By Mariella Mendez
The Lowell Cultural Council is an agent of the Massachusetts Cultural Council which receives funding from the legislature and the National Endowment for the arts. The LCC provides grants for programs aimed at education, diversity in arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences that overall improves the quality of life for Lowell residents.
The grants are reimbursement based and open to individual artists, art and community organizations, as well as municipal agencies. All the projects are based in Lowell and benefit its citizens. This year the Lowell Cultural Council’s priorities were determined as a result of the 2021 Community Input Survey emphasizing diversity and advocating for public art projects by LGBTQ(IA+) artists and communities of color.
I interviewed council member Maxine Farkas and co-chair Joseph Pyne to find out more about changes to this year’s application process.
Q: What are some elements that the LCC will utilize to identify "diverse" applicants?
A: We don't identify diverse applicants, rather the applicants must identify their audiences and are not allowed to discriminate by MCC rules.
Q: How difficult do you think it will be to utilize vacant spaces in Lowell for permanent installations?
A: This is something that applicants should work out with the department of planning and development. Remember the priorities come from the community, not from the Council, our opinion is immaterial.
Q: Do you think COVID impacted this year's Community Input Survey?
A: Prior to this year we always held an in-person meeting, we actually got a better response from the survey than we did from in-person meetings. I do regret not being able to address some misconceptions help by respondents directly.
Q: How will COVID impact this year's application and voting process?
A: There is little difference in the application process this year, just a later deadline. We will have to take into account how applicants plan to deal with any covid related restrictions.
Q: Do you think the application evaluation process will change?
A: The evaluation process has not changed.
Q: What actions will the LCC take to ensure that the applicants have a similar experience to prior years?
A: We have added a restriction that requires applicants to provide us with a plan based on covid directions from the state, but that will not change the process at all.
Q: How will the remote online application interview procedure differ from prior interviews?
A: This year we will be able to ask questions of all applicants as a group. Previously if someone did not attend the interview and a council member had a question they would have to contact the applicant directly and the rest of the council might not be privy to the answer.
Q: Are there any major changes to this year's voting meeting?
A: Normally we would deliberate and score the applications one night and then allocate funding the next and vote on the entire package of grants. This year we will deliberate and score one night and the following night will vote on those applications that will not receive grants, determination of funding will have to wait until the legislature has approved our allocation so that we know how much we have to distribute. Effectively we will meet three times rather than two.
Q: How often are applicants reconsidered after the denial process?
A: I've been involved in 11 complete grant cycles over an 18-year span and we have never had a successful request for reconsideration. Remember applicants can only request reconsideration if they can show that we have not followed our stated procedures. That is why we are so strict and take so much time, we have a lot of rules to follow.
Applications are now open for the 2021 Lowell Cultural Council Grants and the deadline is Monday November 16th at 11:59pm. For more information on how to apply please visit mass-culture.org/Lowell.