MONTAGUE — The Cultural Council has awarded 49 grants totaling $17,246 to support local arts and culture programs as part of its annual funding distribution.

This round of grants represents an increase over last year’s funding of $16,146 to 28 recipients. Cultural Council Chair Kathleen Lynch said the ability to award funding to more recipients came from an increased state allocation for funding community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities, as well as American Rescue Plan Act funds that will not be available next year. She hopes the town will offer its support moving forward now that the ARPA funds have been depleted.

To celebrate this latest round of grants, the Cultural Council hosted a kick-off party at the Shea Theater Arts Center in February, with around 60 people attending to celebrate the work of local artists through presentations and performances by previous award recipients.

Lynch said February’s event was an opportunity to see “the fruits of their labor,” referring to the previous recipients whose work has been funded by the Cultural Council before. The reception was a chance to hear about the work the recipients are doing and to celebrate them in one place.

“We give out the money, but we don’t always get to see the work culminating,” Lynch said.

Recipients are:

■$1,000 or more: Antenna Cloud Farm for its Musical Festival, Artist Retreat and Institute; Good Music Makes Good Neighbors for the musical house tour in Montague Center; the Millers Falls Community Improvement Association for the Millers Falls Block Party; Kamil Peters for the “Traces of Jazz and Its Immoral Past” sculpture and painting exhibit; Piti Theatre Co. for Inclusion Improv; RPM Fest; Shea Theater Arts Center for “Macbeth” presented by the Montague Shakespeare Festival; and Weathervane Community Arts for the Montague World Music Mini Fest.

■Between $500 and $1,000: Pranav Swaroop for Project SARANG: Colors of South Asian Music; Dan DeWalt for the River Connections music series; Musica Franklin for both Fun Fest and the Community Concert Series; Silverthorne Theater Co. for “The Scariest Thing to See in the Woods,” a theater reading; Anna Sobel for public events at the Wizard Castle home at 240 Greenfield Road; The Brick House Community Resource Center for the Liberation Playback Theater 2025 season; Nolumbeka Project for the Pocumtuck Homelands Festival; and WholeTone Music Academy Teaching Collective for the Musical Instrument Petting Zoo and the Mutant Kazoo Adoption Agency, a pop-up musical and theatrical project.

■Between $200 and $500: Carrie Ferguson for The Grumpytime Club; Franklin County Pride for the 2025 Pride Parade and Festival; Nick Kachulis for the “Life with Bill” performance; MUSICDance.edu for hip-hop chair dancing for seniors; Montague Community Band for its summer concert series and holiday show; Pioneer Valley Symphony for “Peer Gynt,” a live adaptation; Julie Stepanek for musical storytimes; Tev Stevig for the Art of Makam six-session seminar; Nolumbeka Project for the Full Snow Moon Gathering and Social Dance; Cynthia Thomas for Danse Café, a French and Breton traditional folk dance; and Roger L. Tincknell for “Children’s Songs and Singing Games,” a family concert for Head Start.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.