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The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action has been awarded an $8,300 grant from the Mass Cultural Council through its Cultural Investment Portfolio program. The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action is part of the English department and housed in the MFA for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This grant signifies that the Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action provides significant public value through its programs and services. The council’s unrestricted grant allows Juniper to produce literary arts programming for the region including a renowned reading series, summer workshops, and an annual festival. Our work with teens includes the Juniper Institute for Young Writers offering young writers a supportive community that prioritizes creative writing, critical thinking, empathy, and action, bringing the imaginative and visionary qualities of the literary arts into their lives. Juniper’s programs provide exceptional educational opportunities as well as an economic boost for the region as attendees dine in restaurants, purchase books from independent booksellers, and visit local cultural institutions. Grants from the council help leverage between $20,000 to $65,000 in private dollars each year to help support scholarships for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and the Juniper Institute for Young Writers.

Mass Cultural Council has a budget of $15.7 million, including an appropriation of nearly $14 million from the state of Massachusetts and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. The agency also runs the Mass Cultural Facilities Fund in partnership with MassDevelopment.

Mass Cultural Council funds reach every community in the Commonwealth. Its mission is to promote excellence, education, access and diversity in the arts, humanities and sciences, to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the vitality of our communities and economy.