Special Projects Grants

Special Projects Grants is sponsored by Essex County Community Foundation. Provides funding for innovative artistic projects promoting cultural engagement and community well-being in Essex County.

CCI Grants | Essex County Community Foundation Funding for the arts is more critical now than ever before Public art brings people together. Sharing diverse cultures paves the way for understanding, civic discourse and collective problem solving. Music, film, theatre, poetry and painting – they all spark something within us.

The Creative County suite of grantmaking programs helps ensure that local artists, nonprofits and creative collaborations have equitable access to funding so together we can: Deepen engagement and investment in the creative sector. Enhance the visibility, reputation and new funding avenues for the arts. Inspire collaborative placemaking and public art projects by providing tools, templates and best practices.

Increase capacity for cross-sector work and leadership development. Funding for new, collaborative placemaking and public art projects. Creative County’s Partnership Grants encourage collaboration between the arts, municipal, business, and philanthropic sectors.

By strengthening these cross-sector connections, the system of support for arts and culture grows. Funding for a uniquely innovative aspect of an overall program.

Creative County’s Special Project Grants , ranging from $2,000-$5,000, provide funding for a uniquely innovative aspect of an overall program within the following categories: Advancement of cultural planning Diversity, equity, inclusion and access Public art or creative placemaking Creative space development Organizational capacity building Funding works by artists who identify as ALAANA (African, Latine, Asian, Arab, Native American) .

The Creative County Initiative ALAANA Artist Grants support the development of creative works or works in process by ALAANA artists, recognizing their historic and systemic exclusion from accessing resources to make creative work. The ALAANA Artist grant program will provide up to $5,000 for up to five (5) individual artists each year to develop a work or series of works in any creative genre.

Examples include: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. A grant opportunity intended to provide artists with greater access to economic and professional development opportunities. The Last Mile Fund is a needs-based program that provides grants of $100, $300 or $500 to artists and creative makers working in any medium whose access to resources is otherwise limited.

Requests for funding might include: $100 for a poet to pay entry fees for open calls for poetry. $300 for an artist to attend a business development workshop. $500 for a musician to offset the cost of a performance in a new venue.

ECCF’s Creative County work is powered by the contributions of our generous community. Creative County Initiative 500 Cummings Center, Suite 5450 Beverly, Massachusetts 01915 ECCF's Tax ID # 04-3407816