Haverhill Cultural Council Awards $30,000 to Local Groups

Team Haverhill will use $3,000 to create an interactive guide to the Essex Street Gateway Mural.

The Haverhill Cultural Council has awarded nearly $30,000 to local organizations to show films, create plays, conduct school field trips, present concerts, teach painting and more.

Programs receiving money include Movies by the River, Sights and Sounds of Latin America, Team Haverhill’s Essex Street Gateway Mural and WHAV’s Edwin V. Johnson Newsroom.

“The Haverhill Cultural Council (is) granting not just money, but opportunity to local artists, groups, non-profits, schools and individuals of all ages, to make an impression on their world, an expression of their soul, through the Arts, humanities and sciences that demonstrate the spirit of our city from the inside out,” reads the council’s introduction.

WHAV is using its award to make upgrades to the Edwin V. Johnson Newsroom, in preparation for the launch of a new FM radio station at 97.9 FM.

Money for local programs comes from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Local Cultural Council Program—“the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences annually,” according to the council. Grants to communities range from $4,400 for the smallest towns to $117,400 for Springfield and $179,000 for Boston, according to a formula that reflects the state’s local aid system, officials said.

There are 329 local and regional councils, representing all 351 communities in the Commonwealth. The program is administered by 2,300 municipally appointed volunteers serving statewide. The state program awards more than $3 million in grants to more than 5,000 cultural programs statewide.

Complete List of Haverhill Recipients