Grants 2024
FY24-LCC-58734 Gelfand, Rick: Celebration of Día de Los Muertos
This will be a celebration of the Mexican holiday Día de Los Muertos, modeled on our 2023 celebration. It will be jointly sponsored by SMOC and FCC. The plan is to have 4 primary areas in the large room at the Community and Cultural Center: 1) Movie Coco about the holiday, 2) Face and mask painting, 3) Food & refreshments, and 4) Non-religious "ofrenda" or "altar" decorated with colored tissue paper, artwork, and photos of deceased family members and friends who are being honored for their impact on the celebration participants. Mauricio Parea from the FCC will provide an explanation of the holiday. Festivities are "an explosion of color and life-affirming joy," and "the point is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members." For more information on the holiday, please click here.
FY24-LCC-59509 Brophy Elementary School Lights ... Color ... Action!
This project was an educational presentation by Mad Science of Southern MA & RI, a company that provides science workshops to young learners. The program consisted of an instructor visiting individual 1st-grade classrooms and presenting a science workshop on the light spectrum. Children could observe demonstrations that blended colors to produce white light and others that separated white light into colors. Experiments with prisms and diffraction lenses allowed children to explore the color spectrum of various light sources.
FY24-LCC-70377 Framingham History Center, Inc. Summer Series: Nipmuc Lifeways
The Framingham History Center is partnering with the Nipmuc People for a Summer Series focused on Nipmuc Lifeways. The project will have two components: a storytelling talk and a walking tour exploring sites of history related to the Nipmuc People in Framingham. This Summer Series provides opportunities to engage with Nipmuc history interactively and sheds light on this community's ongoing traditions and connections today.
FY24-LCC-70469 Framingham Public Access Corporation Youth Media Video Arts Program
Access Framingham seeks to increase youth engagement by providing dedicated training and video production opportunities for a group of 14 - 19-year-olds in Framingham. These workshops will be conducted at the TV studio and offsite locations throughout the City, focusing on South Framingham. Students in this program will be offered opportunities to use their skills to record and edit arts and cultural events that will be broadcast on AFTV and posted on YouTube.
FY24-LCC-61964 Mansfield, Katie Lee 48 Hour Installation
This grant supported the third in a series of 48-Hour Installation projects. These events create three-dimensional works that turn an entire room into a piece of art. They bring together students and professional artists to create a theme and build a large-scale project while developing dialogue around contemporary art in a community. The images below illustrate the 2024 event.
FY24-LCC-68021 The Raymond J. Callahan Center 2024 Cultural Arts Series
The 2024 Cultural Arts Series at the Callahan Center engages older adults who may not have the opportunity to experience all the arts. This series runs from February to November and incorporates a range of genres, cultures, and generations that reflect the diversity found across the arts and within our community. The Cultural Arts Series features 14 programs to learn and experience the joy found in the arts through music, performance, and visual arts. The programs in the Cultural Arts Series are always free, which helps bridge the gap when finances are limited. Participants who attend this series at the Callahan Center reflect the City's diverse demographics and the Cultural Arts Series plays an integral part in the City’s commitment to Age Well Framingham’s vision of an equitable, inclusive, and accessible community that helps people of all ages thrive.
FY24-LCC-60883 The Raymond J. Callahan Center 2024 Humanities Series
The 2024 Humanities Series at the Callahan Center showcases 15 informative and thought-provoking presentations for older adult learners from March to November. These programs foster participants' intellectual growth and curiosity while promoting thoughtful discussion and personal reflection as they delve into the people, places, and circumstances that shape our values, history, and world. The programs in the Humanities Series are always free, which helps bridge the gap when finances are limited. This series engages older adults in active learning on interesting topics and provides meaningful opportunities for discussion. Participants who attend this series at the Callahan Center reflect the City's diverse demographics and the Humanities Series plays an integral part in the City’s commitment to Age Well Framingham’s vision of an equitable, inclusive, and accessible community that helps people of all ages thrive.
