The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s (MOAC) Neighborhood and Downtown Activation Fund is a grant program to support community-focused arts and cultural activations in public spaces.
Donor Name: Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC)
State: Massachusetts
City: Boston
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/03/2023
Size of the Grant: $100,000 – $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC) believes that creativity is necessary for their health and well-being. Everyone should have access to creative expression through lifelong programming. There should also be space to create in every neighborhood. This fund will support:
- individuals,
- nonprofit organizations,
- collectives,
- fiscally sponsored groups, or
- businesses working in partnership with community partners to implement activations across a variety of scales.
MOAC focuses on projects that occur in and with neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The goal is to foster joy and strengthen community wellbeing across Boston through arts, culture and creative programming. This grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and Boston Planning and Development Agency Public Impact Contribution Funds.
Projects Prioritize for Funding
Grant will prioritize projects that include some or all of these elements:
- Placekeeping: Intentional efforts to sustain and nurture a community and its physical and social environment for the benefit of residents and local business owners and workers. Placekeeping focuses on the social fabric, traditions, and norms of a community.
MOAC Prioritize activations that occur or include the following neighborhoods: Mattapan, Roxbury, Dorchester, Hyde Park, East Boston, and Chinatown.
- Collaborations and Partnerships: Authentic partnerships and collaboration that bring segregated communities into conversation and foster cross-neighborhood collaboration.
MOAC Prioritize applications from for-profit organizations that partner with nonprofits, artists, or community groups over applications from for-profit organizations that do not have local non-profit partners.
- Public participation / co-creation: Going beyond the public as an audience and building opportunities for the public to contribute to the vision, creation, and enjoyment of the project and program.
MOAC Prioritize proposals that take place in outdoor public places or indoor locations that are visible/accessible from the public way.
- Youth participation and training: Integrating outcomes for young people (ages 14 to 24) into the project, facilitating opportunities for young people to inform and lead work. This includes opportunities to learn specific skills or gain career exposure.
Funding Information
There is up to $5 million available for this grant, and we will award grants in the following amounts:
- Level 1: Less than $50,000, one time grant
- Level 2: $50,000 – $100,000, one time grant
- Level 3: $100,000 – $500,000, multi-year grant up to 3 years
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants need to meet all of the following criteria to be eligible:
- Be an individual, non profit organization, collective, fiscally sponsored group, or business working in partnership with community partners
- Be Boston residents, partnering with a Boston group/organization, or otherwise show that Boston residents are leading their project
- Have a direct relationship to the community or area in which the activation or program is taking place. This can include being from that community, having spent a significant amount of time working and building relationships in that place, etc.
- Have a concrete location(s) in which the activations will take place, even if those places are not yet confirmed. Project ideas that list entire neighborhoods will not be considered.
- Activations need to take place in the City of Boston and be in locations that meet accessibility standards.
The grant will not fund:
- Fundraising events, advertising, or any activity that is primarily for the commercial benefit of one entity
- Religious programs of any kind
- Ticketed events that have an entry fee (ticketed free events are eligible)
- Other foundations or grant-giving organizations
For more information, visit City of Boston.
