[Hidden-tech] Arts Grants Available: Applications Due October 16th

[Rich]

For Immediate Release: Greenfield Arts Funding Commission grants due
October 16; get help with an application at the Greenfield Public
Library Tuesday, September 12 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Contact: Sam
Pettengill, Chair of Greenfield Arts Funding Commission,
spettengill at comcast.net <mailto:spettengill%40comcast.net> , 413-522-6099

Do you have an arts (musical, visual, performance, spoken, written,
etc.) project in need of Local Cultural Council funding? Have you
already begun an application and need some help to finish? Come to an
information meeting at the Greenfield Public Library on Tuesday
September 12 from 6-8:00 p.m. to learn more. The Greenfield Arts Funding
Commission is the local cultural council, under the auspices of the
Massachusetts Cultural Council. Grant applications are due by October
16, 2006 for projects to be funded in the current granting cycle.

To get an application online and learn more on your own, go to
www.mass-culture.org. Completed applications may be submitted to the
Office of the Mayor, to the attention of GAFCOM. For more information
contact: Chair Sam Pettengill at (413) 522-6099.

Social Impact of the Arts projects:
Key findings:
Participation in the arts on the local level positively impacts
community life. Cultural participation builds bridges across
neighborhood, ethnicity, and class divides. And, neighborhoods with a
robust cultural life are more likely to attract sustainable, livable
development.
? Higher levels of cultural participation change the social
environment by fostering a sense of collective efficacy - the
willingness of people in a community to act together in public matters
of collective and individual interest.
? Disadvantaged neighborhoods with higher cultural participation
were four times more likely than average to have low delinquency rates.
? People participate in cultural activities outside their own
neighborhoods.
? This reduces social isolation and builds connections across
historical divides of ethnicity and social class.
? Places with many cultural providers are more likely to experience
slower, more gradual redevelopment and emerge as diverse areas with
people of different economic and ethnic backgrounds living together as
neighbors.
? Neighborhoods with an active arts scene (measured by the number of
cultural providers within half a mile) were nearly three times more
likely to see their poverty rates decline and their population increase.
Research by Mark Stern and Susan Seifert, University of Pennsylvania,
School of Social Work (ongoing)

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