The Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council recently awarded more than $60,000 in grants to three dozen Island arts nonprofits, council chair J.P. Hitesman told the Gazette this week.
The 17-member council, which represents all six Island towns, is charged with distributing state funding provided by the Mass Cultural Council.
First Friday Vineyard Haven, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Built on Stilts and the Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition are among several groups receiving grants between $3,000 to $4,500.
The council also awarded between $1,500 and $3,000 to recipients including the Harvest Festival in West Tisbury, the LGBTQ+ Pride event in Oak Bluffs, the Annual Native American Artisans Festival and Âs Nupumukânuean/We Still Dance, a collaboration between members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and Boston-based Danza Orgánica.
Other grants in this dollar range went to the Island Community Chorus for concert musicians, the Edgartown library’s summer concert series and TBD Improv Company of Oak Bluffs, for its 2025 season.
Smaller awards included $188 for traditional music at Tisbury’s Memorial Day picnic, $500 for an email newsletter spotlighting arts events on the Island, $750 for the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse’s 2025 season and $900 for an Indigenous People’s Day celebration this fall.
There’s also $1,250 for local productions in September of the Kittie Knox Plays, a series of one-acts about the trailblazing 19th-century bicycle racer who overcame barriers of sex and race to become the first African American member of the League of American Wheelmen.
The Mass Cultural Council provides $7.5 million each year to 7,500 local councils and recently granted $15,000 to each of the state’s 58 cultural districts, of which Martha’s Vineyard has two: the Aquinnah Circle Cultural and Historic District and the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District.
The Massachusetts council receives most of its funding from the state, with the National Endowment for the Arts contributing about $1.2 million of the council’s nearly $34 million budget for the current fiscal year.
