Barnstable County Commissioners Renew Regional Designation for Arts Foundation
Barnstable County Commissioners Ronald Bergstrom (from left), Mark Forest and Sheila Lyons with Director of Grants and Communications Chris Kazarian (second from left).
For the fourth straight year, the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod as the official arts agency of Barnstable County.
The vote took place at the Commissioners meeting on February 11th. With the designation, the Arts Foundation is eligible to apply for funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and subgrant it out at the local level.
Since 2021, the Arts Foundation has received $180,000 in NEA funding, distributing $169,000 of that to strengthen the creative economy on the Cape. That included $139,000 in federal funds that the Arts Foundation awarded to 14 cultural nonprofits to assist in their pandemic recovery in 2022. In 2024, the Arts Foundation matched $30,000 in NEA funding, distributing a total of $60,000 to support 8 individual artist projects in the region.
Director of Grants and Communications Chris Kazarian said the Arts Foundation, which is in its 39th year, has been granting out funds to support creative projects in the region since 1989.
He noted that its grant giving has grown significantly under current Executive Director Julie Wake’s leadership. When she arrived in 2015, the Arts Foundation granted out $15,000 to 17 organizations.
The past two years, the Arts Foundation has annually granted out nearly $175,000. It has distributed over $880,000 in funding since 2020 to strengthen the creative economy.
The Arts Foundation plans on applying for NEA funding as a Local Arts Agency (LAA). If successful in receiving the funds, the Arts Foundation would match it and invest in programs that utilize the arts as a catalyst to address health and wellness needs in the region in the spring of 2027.
The Arts Foundation has long made health a priority in its grant giving, supporting creative projects for individuals living with memory-related diseases, mental health disorders, substance use disorders, developmental delays, Parkinson’s disease, and more.
The Arts Foundation will open up its next round of grant applications for both individual artists and organizations on April 1st. To learn more, visit https://www.artsfoundation.org/grants.