Arts Foundation Awards Nearly $67,000 to 22 Grant Recipients
Supports projects that increase access to the arts, connect youth to cultural activities, and use the arts as a vehicle to improve health and wellness
Grant recipients: Chris McCarthy, PAAM and Gaston Lacombe , The Art Colony Podcast
January 12, 2026 (Cape Cod, MA) – The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod is excited to announce its latest round of grants which have been awarded to 22 recipients totaling $66,742. Funds were distributed to 14 organizations on Cape Cod and one on Nantucket as well as 7 individual artists to support creative projects that offer joy, strengthen connections, increase access to the arts, address important community issues, and which use the arts as an avenue to improve health and wellbeing.
“Each of the projects we’re funding are really incorporating art in interesting and impactful ways across the entire region,” said Arts Foundation Executive Director Julie Wake. “It is not just art for art’s sake, but showing how art can be used to strengthen connections, stimulate dialogue, and serve as a prescription for healing. We continue to be impressed by the level of creative talent and the breadth and depth in which programs are touching lives and benefiting our entire community here on Cape Cod.”
It received a total of 80 requests seeking over $470,000 in funding, an indicator of the need for more resources for the region’s creative sector.
The Arts Foundation has invested $2,500 to support the Falmouth Cultural Council’s Music at the Table initiative in which professional musicians perform weekly during free lunches at St. Barnabas Church for individuals who are experiencing social and financial challenges, including homelessness.
“This program really offers a sense of uplift,” said Council Co-chair Alice Kociemba. “The music doesn’t overwhelm the atmosphere. It really adds a level of comfort and joy for the people there.”
The program started in 2024 after the Council reached out to community members for feedback. While at the Falmouth Service Center, one homeless man shared how much he enjoyed free outdoor concerts offered by the Falmouth Town Band in the summer. Music at the Table offers that opportunity year-round for the roughly 45 people who attend each week.
“There should be no barriers to the arts for anyone in our community, especially for those we serve,” Kociemba said. “This adds so much to their lives.”
On the opposite side of the Cape, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Lise Balk King of Provincetown, will use her $5,000 grant from the Arts Foundation to complete a 40-minute documentary, SWIM, which follows six swimmers participating in artist Jay Critchley’s Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla. The event, which will celebrate its 39th anniversary this year, serves as a fundraiser for several Outer Cape nonprofits— AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Helping Our Women, Soup Kitchen in Provincetown, Cape Cod Children’s Place, and more — by inviting swimmers, kayakers, and boaters to participate in it.
“This feels more like a personal passion project than the bigger capital ‘D’ documentary films I’ve worked on,” said King, whose list of credits include co-producing HBO’s Heroin: Cape Cod, USA (2015), producing In the Whale: The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told (2023), and serving as the social impact producer on Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story (2018), HBO’s Risky Drinking (2016), and HBO’s 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide (2018). “I saw what Jay was doing as a ceremony where he pulled people together as a community, sort of as a collective prayer. Everyone who participates has their own individual reason for swimming. They wear prayer ribbons and each person writes on their ribbons their own prayer, whether they need healing or it’s for a family member who has been sick. It’s like that saying, ‘Faith without works is dead,’ the whole prayer is action concept.”
King filmed much of the footage in 2015 and 2016 and is now in the editing stage of completing the documentary. She plans to submit to film festivals once it is done. “Now that I have this money, my job starting January 1st, is I have no more excuses. I have the green light to finish this film,” she said. “I hope when this gets done, it inspires other people to look at what they can do for their own communities. We’re not alone in this. The collective is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Along with King’s film, the Arts Foundation is investing in the following projects for artists:
Mira Crosby of Centerville ($5,000) — The Riverview Runway, a dynamic and inclusive fashion design project in which students with special needs at the Riverview School will be guided, step-by-step, in the full design cycle, from mood boards to finished garments, culminating with a fashion show at the end of the school year.
Todd French of Brewster ($4,000) — A 5-part video series, The Great Cape Cod Pottery Throwdown, that celebrates the creativity, skill, and resilience of the region’s ceramic artists.
Ahmed Ibrahim of Provincetown ($5,000) — A feature length documentary, More is More: The Gifford House, which captures the people who make this historic Provincetown structure what it is.
Gaston Lacombe of Provincetown ($2,500) — The Art Colony Podcast which will document the rich history of the arts in Provincetown and the Outer Cape.
