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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Mass Cultural Council will roll into town Monday with a $3.57 million shot in the arm for performing arts venues across the state, as the agency and its partners celebrate the latest round of Gaming Mitigation Fund awards at The Guthrie Center on April 14.
In all, 57 nonprofit and municipal performing arts centers will receive funding this year, intended to ease the costs of bringing in touring productions and artists—expenses that can break budgets for smaller or rural venues trying to stay competitive in the age of resort casinos and big-money entertainment.
The money comes from a slice of the state’s casino tax revenue and is funneled through the Gaming Mitigation Fund, a program designed to offset the economic disruption that Massachusetts’ glitzy gambling operations can have on the local arts scene.
Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council, will be joined by state Senator Paul Mark (D–Becket), Jordan Maynard of the Mass Gaming Commission, and a slate of other cultural and political figures. Mo Guthrie, director of the host venue, and Adam Kirr of the FreshGrass Foundation will also be on hand. Attendees will be treated to a live performance by Yehuda Hanani, the acclaimed cellist and artistic director of Close Encounters With Music.
The fund is designed to support small-town and community-based arts venues that might otherwise struggle to compete with the big-budget appeal of resort casinos—an investment in local culture over corporate spectacle, according to past statements from the agency.
“The Gaming Mitigation program was established in the same Act that authorized expanded gaming in Massachusetts, because policymakers understood that smaller performing arts organizations would soon be competing with the deep pockets of resort-style casinos to book touring artists and shows,” said Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director, Mass Cultural Council in 2003. “Mass Cultural Council is pleased to administer this program as envisioned by the Legislature to try to equal the playing field and keep world-class entertainment accessible across the Commonwealth.”
The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at The Guthrie Center, located at 2 Van Deusenville Road in Great Barrington—a space founded in the spirit of Arlo Guthrie’s storytelling and social justice legacy.
For Western Mass venues and audiences, this kind of support is more than symbolic. It’s an acknowledgment that the arts aren’t just window dressing—they’re infrastructure.