FY24-LCC-69402 Framingham Centre Common Cultural District Live Entertainment at Centre Common Farmers Market
The Framingham Centre Common, in the heart of our Cultural District, will have live music and entertainment for the thousands of people that attend the City Farmers Market on Thursdays from June to September on the common. The event aims to showcase diverse genres and cultural diversity through live music and entertainment from Brazilian, Latin, and Asian performers to celebrate the cultural and ethnic vitality and diversity of Framingham and increase community engagement through music and performance.
FY24-LCC-70140 Framingham State University Community Conversations through Art and Drop into Art
The Community Conversations through Art series is an existing program presented this year using a bilingual format, speaking in Portuguese and English for the first time. The program was held at the Danforth Art Museum and Art School at Framingham State University. Two local Brazilian artists were invited to participate in this series by bringing samples of their artwork and talking about the art and the process involved in creating it. The first hour of the event is presented in Portuguese, and the second in English.
Drop into Art is the second existing program to offer a bilingual format, starting with the Brazilian population in Framingham. This program is designed to celebrate the creative potential in all of us with new themes and projects every month. Drop into Art allows kids and adults to create together and connect with one another. Each program is unique, fun, and free. Drop into Art takes place in the Danforth Museum and the Art School. An activity sheet guides people to interact with art in the museum and then work on a project at the Art School related to what they had seen in the museum.
FY24-LCC-70215 Framingham State University Courage and Resilience: Big Ink for Big Hearts!
This project is a two-day art event presented in the Forum at Framingham State University. The traveling artist group Big Ink brought their custom-designed giant mobile printing press, “Big Tuna,” to print 16 large-scale woodblocks created in advance by diverse groups. Participants included three local high schools, the Learning Center for the Deaf, FSU's Black Student Union, and FSU classes from different disciplines. Images for their woodcuts addressed the Arts & Ideas theme of “Courage and Resilience,” which included key figures from courageous historical or contemporary movements/initiatives or personal stories of their own courage and resilience. It allowed many students, faculty, and community members to share a unity of purpose while exploring visual representation possibilities that celebrate important figures or events from their diverse racial, ethnic, and ancestral backgrounds.
FY24-LCC-57326 A Common Thread Theatre Company, Inc. Embracing the Magic of “Kiss of the Spider Woman”
August 2024. A Common Thread Theatre Company brings high-quality live theatre to Framinghamowing tale of persecution juxtaposed against a dazzling spectacle of liberating fantasy.
Kiss of the Spider-Woman revamps a harrowing tale of persecution into a dazzling spectacle that juxtaposes gritty reality with liberating fantasy. Valentin and Molina, cell mates in a Latin American prison, immediately clash. Valentin is a tough revolutionary enduring torture, and Molina is an unabashed homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Over time, the men begin to connect as Molina shares his fantasies about an actress, Aurora, who famously portrays a Spider-Woman who can kill with a kiss.
"Our project aims to bring "Kiss of the Spider Woman," a classic musical that explores love, tenacity, and the ability to overcome cultural constraints, to Framingham. The project is based on these ideas. To break down boundaries and amplify the voices within our community, we want to create an innovative, inclusive, and high-quality production of this well-loved musical. The essence of our initiative is its commitment to using theatre to promote social change, providing locals from all backgrounds with a distinctive cultural experience that fosters a feeling of community and appreciation for the arts.
https://www.acommonthreadtheatre.org/
FY24-LCC-70840 Amazing Things Arts Center, Inc. Summer Dinner and Movie Nights
The annual Summer Movie and Dinner series is a family-friendly film series, free to the public, and includes a dignified meal assistance element, creating an opportunity for holistic arts and culture-based community building. atac screens popular kids’ movies chosen through an inclusive voting process by families in our community. We collect over 100 ballots, and 40-50 families join us each Thursday. We work with local restaurants, caterers, and area groups like Voices of the Community, Discovering Hidden Gems, and the MetroWest Nonprofit Network to organize and distribute culturally competent dinners for our audience to enjoy during the show. This series helps us nurture our community’s bodies and spirits while building relationships and continuing our work to offer many access points to the arts. We serve hundreds of meals, nourishing families and local businesses in our community.
