The Cultural District includes businesses, galleries and other entites along Cottage Street.
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Popcorn Noir on Cottage Street in Easthampton is one of the businesses in the newly designated Cultural District.
EASTHAMPTON – Cottage Street here is now an official state recognized Cultural District.
At a meeting in Springfield Friday, the Massachusetts Cultural Council unanimously approved the district’s creation.
The city applied for the designation earlier this year.
Initially, the proposal when created last year had included Cottage, Union and Main streets and a portion of Payson Avenue.
But the key was the district had to be walkable, said Easthampton City Arts+ Coordinator Burns Maxey.
The cultural council created the district initiative from an economic stimulus bill passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2010. The district is a “tool to get us recognized as a (cultural district) designation,” Maxey has said.
The City Council adopted the resolution to create a district here in October, one of the necessary steps to becoming a district.
While there is no money available now, grants could be available to designated districts in the future.
“I think it’s going to be a big boost for downtown,” Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said. He attended the meeting Friday. He said the designation is recognition that “we do have a core of cultural offerings.”
He said this gives the city another reason for people to visit.
Businesses within the district include Popcorn Noir, Mt. Tom's Homemade Ice Cream, the Cottage Street Studios, White Square Books and Luthier’s Co-op and many others.
Tautznik said the council also designated a district in Gloucester as well.
Pittsfield and Shelburne Falls have already received the designation.
The cost to the community is about $200 for two signs to mark it.
Tautznik said the city has “five years to perfect the district.” The state sets a high bar to meet its standards.
