Medford Arts Council

About

Established in 1980, the Medford Arts Council serves to bring high-quality cultural programming to the community. We donate our time and expertise to help you experience creativity in Medford. Through our grant-making we increase public access to Medford’s many cultural assets and promote favorable conditions for our creative economy. On an annual cycle we offer grants to community members, artists, writers, performers, instructors, students, cultural organizations, and others seeking to engage the Medford public. We also help sponsor new public arts and humanities initiatives in Medford. The funds we distribute are an annual allocation from the Massachusetts Cultural Council through their Local Cultural Council (LCC) program. For 2021 we received $28,700 from the Mass Cultural Council.

The Council also receives funding from the City of Medford. For 2021, the City of Medford allocated $60,000 to be used for the activities of the Medford Arts Council. With these funds, we help make possible many free or low-cost public events like the Arts Across Medford festival, Circle the Square, and West Medford Open Studios, as well as dozens of concerts, classes, field trips, performances, and other activities in disciplines including dance, theater, music, science, history, literature, craft and design, and the visual arts. We also use our funding to invest in new public art projects in the city’s open spaces.