Boston Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Award to support individual artists

Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, in partnership with the Boston Cultural Council, today announced the City's first-ever Artist Fellowship Award pilot program designed to invest in the advancement of artists living in Boston. The City of Boston will offer five fellowship awards in 2017, each worth $10,000, to recognize exceptional original artistic work through the City, helping recipients advance their careers and continue their work in Boston.

"When we launched the Boston Creates Cultural Plan, we talked about what it will take to keep artists in Boston, and we committed to investing in individual artists," said Mayor Walsh. "The Artist Fellowship Award recognizes that artists offer an essential contribution to our City and will provide them with the resources necessary to dedicate their time to continuing to create high quality work."

Awards will be distributed across artistic disciplines to artists from a diverse range of backgrounds who live and work in different neighborhoods throughout the City. Throughout the one-year fellowship, recipients will collaborate with the City of Boston on an event to showcase their individual work. In addition, recipients will receive professional development support, mentorship specialized to their needs and collaborative support from the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture.  

"Boston has a deep community of talented artists who have been creating extraordinary work," said Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston. "The Boston Creates Cultural Plan has allowed us to provide artists with additional support. The Artist Fellowship Award will help artists to grow and develop their careers while reinforcing their importance to the city."

The Artist Fellowship Award is open to all individual artists who work professionally in art disciplines. The application is available in six languages, including English, Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Vietnamese. The applicant must be a City of Boston resident and must maintain residency through the year of fellowship. The artist must have lived in Boston for at least three years before applying and must be able to illustrate at least three years of experience creating art. An applicant cannot be enrolled in a degree program when applying for the Artist Fellowship Award and during the year of fellowship.  

The Artist Fellowship Award is an unrestricted award that can be used for expenses at the discretion of the recipient, providing the support they need to be able to continue their work.

Applications for the Artist Fellowship Award are now available and will be accepted through July 10, 2017. All application will be reviewed by a panel of jurors from the Boston Cultural Council. Award recipients will be announced in late summer.

For more information and to apply, click here.

About the Boston Cultural Council (BCC)
The Boston Cultural Council, under the umbrella of the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, annually distributes funds allocated by the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, to support innovative arts, humanities and interpretive sciences programming that enhances the quality of life in our city. For more information, please visit here.

Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC)

The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture's mission is to support artists, the cultural sector, and to promote access to the arts for all. The office houses the Boston Cultural Council, the Boston Art Commission, and the Poet Laureate program. Responsibilities include leading the City's Cultural Plan, Boston Creates; managing the Boston Artist-in-Residence program (BostonAIR); curating exhibitions in City Hall; and operating the historic Strand Theater in Dorchester.  For more information go to: www.boston.gov/arts

About the Boston Creates Cultural Plan

The cultural plan is a ten-year plan for supporting arts and culture in the City of Boston. It was created out of a year-long community engagement effort designed to help local government identify cultural needs, opportunities, and resources and to prioritize, coordinate, and align public and private resources to strengthen Boston's cultural vitality over the long term. The full cultural plan can be found online at  http://plan.bostoncreates.org.