Arts & Culture Department

The Arts and Culture Department works to fund, promote, and present high-quality, community-based arts programming for the benefit of artists, residents, and visitors to the City of Northampton. The department works with the arts council to perform tasks assigned to local cultural councils under MGL c. 10, § 58, or successor statutes. The department coordinates the Paradise City Cultural District under MGL c. 10 § 58A. The department serves as the city’s liaison to local, regional, and statewide arts and culture organizations. The department provides administrative, clerical, and technical support to the Arts Council.

The Northampton Arts Council works to support and nurture the arts in the city of Northampton. The Council awards grants twice a year to artists and arts groups, using state and locally raised funds, and seeks to improve public awareness of the arts. Its goals include maintaining and preserving Northampton's rich and diverse cultural heritage, programming annual community events such as First Night Northampton, Salsa in the Park, Transformance, and the Silver Chord Bowl, as well as advocating for the arts community.

The Northampton Arts Council believes that art is for everyone. We strive to produce, support, and sustain arts and cultural initiatives that uphold all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically marginalized based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion. We affirm the need to redress historical inequities in the arts and cultural sector and commit to supporting equitable and inclusive practices through all aspects of our work.

Founded in 1980, the Northampton Arts Council is an all-volunteer council with a staff consisting of a full-time director, a full-time arts events producer, and one half-time assistant producer.

In addition to administering the LCC program, The Northampton Arts Council was the first cultural council in the Commonwealth to raise money for a second round of funding every spring, with only a few other LCCs following our lead. The ArtsEZ Grant round is made possible by three major fundraising events produced by the Northampton Arts Council; first, Transformance, an end-of-summer live tribute music benefit at Look Park held every August, First Night Northampton, Northampton's New Year's Eve festival of the performing arts, and the Silver Chord Bowl, the legendary collegiate acapella invitational that takes place on the first Sunday in February.

In addition to grant programs, the Northampton Arts Council helps to bring arts enrichment programs to the public schools, initiates public art projects, and advocates for the arts in the city. We also produce or support many other events and projects in Northampton, including but not limited to Four Sundays, KidsBestFest, Ice Art Festival, Arts Night Out Northampton, and Chalk Art Festival. We also administer the Paradise City Cultural District, appoint and fund Northampton's Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate, and our own BJ Goodwin Memorial Scholarship Fund and the J. Scott Brandon Scholarship Fund.

For more information, please visit: http://northamptonartscouncil.org

PARADISE CITY CULTURAL DISTRICT

The Paradise City Cultural District is home to a community of unique cultural institutions that attract established national and international artists and support emerging local artists. The Paradise City Cultural District spans an architecturally impressive, walkable, and bikeable area encompassing approximately 14 square blocks in Northampton, Massachusetts. 

Since 2014, the Northampton Arts Council has fostered the Paradise City Cultural District. This city-appointed council works to support and nurture the arts in Northampton. 

For more information, visit the Paradise District Website.