MCC moves up grant deadlines, cuts size of prizes

The Massachusetts Cultural Council has moved up the deadlines for the upcoming cycle of visual artist grants from December, as it has been scheduled in recent years, to Oct. 13. Eligible categories in this round are drawing, painting and traditional arts. Grants have also been reduced from $10,000 to $7,500 for fellows and from $1,000 to $500 for finalists. Meanwhile the deadlines for choreography, fiction/creative nonfiction, and poetry have been pushed back from that same old December deadline to Jan. 25.

“This new schedule will mean a faster turnaround time between application and award announcements, while preserving the program's focus on a fair and anonymously judged review,” the MCC explains.

Dearest MCC, if you plan to change application deadlines in the future please consider moving them back, not forward. The deadline changes were announced Aug. 13, which meant that suddenly applicants had two months to get ready instead of four. Which is a major change if you’re a wicked procrastinator like many artists we know. (The announcement arrived when we were away traveling, which is why we’re just getting around to grumbling about it now.) Thank you.