Urbano Project Awarded $100,000 Cummings Foundation Grant

The Urbano Project has received a grant of $100,000 from the Cummings Foundation's '$100K for 100' program. The organization, located in Egleston Square in Jamaica Plain, is one of 100 local nonprofits chosen from a total of 597 applicants during a competitive review process.

Urbano Project is a non-profit community art studio that fosters public and participatory art as a vehicle for personal transformation, community cohesion and social change. Bringing together professional artists, local youth, and community members to learn and experiment through place-based projects, the organization promotes the model of the artist as citizen, actively engaged in conversations with our community through the lens of contemporary art. Urbano supports youth to become civically engaged artists as they are challenged to tackle current social issues in their community that directly affect their lives.

Urbano will use the funding to support its Youth Artists Projects: studio courses that explore social issues through art. Past themes include gentrification, gang violence, and the revitalization of abandoned urban spaces. Students receive cutting-edge contemporary arts and studio classes taught by practicing artists, whose specialties range across a wide spectrum of visual, performing and mixed media arts.

Representing Urbano, Founder and Executive Artistic Director Stella Aguirre McGregor and Board Chair Todd Gershkowitz will join approximately 300 other guests at a reception at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn this June to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston's nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, the Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $220 million to Greater Boston nonprofits since its founding in 2012.

"This great news couldn't have come at a better time. We are so proud to be one of '$100k for 100' grant recipients. This award comes at a critical period of growth and change for us," said McGregor.

The $100K for the program supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, the Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings of Winchester, the Wobum-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 11 million square feet of space, the majority of winch exclusively benefits the Foundation.

"We are indebted to the nonprofit organizations like Urbano that have a meaningful positive impact on the local communities where our colleagues and clients live and work," said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation's Executive Director. "We are delighted to invest in their important programs and services."

This year's diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention and affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. Most of the grants will be paid over two to five years.

The complete list of 100 grant winners will be available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

Cummings Foundation announced an additional $10 million in early May through its new Sustaining Grants, which extend "$100K for 100" funding for previous winners for 10 more years. Beginning in 2019, the Foundation will increase its total giving through these two programs from $20 million to $25 million.

About Urbano Project

Urbano brings together local youth and professional artists to ignite social change through place-based participatory art and performance projects. Urbano fosters a philosophy of artistic expansiveness, supporting works that blur boundaries between art and everyday life. Through artistic collaboration, participating teens and adults are challenged to create projects that take place both within the boundaries of our exhibition space and in the community beyond the walls of the studio. These projects span diverse artistic themes and disciplines, but they are all rooted in the fundamental principles of collaboration, risk-taking, and creative and critical expression.

Urbano is a recognized leader in arts education and youth development. Since its 2009 founding, Urbano has served over 1,200 boston public schools students, collaborated with 150 professional artists, and has drawn 30,000+ audience members to date to its programming.

For more information, www.urbanoproject.org or 617.983.1007

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings. The organization directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Bill Cummings released his self-written memoir, "Starting Small and Making It Big: An Entrepreneur's Journey to Billion-Dollar Philanthropist," in March 2018. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org and cummings.com/book.

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