LENOX, Mass. — State Representative Smitty Pignatelli and Arlene D. Schiff, chair of the Lenox Cultural Council, announced the award of 26 grants totaling $12,600, 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 Bach Society; Berkshire Children's Chorus Take the Lead! Program; Berkshire Music School 2021 Lenox Loves Music Series; Berkshire Opera Festival' Much Ado About Shakespeare; Berkshire Pulse Dance Outdoors Festival; Berkshire South Regional Community Center's Berkshire Ukulele Band and Sings!; Berkshire Theater Group BTG Plays!; Cantilena Chamber Choir's Outdoor concert series and Talking Choral Music Youtube Channel; Chester Theater Company's 2021 Season; Rob Zammarchi's "Elijah T. Grasshopper & Friends"; Lenox Library's Virtual Winter Children's Concerts; Express Yourself in Pastel and Sketch Your Berkshire Neighborhood; Mass Audubon Berkshire Sanctuaries' Bringing Nature to You;  Music in Common's Berkshires Worldwide; New Stage Performing Arts Center Inc's Rights of Passage: 20/20 Vision; Pittsfield's Shakespeare in the Park 2021 Free Summer Production; SculptureNow IceFire 2022; Sara Campbell's "To Indian Territory and Back Again"; Shakespeare & Company's 2021 Fall Festival of Shakespeare; The Stockbridge Sinfonia 2021 Concert Series; Three of Nine Reading & Discussion of J.D. Salinger Stories;  Trio Candela; WAM Theater and WildFire Sculpture.

 

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

 

Statewide, more than $4.3 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2021. Grants will support a range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, First Night celebrations, nature and science education programs for families and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people.

 

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.mass-culture.org.