WESTFIELD — The Westfield Woman’s Club has been awarded a grant of $2,500 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council through its Festivals and Projects Program, covering the cost of performers and promotion for its “Sounds of Westfield” series of different events throughout 2025.
The grant signifies that Westfield Woman’s Club provides significant public value through its programs and services.
“There was always an outreach element to the club,” said Westfield Woman’s Club First Vice President Trishadee Newlin of the club’s history within the community. “I think the element of outreach really just depends on the passion of the particular person within the community. We have a large group of really intelligent women, some of them have been teachers, professors, psychologists and then some. Everybody comes to the table with something they want to see the Woman’s Club doing in the community.”
Newlin added that as someone with a background in music, she has always wanted to find ways for the club to utilize its stage more often due to the resource it provides the community.
“I came to Westfield a couple years ago and I walked into this building and saw that glorious stage and thought we need to have more. Our theater program is great, but there’s just so much opportunity for performance space and there’s not a whole lot of theaters besides the university and the high schools in Westfield,” Newlin added.
The Westfield Woman’s Club “The Sounds of Westfield” will feature at least three music shows and experiences hosted within the club building throughout the year and around their typical events. The number of people served at a granular level will include the ticketed audience for the over 200 seat theater and each performance will be one time only.
Additionally, many artists will provide demonstrations and talks for the public, hosted in the lower level of the Woman’s Club free to the public. Newlin added that in a greater sense, they aim to bring new music styles and inspiration to people of all ages and backgrounds.
“The Sounds of Westfield is acknowledging there is a very rich musical population here, and there’s also a very rich cultural diversity we want to kind of highlight. We’re going to incorporate different kinds of music hopefully with an educational, sometimes participation element as well,” said Newlin.
The $2,500 grant will help cover the cost of musicians and their crews, as well as promotion of the events. Any other resources required to execute “The Sounds of Westfield” series, such as staff planning and marketing, will be time and goods donated by members of the Westfield Woman’s Club and volunteers.
“I am beyond thrilled that the Westfield Woman’s Club was awarded a [fiscal year 2025] grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council,” said state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield). “For well over 100 years the Westfield Woman’s Club has been an integral part of our Westfield community. While I may have a tendency to forget my best hat for their annual tea, I always look forward to joining the Westfield Woman’s Club for their creative events throughout the year and am excited to see this funding support their new series celebrating Westfield.”
Kicking off the series of events throughout the year will be an all-day Puppet Theater event on Feb. 18 featuring a master puppeteer from Pennsylvania. The all-day event during school break is an opportunity for families to witness a couple different shows hosted by the puppeteer during the day for different age groups before a viewing of the puppeteer’s award winning film to cap off the day in the evening.
Newlin said this event, like many of the ones they are eyeing for 2025, will also feature a Q&A with the performer following the event. The performances will also bring an element of interaction and participation between show and audiences, as some children will also have the opportunity to create their own puppets.
With this grant funding the Woman’s Club is also looking to secure the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts West African Drum and Dance Group, or Wofa, for a performance, as well as a contra dance session with both events being eyed for sometime later in the year. Newlin said the club also aims to celebrate the city’s high school band and choir by giving them a platform to perform inside the Woman’s Club.
Newlin said the Westfield Woman’s Club website would be updating event information throughout the year as new performances are booked and that is the best place to stay up to date during the year.
“I don’t want to mention everything we have in the works but we’re hoping to have something once a month or once every other month throughout the year, dancing around our very active theater program,” Newlin added.
For this fiscal year, the Massachusetts Cultural Council has adopted a $34 million spending plan, allowing the agency to award 2,500 grants totaling approximately $38 million to the commonwealth’s creative and cultural sector. This funding through public dollars, including the agency’s $26.7 million state budget appropriation and support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The agency also runs the Mass Cultural Facilities Fund in partnership with MassDevelopment.
The Massachusetts Cultural Council funds reach every community in the state with the mission of advancing the commonwealth’s creative and cultural sector by celebrating traditions and talents, championing its collective needs and equitably investing public resources.
Newlin said this grant funding particularly is beneficial for the Woman’s Club’s programming at this time as other efforts are made toward the rehabilitation and preservation of the building. With focus and resources going toward an ongoing capital campaign to help repair the almost 100-year-old building, Newlin said grant awards like this help ease the burden of those efforts and allow for other programming to continue.
“Having something like this grant from Mass Cultural to help us bring people in even while we’re doing that [supporting building work], and also lets them see we’re here and we’re trying,” Newlin said. “Having that grant really just kicks off the funding for some of these to be able to bring in people and differentiate from the theater.”
Over the last few years, these capital campaign efforts from the Theater Group sharing the space led to $50,000 raised to install new lighting in the building’s theater and resolve many electric issues within the old building. Efforts continue on raising what funds will be needed for continued restoration of the building but in the meantime extra events and opportunities for the public will continue to be available through the Woman’s Club.
“That is their focus, and this is something we can do and not have to rely on or weaken their restoration effort or the main club’s restoration efforts,” Newlin added. “I think getting something like this from Mass Cultural is reaffirming in recognizing that the women’s club has a cultural place in Westfield, and they recognize our contributions. Our community outreach is undeniable but seeing that shifting of focus and seeing us as a cultural place, a place for arts and humanities and performing arts, it’s important.”
