From the Massachusetts Cultural Council:

“Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill into law yesterday that allows communities to create state-sponsored cultural districts to stimulate new arts and cultural activity and attract creative businesses. The law directs the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) to create a new program that designates local districts to ‘attract artists and cultural enterprises to a community, encourage business and job development, establish tourist destinations, preserve and reuse historic buildings, enhance property values and foster local cultural development.’ The legislation includes no new funds for MCC, so the cultural districts program will offer no grants or other financial rewards to communities, at least in its first year. It directs MCC to work with other state government agencies to ‘identify state incentives and resources to enhance cultural districts.’ The MCC will work over the coming months to create guidelines for the program with input from those agencies, the cultural community, and the broader public.”

For more info, visit www.massculturalcouncil.org