Grants Awarded Fiscal Year 2007
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH) announces recent grant awards totaling $62,800 for public humanities projects across Rhode Island.
Grants Awarded Fiscal Year 2007
(*denotes grants funded by NEH - We The People initiative) FY2007 Mini Grants to Organizations:
Journey to Freedom Lecture Series
Touro Synagogue Foundation$2,000
Funds support a lecture series, featuring the theme Soul Liberty: America's Heroes and Unsung Heroines. This year's series journeys across Rhode Island to explore the lives of four unique individuals Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, John Clarke and George Washington and seeks to answer why their creative genius and greatness continues to out-shadow those who have followed in their footsteps in pursuit of democracy.
In Vogue:
Newport and the American Fashion Press 1881-1914
Preservation Society of Newport County$2,000
Funds support research to prepare an exhibition, featuring costumes from the PSNC collection, that examine what Vogue magazine said about clothing worn in Newport to shed light on this bygone era of Newport society.
What is Love?
Everett Dance Theatre$2,000
Funds support the collaboration of youth from Everett Dance Theatre's youth mentorship program (the Carriage House School) with a scholar to research the history, language, literature and philosophy around love for presentation in a public forum.
NBO Lecture and Demo Project
Newport Baroque Orchestra$900
Funds support a lecture and demonstration at Emmanuel Church in Newport on music in 18th-century Dublin using instruments from the period. The harpsichord, baroque cello, baroque violin, and baroque and Celtic harps will be discussed in the context of both art music and folk music of the period.
* The Library Show
AS220$1,900
Funds support a month-long series focusing on the disparity between Providence's library system and libraries in other cities. Project related events include lectures, film screenings, writing workshops, and book clubs.
* Atomic Mom
Film Arts Foundation$2,000
Funds support research for an hour-long documentary film about Rhode Islander Pauline Silvia whose ambition to do cutting-edge scientific research led her to conduct experiments that would haunt her decades later. Produced by Pauline Silvia's daughter.
CANE Summer Teachers Institute
Classical Association of New England / College of the Holy Cross$2,000
Funds support scholarship money for Rhode Island humanities teachers to be able to attend the 25th Annual Summer Institute at Dartmouth called Beyond Antiquity: The Legacy of the Classical World. CANE is one of the few organizations in academia that brings together teachers from all levels - grammar school to university.
* Tax Day Screenings
Everett Dance Theatre$2,000
Funds support two screenings of Rhode Islander Laura Colella's first feature film, accompanied by post-screening discussions on the themes of idealism and optimism, leisure, and narrative as documentary. Filmed almost exclusively in exterior Providence locations in 1997, the film captures a number of local artists from that time.
The Greatest Salesman in Rhode Island
Rhode Island Film Festival$2,000
Funds support the production and video tape of the play for broadcast on local television. Rich in historical and cultural content from the Red Scare era, The Greatest Salesman in Rhode Island is a one act play based on an unpublished short story by Rhode Island native and Pulitzer Prize winning author Edwin O'Connor. The story was discovered by project director Robert Rose while researching a biography of O'Connor.
* Front Line, First Person:
Iraq War Stories
Brown University$2,000
Funds support readings, discussions, and panel presentations at a three-day conference exploring the divide between individuals, families and communities directly touched by the war experience, and the wider public.
Reading Digital Literature
Brown University$1,000
Funds support public screenings and readings of digital literature and the exhibition of digital arts at a three-day conference with the goal to examine how the digital revolution impacts the humanities, the arts and the educational process in general.
* More than a Village:
the Transformation of Public Education in South Kingstown, 1780 - 1920
Pettaquamscutt Historical Society$2,000
Funds support an exhibition accompanied by an illustrated, interpretive booklet and a series of public lectures examining the historical and current issues surrounding public education.
* public forum preceding a special ASL-interpreted presentation of the play Elephant Man
VSA Arts of Rhode IslandGamm Theatre
$2,000
Funds support a free public discussion that convenes scholars to discuss how people with disabilities have been represented throughout history, literature, culture, philosophy and art in context to the play.
FY2007 Mini Grants to Individuals:
* Black Grays and Colored Giants: Black Baseball in RI, 1886-1949>
* Now to Our Local Boys on the Diamond: RI Black Baseball in the Age of Integration, 1946-1955
Robert Cvornyek$3,000
Funds support the collection oral histories, creation of a traveling exhibit, and a panel discussion on the relationship between black baseball, historical commemoration, and African American fraternal organizations in Rhode Island. In addition, the researcher will develop a public talk on how integration of baseball in local communities relates to race formation, identity, and cultural expression.
