Mass Cultural Council Artist Awards
Mass Cultural Council believes in the power of creativity to transform society, making Massachusetts a better place to live, work, and thrive. Grants for Creative Individuals are unrestricted grants of $5,000 to Massachusetts artists, culture bearers, and creative practitioners to equitably advance creative expression throughout our diverse communities. Here are the Emerson Faculty 2026 grant recipients of the MCC Artist Awards:
Performing Arts Assistant Professor Ilana Ransom Toeplitz earned a MCC grant in support of her new musical, Late, a coming-of-age musical about a group of high school friends trying to grapple with contemporary brokenness in an era of school shootings. Toeplitz “took almost the entire recently graduated design team of Emerson Stage’s Head Over Heels and brought them on to design Late,” she said, on top of hiring two of her current students, Avery Piazza ’26 and Juliet Simon ’26. The show, still in development, had a run March 6-14 with a full-house and standing ovation.
Julia Halperin, Associate Professor in the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts, was awarded an external artist grant from the Mass Cultural Council in their Media Arts category.
Professor Cristina Kotz Cornejo applied for the MCC grant with more than one project under her belt. This opportunity encourages applicants to widen their range of work and “…it allows the artist to potentially spread the funds over a few projects depending on the immediate needs,” said Cornejo, who has one film in post-production and two projects in development.
School of Film Assistant Professor Thato Mwosa ’01 will allocate her Mass. Cultural Council grant to her festival-nominated short film Until Further Notice. In the film, an African trans woman living in Boston must decide whether to return to Africa or wait for detainment at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement when her asylum is canceled. The story is a proof of concept and operates in the same universe as Mwosa’s feature film, Fire Flies Don’t Burn, which focuses on the trans woman’s niece and the familial disconnect between first-generation immigrants and second-generation children.
Jenny Molberg, Professor and Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares, was awarded an external grant from the Mass Cultural Council that will go towards necessary funding for Ploughshares in the future.
Ronee Penoi, Executive Director, Office Of The Arts (Interim), was awarded an external grant from the Mass Cultural Council that will go towards necessary funding for ArtsEmerson in the future.