and hardships not seen before. Support for cultural organizations took a place behind the critical and basic human needs of our communities. This is as it should be.
And yet the work (and survival) of arts and humanities organization is essential for the life and identity of every community. In the face of this, the ACM was fortunate to receive grant support from a number of agencies and for a variety of projects.
As we reflect on 2020, I wanted to share how this funding supported our work, highlight the different agencies that provided these grants, and encourage you to take note so you can recognize these agencies and their importance to our local, statewide and national community.
Here is our list with a brief description of each grant.
The Mass Cultural Council awarded a $120,000 Cultural Facilities Grant for the construction of the Industrial History Center. For a small organization, this award said our project was worthy, well considered, and will bring new cultural activities to our community. The Mass Cultural Council receives funding from the Massachusetts legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources and uses these funds to support a wide range of programs offered by agencies across the state.
The Amesbury Cultural Council provided project support for two initiatives - our exhibit of photographs from the Aperture on Amesbury tour of the millyard, and the design and production of a map that will be part of our Family Day program. The Amesbury Cultural Council is a group of local volunteers, appointed by the Mayor, who promote and facilitate cultural activities and the arts in Amesbury. The Council oversees the distribution of Massachusetts Cultural Council grants, organizes the annual Amesbury Open Studio Tour, supports and promotes public art projects and events throughout the town.
The Essex County Community Foundation awarded a $2,000 grant through the Essex Country Creative Nonprofit Resiliency Program [link here]. This was a special allocation through the ECCF Creative County Initiative to assist nonprofit organizations that had been impacted by COVID crisis. The ECCF is a local foundation that supports philanthropy and charitable giving throughout Essex County.
Mass Humanities awarded a $2,500 CARES Act grant that supported our operations. These funds were an allocation from the National Endowment of the Humanities and intended to assist humanities organizations impacted by COVID.
Also, Mass Humanities awarded a Local History Grant of $1,700 that supported our work to establish a computer-based cataloging program and acquire a special software program (PastPerfect). This has been a long-standing project to bring our cataloging methods up to a new standard.
Mass Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities and other sources, and uses these funds to support hundreds of humanities projects each year that are offered by organizations throughout the state.
Please take a moment to check out the website of these organizations. I am sure you have been part of a program supported by one if not all of these agencies.
The grant funds we received advanced our work to develop a new history center in the Amesbury millyard, improve our work as a small history museum, and stabilize our operations. We are extremely grateful for these grant awards. Each grant was truly a building block for our future.
Thank you for taking the time to investigate these agencies and acknowledge their work in keeping the arts and humanities alive in this time of COVID.
Please reach out with your thoughts or questions. And thank you for your interest in the Amesbury Carriage Museum.
John Mayer, Executive Director
jmayer@amesburycarriagemuseum.com