{"id":22129,"date":"2022-11-04T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=22129"},"modified":"2022-11-04T10:42:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:42:06","slug":"creative-county-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/11\/04\/creative-county-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative County Announces More Arts Funding, New Grants At Arts Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a sponsored post supported by the Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative.<\/em><\/p>\n

To mark five years since the the launch of the Creative County Initiative from the Essex County Community Foundation, more than 300 arts leaders from the 34 communities in the county on Boston\u2019s North Shore gathered at The Cabot theater in Beverly on Sept. 30. It was the organization\u2019s first in-person Arts & Culture Summit since 2019 and the outbreak of the covid pandemic.<\/p>\n

The news? Essex County Community Foundation Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Stratton Lloyd announced that the Initiative would be offering two new grants\u2014Last Mile Fund Grants beginning in December and Racial Equity Capacity Grants starting in January. The Last Mile Fund supports small capacity-building grants for individual artists and groups to fund workshop attendance, responding to calls for art or writing, and other ways to access knowledge or opportunities.<\/p>\n

Creative County Program Initiative Program Director Karen Ristuben said the initiative had already funded $2.3 million in new arts and culture programs and served more than 2,000 organizations and 30,000 people through grants and other programs. She announced that the foundation would put an additional $2 million into arts in Essex County over the next four years with help from $1.6 million in additional funding from Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation and the Essex County Community Foundation pledging to raise $400,000 more for the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years into this [our goals] are even more ambitious,\u201d Essex County Community Foundation Trustee Richard Sumberg told the audience.<\/p>\n

\"Panel<\/a>
Panel discussion of the North Shore Children\u2019s Museum from the Peabody Cultural Collaborative at the Arts & Culture Summit from the Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative at The Cabot theater in Beverly, Sept. 30, 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creative County was launched as part of the Barr Foundation\u2019s Creative Commonwealth Initiative, which partners with \u201ccommunity foundations to build local networks for arts and culture, and to help the creative sector become more sustainable, equitable, and accessible statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barr Foundation Arts & Creativity Director San San Wong praised Creative County\u2019s \u201csystems approach,\u201d involving grants, regional meetups, working across sectors, building government support for arts, its Changemakers Cohort leadership training and networking, and an online events calendar and directory of artists and cultural organizations at CreativeCounty.org<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these divisive and sometimes hopeful times, artists and the arts are more critical than ever,\u201d Wong told the crowd. She said she looks forward to moving \u201cbeyond problem solving and into the possibility dreaming that our society so urgently needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Videos and presentations showcased Creative County\u2019s accomplishments. It has funded a planned \u201cWall of Fame\u201d mural honoring hip hop artists in Lynn, spotlights to illuminate the falls in Methuen at night, festivals in Lynn and Lawrence, an art installation of signs placed around Ipswich\u2019s Crane Estate imagining the future damage of global warming, and a skatepark in Ipswich surrounded by reproductions of art. And out of the initiative has come passage of an ordinance in Methuen requiring the community to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month, Ristuben said.<\/p>\n