Neighborhood Activation Grant

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s (MOAC) believes artists have a crucial role in creating a thriving, healthy community for all. Furthermore, MOAC is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to creative expression through lifelong arts programming across all Boston neighborhoods. To support this vision, the Neighborhood Activation Grant program was established to fund community-focused arts, cultural, and creative activations in public spaces that foster joy, strengthen community wellbeing across, and advance placemaking across Boston neighborhoods.

Who can apply?  

The fifth round of the Neighborhood Activation Grant program is open to individuals and nonprofit organizations working alongside community partners to implement small to mid-sized creative activations in Boston, with a priority for projects that center communities who have been impacted by long-standing systemic inequities. If an organization or community group does not have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, they can apply with a nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

What is a creative activation? 

Specific to this grant, a creative activation is an arts, cultural, and/or creative experience in a publicly accessible space that imagines and explores new possible uses for that space, contributing to placemaking efforts. This includes experiences that: 

• Transform the Space: Result in permanent or temporary changes to the physical, social, or atmospheric components of the space.
• Highlight Community: Center the social fabric, traditions, norms, and conversations within the community, showcasing its existing strengths and history.
• Incorporate Multiple Creative Elements: Demonstrate a variety of creative elements, cultural traditions, artistic disciplines, and community engagement processes.
• Engage and Benefit Residents: Are designed, planned, and executed in partnership with residents, local organizations, business owners, and workers, aiming to benefit those within and surrounding the space. 

This grant is open to both existing creative activations that are ongoing and new activations that are being launched for the first time. General examples of creative activations include (but are not limited to): site-specific performance art, immersive arts installations, community celebrations, interactive theater productions, film screenings with conversation, cultural festivals, arts and cultural markets, community dialogues that center the arts, a digital arts festival, and more.

Grant Review Committee

MOAC is committed to implementing transparent, equitable and inclusive grantmaking practices, including the way we determine and distribute funding. The Grant Review Committee (GRC) is a diverse cohort across age, race, cultural backgrounds, professional and lived experiences, artists and community members, ability, gender identity, and more. It is comprised of MOAC staff members and community members, positioning community members as decision makers on systems and structures that ultimately have the power to shape their lives and the well-being of their communities.