50 Cape Cod, Iceland’s cultural programs, events win local, state grants

Dozens of Cape Cod cultural organizations start the year slightly better funded thanks to recent award announcements from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod and the Mass Cultural Council.

The Cape Foundation selected 42 cultural nonprofits and artists for a total of $ 77,800 in grants for a variety of programs. Last year a total of $ 51,500 was awarded to 16 organizations.

Executive Director Julie Wake said the help was “critical” not only to the region’s cultural enrichment, but also to “healing, connecting and accessing people of all backgrounds and abilities” during this challenging time.

“It is funding that is needed by an industry that is vital to our economy and that is still facing the negative effects of the pandemic,” she said in a written statement. “We look forward to standing with our fellow arts organizations and artists as we take meaningful steps to address this impact and achieve long-term, sustainable recovery for our sector.”

Michael Bobbitt, executive director of the Mass Cultural Council, put a similar focus on how art can help during the pandemic by announcing a total of $ 148,000 in festival-oriented grants for 99 events across the country. Eight organizations in the Cape and Island Islands received $ 12,000 of this money, with each festival grant increasing from $ 500 to $ 1,500 each year.

“As we continue to address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ways to safely gather together in our communities to learn and nurture joy and connection are more important than ever,” said Bobbitt in the announcement. “This extraordinary group of festivals will create these opportunities.”

Projects funded include new ones created in response to the pandemic, including the Provincetown Film Society’s decision last summer to include free outdoor screenings in its program. The Cape Arts Foundation donated $ 2,500 to continue the screenings at MacMillan Pier in 2022.

The foundation announced that in the coming weeks it will also provide details of new artist grant applications and projects to support the Cape community and creative industries, as well as applying for a portion of the US $ 150,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant that specifically will be used to help the area’s arts and culture sectors recover from the pandemic.

The local festivals, each receiving US $ 1,500 in government art funding, are: The Indigenous Artist Holiday Market in the northeast of the Aquinnah Cultural Center; the Hyannis Film Festival; First Night Chatham Activities for New Years Eve; the Martha’s Vineyard Wind Festival at Oak Bluffs; the Provincetown International Film Society for their Women’s Week Festival; Provincetown Library Friends for the Provincetown Book Festival; the awareness project for the Mindfulness Arts Festival in Sandwich; and Martha’s Vineyard Film Society for their third annual Women in Film Festival.

Money for art

Other programs funded by the latest Cape Arts Foundation scholarships include:

â–º $ 5,000 to the writer Judith Partelow for a play about the effects of racism in our community and society.

â–º $ 3,500 to Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich for Treasured Trash, an outdoor exhibition from 2022 of sculptures made from trash and recycled materials.

â–º $ 3,000 each to: Cape Cod Collaborative Arts Network for “Color the World Beautiful … with Teens,” an adult visual and literary arts initiative focused on “Beauty, Hope, Unity and Promoting Diversity for 13-19 Year Olds”; Cape Symphony for Link Up, a year-long program for grades 3 through 5 students to learn, perform, and compose their own orchestral music; and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill for its 15th annual International Encaustics Conference and pre- and post-conference workshops

â–º $ 2,800 to the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School Music Department for private and semi-private ensemble group lessons

â–º $ 2,500 each to the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival for nine summer concerts; Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis for the Cape Cod Open Sculpture Invitational, which runs outdoors May through October; College Light Opera Company in Falmouth for five performances including a free outdoor orchestral concert in celebration of June 10; Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center to restart a series of winter events of public readings, artist talks, and gallery openings along the Outer Cape; Ken Field for a 75-minute music and spoken word performance based on the poetry of award-winning African American writer and musician Charles Coe; Mashpee Public Schools for an arts-in-education residency with Bronx-born bassist Alex Torres and his Latin orchestra; MassHire Cape & Islands Workforce Board for its ArtWorks program to provide mentoring and internship opportunities for local high school students; Provincetown Art Association and Museum is converting its Life Drawing Studio into a hybrid classroom for personal and virtual classes; Twenty Summers in Provincetown for a summer outdoor concert series in Truro Vineyards to feature BIPOC and LGBTQ musicians and artists from across the country; Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater for a youth playwright workshop; and Woods Hole Film Festival for its Filmmaker in Residence program, the Woods Hole Film and Science Initiative, and the virtual festival.

â–º $ 2,400 to the Cape Cod Art Association in Barnstable’s art program for Hispanic and Portuguese youth.

â–º $ 2,000 each Cape Cod’s Alzheimer’s Family Support Center for Musical Souvenirs for Memory Loss, a monthly program partnered with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and the Dennis Council on Aging to provide a musical platform for adults with Alzheimer’s and dementias; and Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra for a concert in partnership with Wild Care Cape Cod that is inspired by the life of birds and includes a live bird experience before the performance.

â–º $ 1,500 each to The Awareness Project, performances and workshops on the benefits of mindfulness; Beyond the Bounds, a 2022 outdoor concert series that focuses on topical issues including climate change, coastal erosion and environmental sustainability; and Falmouth Art Center for free clay tuition for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

â–º $ 1,400 to Kim Rumberger to continue a project to install plant markers by her metal-clay students on the grounds of the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

â–º $ 1,250 to the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit for a mobile art cart that offers immersive hands-on experiences; and Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth for a Collectors Collecting Collections exhibit on everything from plants to souvenirs to sports memorabilia.

â–º $ 1,200 to Out Late with Diana Di Gioia for a series of concerts created in collaboration with local community groups.

â–º $ 1,000 after Capoeira Besouro Cape Cod for all year round Capoeira courses (Afro-Brazilian martial arts with music, movement and singing), which are offered at Nauset Fit Co. in Orleans; Cape Cod Cultural Center in South Yarmouth for the Launchpad project to work with 18 local artists opening to mainstream artists and to work on an exhibition with students from Riverview School; John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum Begins Creating Enhanced Online Experiences; Hyannis Public Library for a free multicultural spring story series, including StoryWalks; Lower Cape Television for a short documentary on the artist Edward Hopper and his Cape influence; Sturgis Library in Barnstable for a four-week digital poetry course; Sturgis Public Charter School in Hyannis for a music production laboratory; and Wellfleet Preservation Hall for Community Consenses, a collaborative art project with students and local artists

â–º $ 800 to Shelby Allen for an original “Not Yet Done” play on aging for the Falmouth Public Library and Falmouth Community Television.

â–º $ 500 to the Movimento Project for a contemporary dance show for all ages in Barnstable; Musical discoveries for a staff, child, and family curriculum for the US Coast Guard Child Development Center on Joint Base Cape Cod; and Veterans For Peace for its 27th Annual Voices of Peace Poetry Contest.

â–º $ 300 to MusArt Interconnections for multimedia concerts in the CCMOA created and curated by the pianist Ana Glig.

â–º $ 250 to Cape Cod Surftones for a Youth In Harmony a cappella song program with high school students.