The Duxbury Cultural Council has announced the awarding of 13 grants for 2012. With an allotment of $3,870.00 from the state and applications totally $19,455.00, the selection of recipients was a challenging process.

The recipients of the 2012 Duxbury grants are: The Art Complex Museum, Bay Players Inc., Duxbury Art Association, Duxbury Free Library, Duxbury High School Theatre, Duxbury 375th Committee, Friends of the Duxbury Council on Aging, David Murphy, North River Arts Society, The Pilgrim Society/Pilgrim Hall Museum, South Shore Art Center, South Shore Conservatory, and the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra. The Duxbury Camera Club was also awarded funding for their publication for the 375th Duxbury celebration from the DCC’s own funds. The Duxbury Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. The LCC program is the largest cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences, and humanities every year. The State Legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers who review the annual applications. The current board, chaired by Barbara Kiley, also consists of Marcy Bravo, Becky Chin, Helen Fowler, Carol Langford, Mary Beth MacQuarrie, Tony Pilla, Janet Ritch, Janet Schwartz, and Larry Smith.

Throughout the state, grants support an enormous range of grass-roots activities: concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, school field trips, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, First Night celebrations, nature and science programs, and town festivals. Nearly half of LCC funds support educational activities for young people; this includes the PASS Program, which provides subsidies for school-age children to attend field trips.

The Duxbury Cultural Council will seek applications again in the fall. Information and forms are available online at massculturalcouncil.org or at Duxbury Town Hall.