Essex County Community Foundation
Danvers, Massachusetts
The Essex County Community Foundation, Inc. (ECCF) was founded in 1998 and serves the 34 cities and towns of the North Shore and Merrimack Valley. One of the largest funders in its region, the Foundation currently manages charitable assets totaling $65 million, comprised of 180 different funds, and has granted more than $43 million since its inception.
With the support of a $500,000 Creative Commonwealth grant, ECCF will pilot the Creative County Initiative in 2018 and 2019. ECCF has a vision of harnessing the power of the diverse creative entities across Essex County to raise cultural awareness and enrich long-term economic and social change. Creative County seeks to build understanding and foster cross-sector collaborations with arts, municipal, philanthropic, and business leaders rooted in the valuing of arts and the cultural assets in their communities. Creative County will provide arts organizations, towns, and cities across the county with tools to build capacity and cohesion through cultural planning and to create excitement and visibility through public art projects. In April 2018, ECCF launched its first annual Essex County Arts and Culture Summits, bringing together over 400 leaders to explore how arts and cultural organizations can create more vibrant communities. ECCF plans to issue cultural planning and public art grants and create an online database with resources to connect arts organizations in the region.
"We are excited to be a part of the first cohort of Creative Commonwealth community foundations and to connect artists, business leaders, arts organizations and citizens to a shared vision for arts and culture in Essex County."–Dave Edwards, President & CEO
