Melrose Arts Nonprofit Wins $22K Cultural Council Grant

MELROSE, MA — Melrose’s Follow Your Art Community Studios will soon receive roughly $22,000 through a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, State Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian announced on Monday.

The money comes via the Cultural Council’s YouthReach program. It will “provide the training, guidance, and support for youth to develop their creative identity and advance their skills in artmaking, mentoring, and collaborative community engagement in the arts,” as noted in this year's YouthReach awards list.

Follow Your Art is one of several organizations across the state receiving some of the nearly $1.9 million in total YouthReach funding this year.

The current iteration of Follow Your Art traces its history back to Follow Your Art, LLC, which opened as a small community art studio in Melrose in 2008. Follow Your Art more recently relocated and reorganized as a nonprofit art center, offering a slate of programs out of their new facility at 647 Main Street in Melrose.

The YouthReach grant program has run for more than 20 years, backing projects that the Massachusetts Cultural Council describes as "youth driven, focused on social justice, and designed to foster collaboration between cultural organizations, social service agencies, and other non-profits."

Celebrating its YouthReach funding, Follow Your Art is more immediately gearing up for the return of its planned Chalk Walk event.

The event is set for Oct. 1. It will see local businesses sponsor artists to create original chalk drawings at Melrose City Hall. Individuals, friend groups and families can also register to create their own chalk drawings along the Ell Pond pathway at 700 Main Street.

There will simultaneously be live music and other programming ongoing at the Follow Your Art building on Main Street between Ell Pond and City Hall on Oct. 1.

Follow Your Art is still accepting sponsorships from businesses interested in supporting the Chalk Walk day and Follow Your Art’s larger mission.

See sponsorship options here.