RC-TLC Lands Major Grant from Mass Cultural Council & MassDevelopment
Mass Cultural Council and MassDevelopment leadership and staff are joined by Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, Sen. Paul Mark, Rep. Gerry Cassidy, municipal leaders from the Town of Easton, and Cultural Facilities Fund grantees at the Children’s Museum in Easton to celebrate the FY24 CFF awards. Photo courtesy of the MassDevelopment and Mass Cultural Council
Boston-area nonprofit Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning & Creativity (RC-TLC) is excited and honored to be awarded a $142,000 state Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF) match grant to support the construction of its new arts and creativity center in Dedham, MA.
Led by New York Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds and his twin brother Paul Reynolds, RC-TLC’s new TLC Studios and Media Lab will provide educators, students and families with programs focused on growing creativity, digital media, storytelling, and maker skills.
The CFF grant, which requires a 1 to 1 match, is a critical catalyst in the launch of TLC Studios. Set to open its doors this fall in historic Dedham Square, just outside Boston, the media lab will include digital audio/video/animation production and live-streaming studios, a podcasting studio, AR/VR resources, an engineering design and fabrication Maker Lab, as well as state-of-the-art presentation space and workshop space.
The CFF grant program is administered by two state agencies MassDevelopment and Mass Cultural Council, and provides capital and planning grants to nonprofit organizations, colleges, and municipalities that own or operate facilities primarily focused on the arts, humanities, and sciences. Funding helps with a range of facilities-related expenses, including acquisition, design, repair, renovation, expansion, and construction of nonprofit and municipal cultural facilities. In fiscal year 24 the Healey-Driscoll Administration invested $10 million into the CFF, which supports the CFF grant funding resources.
Peter H. Reynolds expressed his appreciation for the CFF grant news, ”Thanks to the support from MassDevelopment and Mass Cultural Council, as well as those helping make the match funding, we’ll soon have a place where we can provide educators even more of the TLC they deserve, as well as the hands-on creativity and technology skills and inspiration to bring back to their students.”
RC-TLC has launched a fundraising campaign to raise match funding to help defray the considerable costs associated with the construction and launch of the center.
RC-TLC was among 88 of newly approved CFF grants investing a total of $6.1M nto cultural facilities and projects throughout the Commonwealth.
RC-TLC’s Executive Director Paul Reynolds remarked, “We’re deeply grateful to the Healey-Driscoll Administration and legislature for their continued support of the arts and the CFF program, which helps maintain cultural facilities, across the Commonwealth,”
RC-TLC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging creativity and innovation in teaching and learning. Founded in 2009 by Paul and Peter H. Reynolds, the organization bridges the gaps between education, schools, research, philanthropy, and business to incubate, deploy, test, and share innovations in pedagogically progressive uses of educational technology.
More information about the TLC Studios plan and launch can be found on the Reynolds TLC website.
