Grants Awarded to 13 RI Humanities Initiatives
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities announced its Major Grant Awards for 2011 this week issuing a total of $103,271;.50 to 13 organizations in support of humanities projects across the State.
Recipients included the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School PTO, which was awarded $10,000in support of I Was There, a classroom and community project developed for students learning about the history of their Fox Point neighborhood. Returning writers‐in‐residence, Susan Hradril and Gini Laffey, will work together with Vartan Gregorian students to interview and document oral histories of local Fox Point residents. Students will also engage with the larger Rhode Island community by visiting Slater Mill and the Museum of Work and Culture, and by hosting on‐site visits from members of the SteelYard and the RISD Museum.
A Legacy of Giving
“In these projects, we are asked to listen to each other, to honor each other’s dignity and perspective, and to recognize that we are bound together,” said the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities Executive Director, Mary-Kim Arnold, “How better to learn empathy than through the humanities, where the most intimate elements of human experience – thought, emotion, and values—are considered, studied, and debated.” Since 1973, RICH has provided over $6.6 million in grants to support more than 500 organizations throughout the state of Rhode Island, as well as independent researchers, filmmakers, scholars, and oral historians.
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Other 2011 Major Grant recipients include:
Brown University (for Rites and Reason Theatre) – Folkthoughts, $8,300 was awarded to support pre/post play Folkthoughts – or multi‐format “talk‐back” discussions ‐
for three rich, timely theatrical productions that explore different aspects of the Black experience in North American and the Caribbean.
Center for Independent Documentary - Finding Lovecraft, $4,500 has been awarded to support script development for a feature‐length film by local filmmaker Cat Hainfeld on RI horror storywriter Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The filmmaker introduces a new type of film project to RICH – the “mockumentary.”
The Genocide Education Project - A Journey from Despair to Hope: The Story of the Armenian Americans of Rhode Island, $8,740 has been awarded to support creation of a teaching kit and workshops for secondary Rhode Island educators to promote understanding of the Armenian genocide, specifically using the experiences of Armenian Americans who sought asylum in Rhode Island.
Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence - Raise Your Voices: Examining Culture, Clash, Community, Change, $12,500 was awarded to support expansion of this classroom program designed to offer teachers an interdisciplinary approach for fostering an understanding of the guiding principles of non‐violence.
Little Compton Historical Society - Sakonnet Point Perspectives, $10,000 was awarded to support Little Compton Historical Society, the Sakonnet Preservation Association, and the Friends of the Sakonnet Lighthouse to collaborate in the creation of an exhibition at the Little Compton Historical Society on the importance of Sakonnet Point from its earliest history to the present day.
Living History - Grand Review 2011, $13,194 has been awarded to support a collaborative effort between Living History (a nine year old program that engages high school aged youth from Providence’s MET school in reenactment activities specific to the experience of Rhode Island’s 14h Regiment of Black Civil War soldiers) and the Providence Community Library system to offer multiple events at three different sites in Providence to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Mount St. Rita Health Centre - The Spirit of Mercy, $4,395 was awarded to allow the centre to explore its history through performing an archival inventory of historical documents, photographs, and journals, as well as oral histories with the aging Sisters of Mercy.
Ocean State Learning - Creative Survival: African American Foodways in Rhode Island, $9,550 was awarded to support the creation of an exhibition on African American cooking in Rhode Island at the Johnson & Wales Culinary Arts Museum.
Providence Children’s Film Festival - Providence Children’s Film Festival, $6,000 has been awarded to support expanded programming for the second year of the Providence
Children’s Film Festival.
Sandra Feinstein‐Gamm Theatre - “Dear God, Did You Make Mankind After We Made You?” Humanities Forum Inspired by the play “Paul”, $2,950 has been awarded to support production of a series of three Pawtucket Humanities Forums in relation to the North American premiere of Howard Brenton’s play, PAUL.
Seedworks Fund - Deer Prudence, $4,966 has been awarded to support script development for a 58‐minute documentary by filmmaker Tijana Petrovic set on Block Island, which follows the process and the effects of the community's decision to eliminate the island's deer herd due to their decade long struggle with Lyme disease.
YWCA Greater RI - Female Faces of War, $8,176.50 has been awarded to support a multifaceted project to document and examine the role and experiences of Rhode Island women who have served in the military from WW2 to present.
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