Massachusetts Senate President Pro Tempore Stan Rosenberg receives the 2010 State Legislator Arts Leadership Award for his arts advocacy throughout the state. In 2006, he was the senate's chief architect of the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, which has since pumped $37 million into capital projects for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations around the state. Besides drafting the legislation, the senator also was key in securing its passage by including it in a broader economic stimulus bill that had broad support. In 2009, Rosenberg filed a bill to establish cultural trusts that would use surplus revenues to secure more reliable funding for arts organizations and community arts programs over time.

This year the senator successfully sponsored several amendments to a senate government reorganization bill that would enhance the creative sector in Massachusetts. One would establish a commission to measure creative opportunities offered by Massachusetts elementary and secondary schools. The other would establish a new state-sponsored cultural districts program to spur cultural development in cities and towns.