Lexington Council for the Arts (LCA) celebrated its 2025 grantees — all 30 of them — with a reception at the Lexington Community Center on Tuesday night.
This year marked the highest number of grants LCA has awarded, says co-chair Alix Fox, who opened her remarks by recognizing the “tapestry” of art forms that Lexington has to offer. LCA encourages grant applications from individual artist or organizations, including nonprofits, schools or agencies.
This year, there were many grants that revolved around bringing music to audiences, some in novel ways. One grant was for a vibrant mash-up of cultures and art forms: Jayshree Bala Rajamani, classically trained in Indian dance, said she was at the local farmers’ market when she heard a lovely voice singing and realized it was Mary Ross, someone she’d known in Lexington for a long time, but up until that point, had never heard sing. The two artists now have an LCA grant to collaborate and perform “Love Now: Bringing the Community Together as One People through Music, Dance and Poetry.”
Music in several grants spanned the centuries, from the 18th to the 21st. Some grants went to familiar events such as Summer Band Concerts from Metropolitan Wind Symphony, which will be at Hastings Park. LexFarm will host another “Summer Sunset Concert on the Farm,” and The Master Singers received a grant for an upcoming concert.
There was also funding for “Hip Hop Chair Dance for Seniors,” and for another group that plans to go to its audience, bringing barbershop quartets to seniors who cannot attend public events.
There were a few grants highlighting women artists. “Mine Be the Lips: Women Composers Past and Present,” is a concert that will feature Ukrainian, American, and Chinese pieces; another will celebrate “Women Singers of the British Invasion.”
Lex250 was a noteworthy theme this year. Events marking the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, are happening throughout this year. The Lexington Pops Chorus and Concord250 will perform concerts centered on this.
Lex250 appeared in other mediums, as well. “In the Footsteps of the American Revolutionary War” will be a photography collaboration between photographer Steven Edson and the Lexington Historical Society. Edson says as he’s walked around Boston, Lexington and many places in-between, and found it “fascinating to see history below” his feet, so he wanted to start a photo documentary project showing where battles took place. His work will be paired with artifacts from the Lexington Historical Society at Munroe Tavern later this year.
Among theater and other live performances that connect with Lexington’s famous battle was a play, “Midnight at the Clarkes,’” during which audiences go to three rooms with different characters (including Rev. Jonas Clarke and his wife Lucy) that depicts what happened after Paul Revere warned John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British troops were marching toward Lexington and Concord.
Fine art received some support, including Open Studios, running April 5-6, 2025, and “The State of Clay” a juried ceramics exhibition at LexArt from May 3 through June 1, 2025. Special Needs Arts Program (SNAP) also received a grant for art supplies for neurodivergent adults to create an exhibit based on a visit to Buckman Tavern.
One of the most distinct grants went to Christine Southworth and “Mushroom Modulations Maze.” Wearing a t-shirt covered in mushroom images, Southworth said that during the pandemic, she started taking pictures of mushrooms in Burlington’s Landlocked Forest and Paint Mine, both areas of conservation land in Lexington. She was awarded a grant from LCA to place tiny speakers near mushrooms in the Paint Mine Conservation Area so those walking by can hear the mushrooms. She aims to have the speakers installed by late August 2025. Stay tuned.
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