Dawn McKenzie of Osterville ($1,567) — A series of 8 shadow boxes that highlight the history of Black culture in Osterville. The pieces will be shown as part of a special exhibit, Illuminations, at the Cahoon Museum of American Art this spring.
Mary Wilson of West Barnstable ($4,000) — Intergenerational musical puppet shows that will be performed at assisted living and memory care facilities across the Cape.
Along with the Falmouth Cultural Council’s Music at the Table, the Arts Foundation is investing in the following projects for organizations:
Alzheimer’s Family Caregiver Support Center ($4,000) — Free cultural programming, led by local musicians and artists, for individuals living with Alzheimer's and dementia-related diseases
Artists Association of Nantucket ($2,500) — Free art classes in the winter and spring for Nantucket seniors who are on fixed incomes and who otherwise would be unable to afford to take a class.
ArtsFalmouth ($2,000) — Arts Alive, a three-day celebration of the visual, performing, and literary arts taking place in June in downtown Falmouth.
Cape Cod Chorale ($1,000) — The Chorale’s performance, Celebrating the Music of All Americans, which will take place April 24th and 25th at the United Methodist Church of Osterville.
Community Connections ($4,675) —The Art of Belonging Series and Exhibit in which individuals with disabilities will collaborate with professional Cape artists to develop original works which will be shared with the public as part of an exhibit at Dennis Public Library, running from May 1st to May 31st, with a celebration at the library on May 7th.
Cultural Center of Cape Cod ($4,000) — In partnership with Cape Abilities and Community Connections, the Cultural Center will offer artist-led workshops for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities through its Color Outside the Lines: Art Without Limits program.
Eldredge Public Library ($2,000) — A two-week residency in August in which the Line Circus, a trio of professional circus artists and educators, will perform two daily outdoor performances, blending acrobatics, juggling, comedy, storytelling, and stilt puppetry. The ensemble will also offer two free intergenerational circus arts workshops during their time in Chatham.
Eventide Arts ($2,000) — A musical production of “Working” which will incorporate pre-recorded videos of members of the community with a focus on individuals from different walks of life who are often overlooked.
Payomet Performing Arts Center ($2,000) — “Back in the Saddle,” a burlesque-style circus show that brings awareness to equality and gender expressions with the goal of bringing people together and expanding what performance art can be.
Provincetown Art Association and Museum ($3,000) — The Lenore Ross Student Curating Program which invites students and teachers from across Cape Cod to engage with the museum’s permanent collection, participate in artist-led workshops, and co-curate an exhibit that celebrates their own creative responses.
Provincetown Community Compact ($4,000) — The LaBORatory, a three-month takeover of Provincetown’s old police station (and funeral home) which will be turned not a pop up artist laboratory, from January through March before the building is demolished, allowing creatives to experiment and collaborate with site-related exhibitions, performances, exploratory media, and immersive art installations.
Provincetown Community Television ($1,500) — A gallery focused on motion-based work, including video installations, motion art, and emerging forms of art that will be coupled with three artist-led workshops this summer.
Town of Truro Concert Committee ($500) — Youth showcases in which five young musicians will perform short opening sets at five of the Truro Concert Committee’s nine summer concerts.
Twenty Summers ($4,000) — Media Diet, an immersive and provocative multi-screen installation by artists Amar C. Bakshi and Heidi J. Boisvert, that will run from February through May at Stanley, Twenty Summers’ satellite art space on Commercial Street. Developed in partnership with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, Media Diet reconstructs different ideological information bubbles, allowing visitors to inhabit and experience different media realities.
In June, the Arts Foundation distributed $107,130 to support 31 creative projects across the region, bringing its total granted out over the past year to $173,872. Since 2020, the nonprofit has invested over $817,000 to strengthen the Cape’s creative economy.
The Arts Foundation plans to open its next round of funding in late spring.
The Arts Foundation’s annual grant giving is made possible through support from William Raveis Real Estate, Donald C. McGraw Foundation, South Shore Playhouse Associates, Cape and Coast Bank, John K. & Thirza F. Davenport Foundation, the Arts Foundation’s Patron Program and the Arts Foundation’s Gala supporters.
About the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod
Founded in 1987, the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s mission is to support and strengthen a vibrant arts and cultural sector for everyone in the region. It fulfills its mission by funding grants; by increasing access to arts and culture in the region for all on Cape Cod; by advocating for more awareness on the impact the Cape’s creative economy has on our region and beyond; and by building a strong arts community network through membership as well as professional development opportunities that fall under its Creative Exchange program.
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