In calendar 2011, The Parker Foundation awarded a total of $978,519 in grants in fields of interest including the arts, education, community and economic development, and human services, all for the benefit of Lowell, Massachusetts, the fourth largest city in Massachusetts.

In the arts, the Foundation followed up on a 2010 grant to the Lowell National Historical Park for a major exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Dickens visited the new city of Lowell in 1841 and reported, in a special chapter of his American Notes, on the high value placed on the arts by the Lowell “factory girls,” who enjoyed music-making, subscribed to lending libraries, and contributed to the Lowell Offering, a local literary publication.

This emphasis on culture stood in contrast to his experience of the mills of England, and persists in Lowell to the present day, through a broad network of nonprofit and government resources dedicated to the arts and to the city’s creative economy. The Dickens exhibit will open in 2012 and is a collaborative effort of the National Park, the Longfellow House, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (custodian of the largest collection of Dickensiana in America) and the Dickens House Museum in England.

In the field of health, the trustees were delighted to contribute to the capital campaign for a new facility for the Lowell Community Health Center. This center, recognized as one of the strongest in the state, serves as the primary care giver for 40,000 residents, including substantial Southeast Asian, Latino and African immigrant populations. Once completed the center will expand its capacity to serve 50,000 people (nearly half the population of Lowell), and add another 100 to its payroll.

The project is located on the periphery of the City’s $800 million Hamilton Canal redevelopment project, which will result in a new artist housing, a headquarters for MetLife, and a new district courthouse. The Parker Foundation has contributed $200,000 toward the $5 million needed in private funds for this project, and has issued an additional $100,000 last-dollar challenge grant, to complement a $500,000 challenge from the Richard and Susan Smith Foundation.

In public education, the Foundation was pleased to provide planning money for LEARN, a new entity designed to strengthen the ties between the business community and Lowell High School. With a student population of 4,000, the high school is, after Brockton, the second largest in Massachusetts. This effort has been spearheaded by the publisher of the Local Sun, the director of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, the district manager for Representative Nikki Tsongas, and the president of Enterprise Bank, all distinguished alumni of Lowell High.

For a full grants listing, click here.