Museum of Russian Icons Receives $75,000 Grant from Mass Cultural Council

The Museum of Russian Icons has received a grant of $75,000 from the Mass Cultural Council (MCC), a state agency. The unrestricted funds are the maximum allowed through the Council's Cultural Sector Pandemic Recovery Grants for Organizations Program.

"Covid brought with it many unforeseen challenges, particularly for smaller museums like ours. This significant grant will help us continue our recovery," said Simon Morsink, Executive Director of the Museum of Russian Icons. "We are grateful to the Mass Cultural Council and the many advocates who fight so hard to secure critical funding for the cultural sector."

The Recovery Grant Program is part of MCC's historic $51 million public investment into the Commonwealth's creative and cultural sector to organizations impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the largest grant announcement the Mass Cultural Council has ever made.

"This historic investment of state Covid relief funds will support 1000s of cultural organizations and creative individuals living and working in Massachusetts," commented State Senator John J. Cronin. "This new funding reinforces our commitment to assisting artists and cultural groups that suffered from closures during the pandemic. The money will go a long way to helping the Commonwealth's creative and cultural sectors rebound."

In December 2021 a $4 billion pandemic recovery package was approved by the Legislature and signed into law. This Act, Ch. 102 of 2021, directed Mass Cultural Council to develop and administer grant programs to assist cultural organizations and artists recover from the pandemic and operate more efficiently moving forward. Mass Cultural Council received $60.1 million in surplus state revenue funds to support this effort. These unrestricted funds will provide critical support to offset significant losses incurred from necessary suspension of the Museum of Russian Icon's activities during the height of the pandemic.

"The Museum of Russian Icons is a critical part of Clinton's cultural fabric, and I'm proud to be an advocate for its efforts," said State Senator Meghan Kilcoyne.

This grant signifies that the Museum of Russian Icons provides meaningful public value through its programs and services. Located in Clinton, Massachusetts, the Museum houses and exhibits one of the Western world's largest collections of icons-sacred paintings used for veneration in the Orthodox Christian tradition-along with religious artifacts, and Slavic folk arts. It illustrates the evolution over six centuries of the icon from its early Egyptian and Byzantine origins to the establishment of its own tradition. Founded in 2006 as a nonprofit educational institution by Massachusetts art collector and industrialist Gordon B. Lankton, the Museum's exhibitions, lectures, workshops, symposia, concerts, and guided tours offer a unique cultural experience.