We believe arts and creativity can build community in a changing world—helping to bridge divides, boost healing and recovery, and enable all to find their voice and home in Worcester County.

Greater Worcester Community Foundation is proud to be the region’s largest funder of arts programs and a member of the Creative Commonwealth Initiative, a ten-year partnership between the Barr Foundation and community foundations to elevate arts and cultural expression across Massachusetts.

Current Programs

Assets for Artists

This special Capacity-Building Program for 10 Worcester County-based artists is run in collaboration with ArtsWorcester as a continuation of our 2022-2023 Business of Art program.

JMAC Access Grants

Providing resources to support artists and organizations in presenting their projects at the Jean McDonough Arts Center.

Cultural Sector Infrastructure

Arts service organizations are nonprofit entities that support individual artists, cultural workers, and creative arts organizations. They act as the industry's backbone by providing capacity building, grantmaking, networking, advocacy, and professional development. These organizations ensure that artists have the resources needed to thrive in a volatile economic environment. 

We are proud to provide annual general operating support to the Worcester Cultural Coalition and the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance in their efforts to uplift and sustain the County’s diverse arts & culture ecosystem.

About Creative Worcester County

Through Creative Worcester County, we aim to foster a region where artists and creative entrepreneurs are welcomed and supported, quality projects are replicated or taken to scale, the contributions of our diverse populations are celebrated, and the sector is supported as a key driver of vitality and wellbeing.

With support from the Barr Foundation and our donors, we launched the Creative Worcester initiative in 2018, focused on centering arts in civic life across the city.