More Music, Dance and Art

The Swampscott Cultural Council will partially fund a dozen artist groups who are planning to enrich the town in 2011 with music, dance and art. 

Earlier this month, the concert at Swampscott High School kicked off a full year of cultural events supported by the SCC.

Other recipients include the Dance Caliente, the Paul Madore Chorale, the Concert Singers, Yetti Frenkel, Gregory Maichack, Julie Hahnke and the Council for Spiritual Connection.

Both Hadley and Stanley Elementary Schools will enjoy sessions of Art Quest, and the Andrews Chapel Restoration committee received a modest sum of money.  

The SCC is part of the Local Cultural Council (LCC) program, the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences annually.

The LCC is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that promotes excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents. 

"We want the community to know that the SCC does provide funding for the arts," said Wendy Frisch, chairwoman of the council. “The Massachusetts Cultural Council funds cultural events in every community in Massachusetts, but public funding for these events is not guaranteed."

Funding must be appropriated by the Legislature, and the SCC is grateful for the state's support of the arts, she said.

The SCC received two dozen grant applications by its deadline in October, and selected the recipients according to several guidelines, such as how many people will be served by the event and whether the artist is local.

The number of recipients increased dramatically over last year, demonstrating the need for support of the arts.

Swampscott has a proud sports heritage, "but it's important to let people know that the arts are supported here too," said Cynthia Zeman, a Swampscott resident and former member of the SCC who attended a recent meeting. 

SCC member Laura Smith noted the thriving alternative music scene in town, with several teen bands playing a handful of shows recently -- a tradition as long-lived as champion sports, with two original members of the rock band Boston hailing from Swampscott. 

There’s also a healthy focus on arts-related programming for kids, said SCC member Patti Colone, but “I’m interested in funding more adult art-focused events,” she said.