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scroll down to see the interactive Google map of the Massachusetts Cultural Districts

The Massachusetts Cultural Council voted unanimously to approve downtown Gloucester as a cultural district on March 29, 2013. What does that mean?

All cultural districts are very special areas within municipalities and focal points of pride and collaboration. They possess an absolute "it" quality for arts & culture and sense of place.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) is a state agency that promotes, educates, and advocates for arts and culture resources. Since the 1980s, more and more local and state governments, some with arts agencies like the MCC, have led the way in establishing policy that fosters economic growth and sense of place through arts and culture. These cultural districts, State certified or not, can vary greatly.

In 2010, the Massachusetts legislature authorized the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Cultural District Initiative, which launched in 2011. By June of 2011, Gloucester began a quest seeking designation for its already naturally vibrant downtown. With such a winning combination of talented partners, the model of Rocky Neck, and with the full support and lead partnership from the City of Gloucester through the City Council and the Office of the Mayor at the time Carolyn Kirk and continued by Mayor Romeo Theken, WE DID IT!

The designation lasts for five years. Gloucester has two districts as does Barnstable. Boston has

The MCC receives funding from the MA state legislature and from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Bank of America, and others. The MCC in turn funds programs across the Commonwealth. There is no funding for the Cultural Districts. The local Gloucester Cultural Council (GCC) in recent years has received annual funding from the MCC, between $5000-$6000.

There are 4 Cultural Districts on Cape Ann and 6 on the North Shore

Gloucester's downtown and Rocky Neck Cultural Districts; Rockport; Essex; Newburyport, and Lynn.

North of Boston includes Concord, Haverhill and Lowell.

Every where downtown Gloucester meets the sea.

Gloucester's downtown Harbortown Cultural District is the hub of and center of the oldest seaport in New England. Its teeming with residents and neighbors, stores, industry, restaurants, and local art and culture.

The harbor and its work have inspired all manner of creative artists, iconoclasts and activists for centuries and continue to draw locals and visitors. This downtown district boasts a staggering array of cultural assets, businesses, and year-round creative arts and entertainment activities. Dozens of festivals celebrate the city’s diverse ethnic heritage, fishing traditions, literary giants, and contemporary arts and culture. This downtown district counts more than 35 restaurants, many of which host live music at night and feature changing art exhibits. The Cape Ann Museum is lauded as one of the finest small museums in the country. Downtown Gloucester also features the HarborWalk – an interactive public path featuring stories and images of the district’s annual St. Peter’s Fiesta, heroic fisherman Howard Blackburn, artists such as Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, poets Charles Olson and T.S. Eliot, writers Sebastian Junger and Virginia Lee Burton, along with inventors and waterfront workers. The Walk loops by a working waterfront, past sea captain mansions, pocket parks, the seven gabled Fitz Henry Lane house, and the museums.

Downtown has always been a thriving naturally occurring cultural district. The Massachusetts Cultural Council voted unanimously to approve downtown Gloucester as "Gloucester's Harbortown Cultural District" on March 29, 2013.

As of March 2017, there are 35 cultural districts across Massachusetts with 40 possible by the end of June. See the interactive Massachusetts Cultural District Google map. Gloucester, Massachusetts boasts two: downtown and Rocky Neck

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