Fine Arts Work Center Receives 2026 MassArt Common Good Award

The Fine Arts Work Center has been named a recipient of the 2026 MassArt Common Good Award. The award honors artists, educators, cultural leaders and organizations whose creative work strengthens communities and advances the public good.

Now in its fourth year, the MassArt Common Good Awards celebrate those who use creativity as “a powerful force for connection, understanding, and positive change,” in the words of MassArt President Mary K. Grant. The Work Center joins a distinguished group of 2026 honorees: artist and storyteller David Greenberger (Distinguished Alumni Award), educator and expressive arts therapist Silvina Ibanez (Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching), visual artist and illustrator Ekua Holmes, glass artist Josh Simpson, and the late community leader Candelaria Silva-Collins, who is being honored posthumously.

In its citation, MassArt recognizes the Work Center for nurturing “artists, writers, and the broader Outer Cape Cod community for more than five decades, providing time, space, and creative connection since its founding in 1968.”

“We are deeply honored to be recognized by MassArt, an institution that shares our belief that artists make communities stronger,” said Sharon Polli, Executive Director of the Fine Arts Work Center. “For nearly sixty years, the Work Center has given emerging writers and visual artists the rare gift of time and space to take risks and find their voices. This award belongs to our Fellows, our faculty, and the Provincetown community that has made this place home to artists for generations. We’re grateful to stand alongside this year’s remarkable honorees.”

The Work Center’s seven-month Fellowship Program awards residencies each year to 20 emerging writers and visual artists. Former Fellows have gone on to receive Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, the Nobel Prize in Literature and MacArthur Fellowships, and to exhibit at the Venice Biennale, MoMA, MASS MoCA and the Whitney Museum. Year-round, the Work Center’s workshops, readings, exhibitions and public programs welcome more than 10,000 visitors.

Each honoree will receive a custom sculptural glass work created by MassArt alumnus Adam Waimon (BFA ’06). The awards will be presented on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. at MassArt’s Design and Media Center, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, followed by a celebratory lunch. The ceremony is free and open to the public, and advance registration is recommended.