Apply for a Grant

The Amesbury Cultural Council solicits grant requests, selects recipients, and awards funds made available annually from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for artistic and cultural projects and programs in and around Amesbury.

2025 Funding Priorities

Your ACC Grant Proposal will accomplish any/all of the following:

  • Offer free/affordable musical + theatrical performances for the residents of Amesbury

  • Offer free/affordable visual arts + folk crafts workshops, instruction + programming to the residents of Amesbury

  • Offer cultural festivals + community-building opportunities to the residents of Amesbury

  • Enhance our city through public art installations, placemaking, downtown revitalization, etc.

    We have switched to a direct grant format! All selected proposals will now receive funding UP FRONT — no receipts required!

What do we fund?

Applicants may apply to the ACC for funding for projects in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences. ACC grants are awarded via direct funding.

  • Arts: The creation, presentation, or preservation of work in the crafts and performing, visual, media, folk, design, literary, and interdisciplinary arts.

  • ​Humanities: Learning that deals with human values and aspirations, human thought and culture, language, and creativity. Examples include, but are not limited to, history, social studies, philosophy, criticism, and literature.

  • Sciences: Learning that deals with nature, science, and technology in ways that explain how they relate to people’s lives. Organizations that conduct this type of activity include aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, natural history museums, planetariums, and science centers.

The ACC identifies funding priorities each year, which can be found on this page and our page on the MCC website. Special consideration will be given to projects that align with these priorities.

Above all, applicants must be able to articulate how their project will directly benefit the Amesbury community.

Preference will be given to Amesbury residents and organizations, though consideration will extend to neighboring towns and cities including Newburyport, Salisbury, Newbury, Byfield, Rowley, West Newbury, Merrimac, and Haverhill.

How to Apply

Applicants must submit their online application by October 16th, 2024, 11:59pm. Late applications cannot be accepted.

Applicants must be residents of Massachusetts.

Applicants may apply for grants for programs that will take place during an 18-month window of eligibility: between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.

  • Applicants may apply for projects that happen prior to their Local Cultural Councils’ grant announcements, with the knowledge that funding is not guaranteed.

If individual applicants are partnering with an organization/location host for their project, they must include a letter of support from that partner (i.e., if the intended location is the Library or Council on Aging, you will need a letter of support from that organization).

Applicants seeking funding for events must provide exact dates, along with confirmation/approval from the location host (if applicable).

Who can apply?

Applicants can be:

  • Individuals

  • Nonprofits

  • Public & nonprofit schools

  • For-profit entities (i.e., businesses) proposing projects that provide public benefit

  • Unincorporated associations that establish a nonprofit objective / a group of individuals coming together with a common purpose (e.g., local community band, theater group, public art coalition, etc.)

  • Libraries

  • Other municipal agencies

  • Religious organizations for funding of cultural programming that is available to the general public (the ACC can only approve applications that are primarily cultural in their intent and do not have the effect of advancing religion.)

  • The Cultural Council itself

Applicants may use funds for:

  • One-off projects or events

  • Operating support

  • Ticket subsidy programs

  • Artist residencies

  • Field trips

  • Fellowships

Applicants may not use ACC grant funds for:

  • Refreshments

  • Scholarships (An organization may apply to sponsor a scholarship provided it shows evidence of an open and fair review and award process.)

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