Local cultural organizations are in line for state grants as part of $14 million in new Mass Cultural Facilities Fund Grants to boost the creative sector. The Patrick Administration on Thursday announced the grants to be administered by the Massachusetts Cultural Council to support new building projects for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, schools, and communities. Locally, The Cultural Facilities Fund awarded Historic New England $210,000 to replace and upgrade various components of their Haverhill facility, historically known as the Lang building, a former shoe factory built in 1912. The project includes window replacement, electrical, lighting and life safety updates; and external concrete repair. The building serves as collections storage for 65,000 decorative and fine art objects and approximately 150,000 archival items.
Also the Cultural Facilities Fund awarded Northeast Document Conservation Center of Andover $470,000 for its acquisition of a 33,000 square foot building that was built originally as a supermarket and was converted into a research and development space in the mid-1990’s. The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) is a paper/book conservation laboratory, digital imaging studio and preservation training center for collections-holding institutions in Massachusetts. It is currently planning to move from a leased space.
The fund is also providing a $9,000 feasibility and technical assistance grant to the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce to study the feasibility of acquiring and renovating the vacant Cogswell School building for a community art center.