* Grace Church Cemetery: A Modest Memorial of Nineteenth-Century Gravestones
Anne Tait$2,000
Funds support research for an on-line text and photo essay presentation on the iconography of the gravestones in the Grace Church Cemetery. The researcher will examine what the stones reveal about the way the lower-middle and middle class planned their deaths.
* The Story of Doris and Leah
John Eng-Wong$1,605
Funds support research and a slide presentation that presents a look at the circumstances of Chinese American life in Rhode Island through one of the key figures in the history of the RI Chinese community now in her 90's.
* Who was Madame Eliza Jumel?
Jane Lancaster$2,000
Funds support research and a power point lecture presentation on the story of Betsey Bowen, once desperately poor, who reinvented herself as Madame Eliza Jumel, one of America's wealthiest women.
* Absolute Brightness
Marya Errin Jones$2,000
Funds support research and production of a one-act play based on the life of Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868 - December 12, 1921) one of Harvard Observatory's "human calculators" and the first contemporary astronomer to devise a mathematical equation to measure the vastness of the Universe beyond the Milky Way.
* The Touros: Journey to Freedom
Theresa Guzmán Stokes$2,000
Funds support research for a topic that covers the journey of the Touro Family from the Spanish Inquisition through Portugal, Amsterdam, and finally Newport, RI and results in the development of a website with a blog geared toward middle and high school history students as well as a public power point presentation on the research findings.
* Justice Florence Murray and Jurisprudence in Rhode Island
Marian Mathison Desrosiers$1,000
Funds support a research project which seeks to uncover Justice Murray's distinctive voice on the Supreme Court and ascertain if and how Justice Murray's approach to jurisprudence differed from her male colleagues.
* Consumerism and Social Identity: A Shopkeeping Widow's World
Christina Hodge$2,000
Funds support the research into the life of a mid-18th century Newport woman, shopkeeper Elizabeth Pratt, and the ways the "Consumer Revolution" united and divided Newporters.
FY2007 Major Grants to Organizations:
The Portuguese in Little Compton
Little Compton Historical Society$10,000
Funds support collection of oral histories, the creation and presentation of a new exhibit, related special events for the public, including an exhibit preview and family day festival, and project DVD.
Our Town:
Project Discovery Plus
Trinity Repertory Company$7,700
Funds support an off-site educational program for high school students in which students will view the theatre's production of Our Town and participate in-school workshops before and after seeing the show. RICH funding will enable Trinity to offer the workshops free for students at 12 public schools from Central Falls to Woonsocket, reaching upwards of 300+ youth.
Pawtucket Humanities Forums:
Straight Talk and Shared Sundays
The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre$9,570
Funds support the continuation of Pawtucket based post-performance humanities talk-backs (6), essays (6), and study guides (8) that accompany Gamm's theatre productions. RICH funds also support a series of 5 readings of contemporary documentary plays followed by a discussion of the historical and philosophical issues raised by the play with scholars and experts.
Humanities Scholar in Residence Initiative
The Providence Black Repertory Company$9,088
Funds support the development of a pilot series of humanities programs with the assistance of two scholars-in-residence. Black Rep will produce up to 10 post-performance theatre discussions and incorporate humanities essays and content in their theatre magazine produced twice a year. The project aims to serve 600+.
Ideas into Action
Salve Regina University$6,971
Funds support a series of 8 public lectures and an essay contest involving local students. The project aims to serve 1500+.
Summer Art Inquiry:
Shrines & Commemorative Art
New Urban Arts$4,000
Funds support a series of workshops and events involving high school students in a critical examination of the specific cross-cultural artistic practice of shrine-building.
Humanities Outreach -
Discussion Sundays
2nd Story Theatre$5,500
Funds support a series of humanities discussion programs and essays that take place in connection with plays at the theater.
Graphic Lives:
Soldiers' Stories at Life's End
Home & Hospice Care of RI$10,000
Funds support an oral history project of combat Veterans at life's end and a public exhibition based on this research.
Fort Adams Living History Learning Lab
Living History$4,000
Funds support a summer history learning program for Metropolitan Regional Career Technical High School students and public tours lead by them at Fort Adams.
RI Jazz, Swing, and Blues
CCRI$5,500
Funds support research, scripting, and independent evaluation for a film project examining the history of jazz in Rhode Island including the impact and legacy of the infamous Celebrity Club.
Developing Oral Literacy and Civic Awareness in the Early Grades
The Learning Community Charter School$9,000
Funds support the development, implementation and evaluation of a literature and discussion based humanities curriculum pilot project with staff, teachers, students, and parents.