FY24-LCC-66967 Howard Street Studios Views of Framingham
Howard Street Studio (HSS) Artists will create eight paintings and/or sculptures that express their responses to some of their favorite places and activities in Framingham. Their artistic styles range from contemporary realism to abstraction. The work will explore subjects including the built environment, the people of Framingham, and natural treasures such as Garden in the Woods. The artists have skill at finding interest and beauty in what might often be ignored or unseen during daily life. Attendees of the exhibitions will be treated to fresh perspectives on the community and perhaps want to take a second look at their city.
After the works are created, they will be shown in venues that are free and accessible to those from all walks of life. The intention is not only to provide lively and interesting work; the HSS artists also want to encourage the viewers to reflect on "their own take" on their community and express those ideas artistically. They will provide their own statements about why they chose their subject matter and its meaning. They hope to encourage the viewers to reflect on their own favorite places or activities in Framingham and respond through drawings, photographs, or words.
Part of the exhibition space, called “Your Views of Framingham,” will be dedicated to posting these responses. Drawing materials will be provided at the site, and attendees can create their own work and post it on a large bulletin board. They anticipate that it will be fun!
All their paintings created for this show will be available for sale, and proceeds will benefit Framingham’s Non-profit community service organizations, such as the Framingham Boys & Girls Club and Food Pantries.
Participating Artists:
- Kristin Conant
- Cathy Gruetzke-Blais
- Mai Mai Pietrowski
- Michael Murphy
- Andrea Rex
- Laura Scheuerell
- Judy Schneider
- Felicia Tuttle
Please check out their website, www.howardstreetstudios.com, for more info.
FY24-LCC-58358 Joseph P. Keefe Technical High School Stories Told
"As part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts at Keefe Tech, we are creating an interwoven mural on the fence around the school. We aim to support efforts to develop empathy and understanding in our school community. Students and staff from various clubs and vocational programs are working together to create artwork that flows together across sections of chain link fence around the school's perimeter.
Each section of the fence will represent a unique student or student group and connect with the artists working next to them.
We aim to highlight each student's story and connect them to the greater school community."
FY24-LCC-65585 Joseph P. Keefe Technical High School Keefe Tech Drama Club Theater Production
Keefe Tech Drama Club is planning its first theatrical production since before COVID! The club produced and performed ALICE, an adapted version of the classical tale Alice in Wonderland. Keefe Students designed the costumes, built the set, operated the technical equipment, and produced the posters and programs for the show. Many students can only participate in a theater production through this after-school club.
FY24-LCC-61678 King Elementary School After School Drama Club
FCC provided funding to support an after-school drama club. It runs weekly throughout the year and culminates with a school performance where all students and families are invited to join. It is open to K-5 students who are interested at no cost to them, so it is equitable regardless of financial circumstances. The entire school community, including parents, will get to attend the performance at the end, which is great community building and a celebration of the arts.
FY24-LCC-66103 Voices of MetroWest, Inc. Voices of MetroWest - Celebration of Dance
Our spring season will be a celebration of dance. Our set list features songs, both songs about dancing and songs that will make our audiences jump out of their seats to dance! We will be joined on stage by dancers from many local performing groups, and our goal is to showcase the talent and diversity of singers and dancers right here in Framingham.
Learned Pond Beach Mural
A group of volunteers, led by City Councilor Leora Mallach, created and planned a mural for the Learned Pond Beach bathhouse. Anna Gilbert, Amanda Montero, Sheryl Quesnel, Ashley Welch, Jana Wolfer, and Jeanine Zurkus developed and guided the process.
The mural comprises a simple color palette with large sections painted mostly by community members. Forty enthusiastic volunteers helped paint on Saturday, June 1st.
The end result is a beautiful mural that can be enjoyed by all.
The project was partially funded by the Framingham Cultural Council.
Callahan Center 2024 Humanities Series
WHY DINERS MATTER - Presented by Ted Reinstein / Tuesday, May 14, 6 p.m.
An Appreciation of the New England Coast
Presented by Alison O'Leary / Tuesday, May 30, 2 p.m.
Callahan Center 2024 Cultural Arts Series
THE DEVINE BETTE MIDLER - Tuesday, April 23, 6 p.m. / Presented by: Vocalist & Pianist Lisa Yves