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MassDevelopment In The News
Area Arts Institutions Glean About $1 Million in State Grants
September 12, 2007: Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Scott Merzbach
AMHERST - New state cultural grants will give a boost to the expansion of the National Yiddish Book Center, documentation and improvement of the landscape at the Emily Dickinson Museum and the purchase of the Amherst Cinema Arts Center.
MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Cultural Council Tuesday announced that the new Cultural Facilities Fund, which is providing $16.7 million to 62 organizations across the state, will give a total of more than $1 million to the three Amherst cultural institutions, as well as to A.P.E. Ltd. (Available Potential Enterprises Ltd.) in Northampton, the nonprofit arts organization at Thornes Marketplace.
Sen. Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, who has long supported establishing such a fund, said arts and cultural facilities contribute to the state's economy through economic development. "The reason we're investing in this is tourism is our second leading industry," Rosenberg said.
The $352,000 capital grant that will go to the National Yiddish Book Center comes as the 10-year-old center at Hampshire College expects to break ground on a $6 million addition next March.
Aaron Lansky, president of the center, said this expansion will double the space and add to the educational workshops and outreach the center can do, as it evolves beyond just a place that has helped to save Yiddish literature, digitized texts and placed the content of books online.
But for Lansky, the grant is more than a substantial amount of money, it is also a huge step forward in the recognition of Yiddish and its cultural importance.
"It's a wonderful imprimatur that underscores the broader significance of the project," Lansky said.
The center has already reached $5.2 million of its $6.1 million fundraising goal.
At the Emily Dickinson Museum, the $28,500 technical assistance grant will help to document the historic 3-acre landscape between the Homestead, where Emily Dickinson lived, and the Evergreens, the adjacent home built in 1856 by Emily Dickinson's father, Edward Dickinson, for her brother, Austin Dickinson.
Jane Wald, executive director of the museum, said a portion of the money will also document the Evergreens, which became a cultural site in 1991 and part of the museum in 2003, and has remained an almost fully intact 19th-century home.
"They are the next steps in our long-term goals for preservation and restoration of the entire site," Wald said.
Wald said the landscape is significant because it is connected to the interests of family members in the natural world, as evidenced in Emily and Lavinia Dickinson's love for gardening and Austin Dickinson's expertise in landscape architecture and enjoyment of long rides in the countryside.
The Amherst Cinema Center received the biggest grant of the three - $675,000, the largest amount an organization could get through the fund. Rosenberg said this will go toward the $3.4 million campaign to buy the facility from Barry Roberts, who built and financed the center and has agreed to sell it to the nonprofit organization at cost.
Representatives from the cinema could not be reached for comment.
All three grants require dollar-for-dollar local matches, which Rosenberg expects all the local groups to easily achieve.
The fund is expected to be a 10-year program that will provide $250 million in public funds matched with $250 million in private funds. This year, 180 applicants requested $80 million.
In a prepared statement, MassDevelopment President/CEO Robert L. Culver said, "Cultural organizations are central to our identity in the commonwealth. They attract visitors to Massachusetts and stimulate tourism, a major economic engine for Massachusetts.
Wald credits state legislators for recognizing the importance of cultural organizations.
"It's a tremendous initiative on the part of the state to organize substantial funds for cultural facilities," Wald said.
Other western Massachusetts organizations awarded capital grants include the Springfield Museums, Springfield, $675,000; the city of Springfield, $478,000; Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, $414,000; the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, $84,000; The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, $670,000; Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, $353,000; Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, $67,000; Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, $104,000; the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, $147,000; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, $429,000; the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, $22,000; and Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, $395,000.
© Copyright 2007 Daily Hampshire Gazette.
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