LENOX, Mass. — State Representative Smitty Pignatelli and Arlene D. Schiff, chair of the Lenox Cultural Council, announced the award of 22 grants totaling $10,174, for cultural programs in Berkshire County.

 

"It's the local volunteers who really make this system work," said Smitty Pignatelli. "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."

 

Grants have been awarded to the following programs: Arts in Recovery for Youth; Berkshire Music School's 2022 Lenox Loves Music Series; Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries' Nature in Your Neighborhood program; Cantilena Chamber Choir Corporation's All County Choir Sing; Greenagers, Inc.; Hip Hop Dance Chair Exercise for Seniors; Lenox Chamber of Commerce Winterland Tree Walk; Lenox Library's Something's Fishy! program; Mary Jo D. Maichack's The Lake of the Croaking Frogs; Michelle Marroquin's Live Music & Dance at The Mount; Music in Common's The Black Legacy Project; Nutshell Playhouse at Ventfort Hall; OLLI's Indigenous Peoples: We Are Still Here program; Pittsfield Shakespeare in the Park; SculptureNow at The Mount 2022; Shakespeare & Co's 2022 Fall Festival of Shakespeare; Tamarack Hollow Nature and Cultural Center's Kennedy Park Hike;  Trio Candela with the Berkshire Rhythm Keepers at the Lenox Artwalk; The CatnipJunkies: Live! From The Lenox Dining Terrace; The Stockbridge Sinfonia, Inc.; WAM Theater and Robert Zammarchi's Elijah T Grasshopper & Friends.

 

The Lenox Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest 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. Statewide, more than $4.7 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2022.

 

The Town of Lenox also provided funding to the Lenox Cultural Council for this grant cycle.

 

The Lenox Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. Applications and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at www.massculturalcouncil.org.