Press Release

Contact: Sheryl Hayes
Sheryl@virginia.edu
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA
22903-4629
Phone:(434)924-3296
                                    Fax: (434)296-4714
For Immediate Release
April 7, 2006

VIRGINIA FOUNDATION FOR THE HUMANITIES ANNOUNCES
GRANTS TO ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT VIRGINIA

                                                                 
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) has awarded 25 grants totaling $123,650 this grant cycle to assist Virginia organizations in their efforts to research and interpret Virginia’s rich history, to explore issues of importance to Virginians, and to showcase Virginia’s folklife and cultural heritage.

Recipients of the grants include museums, colleges and universities, African American heritage organizations, civic groups, libraries, and historic sites.  The funds will be used to support interpretive exhibits, workshops and demonstrations of music native to Virginia, oral history research and collections, community mapping projects, teacher institutes, and a series of cross-cultural programs.  Grant-supported activities will take place across Virginia cities and counties, from Falls Church to Ferrum, from Scrabble to Salem.

Funds for this program have been provided by private donors, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and by the National Endowment for the Humanities through its “We The People” initiative.   Grants were awarded to the following organizations and projects:

Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Inc.                                                 Lynchburg, VA
Pierce Street Renaissance Historic District First Anniversary Program

   $3,000 to support an interpretive brochure and exhibit marking the first anniversary of
   the designation of the Prince street historic district. Prince Street is a historically black
   neighborhood in Lynchburg.

Appalachian Children's Theater, Inc.                                                                     Wise, VA
Exploring Our Roots through Traditional Arts

   $3,000 to support a series of workshops focusing on traditional skills of the     
   Appalachian Region and their historical and cultural context.

Arlington County Department of Cultural Affairs                                              Arlington, VA
Let's Go! Community Expeditions and Explorations Summer Institute

   $3,000 to support a 2006 summer teachers' institute designed to identify and explore
   strategies for integrating folklife and field work into existing public school curricula.

Blue Cow Arts                                                                                                                Floyd,  VA
Virginia Folklife Workshop Porch

   $9,000 to support a series of interpretive performances featuring traditional musicians
   to be presented as part of the 2006 Floydfest Music Festival.

Carter Family Memorial Music Center                                                                       Hiltons, VA
Carter Family Fold Songwriters Showcase - "Down the Road"

   $3,000 to support a monthly interpretive songwriters' showcase at the Carter Family
   Fold, one the most important traditional music venues in Virginia.

Emory and Henry College                                                                                             Emory, VA
25th Annual Appalachian Literary Festival

     $5,000 to support the 25th Appalachian Literary Festival, featuring writers and
     scholars from throughout the central Appalachian region.

Fairfax County Park Authority                                                                       Fairfax County, VA
"Food for Thought" Symposium

    $1,400 support the second annual "Food for Thought" symposium, located at the site
    of one of the two fully operational grain mills in Virginia.

Ferrum College                                                                                                           Ferrum, VA
White Liquor, Blue Ridge Style

   $9,000 to support production of an interpretive exhibit and accompanying publication   
   on the history and folk culture of "moonshining" in Virginia's southern Blue Ridge   
   mountains.

Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Inc.                                                                   Salem,VA
Blue Ridge Traditions, Lifestyles, Community and Family of the 1800s

   $7,350 to support a series of lectures, performances, workshops, and demonstrations  
   of music and other traditions native to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Central Virginia.

Galax-Carroll Regional Library                                                                               Galax,VA
Musical Giants from the Heart of Southwest Virginia

   $8,400 to support production of an interpretive photographic exhibit and publication   
   focusing on old-time musicians from the Whitetop Mountain are of Virginia--a region   
   that contains perhaps the richest concentration of old-time musicians in the world.

Halifax County Historical Society                                                            Halifax County, VA
The Crossing of the Dan

   $2,500 to support portions of an event honoring General Nathanial Greene’s 1781
   crossing of the Dan River, a strategy that hastened the end of the Revolutionary War.

Hampton University English Department                                                             Hampton,VA
Literary Reading Series

   $3,000 to support a reading discussion series focusing on how African American
   authors include the heritage of black culture in their works.

Honaker Redbud Festival, Inc.                                                                              Honaker,VA
Honaker Redbud Festival 25th Anniversary Support Project

   $3,000 to support an interpretive performance and publication, as part of the 25th
   annual Redbud Festival in Russell County.

Library of Virginia Foundation                                                                             Richmond, VA
Down In The Old Belt - Screening

   $2,500 to support a lecture and portions of an event to celebrate the Richmond
   premiere of the VFH-funded documentary film "Down In the Old Belt."

Mt. Rogers Combined School                                                                                 Whitetop,VA
Mt. Rogers Community Music program

   $3,000 to support a series of interpretive performances and workshops featuring
   traditional musicians and luthiers of the Whitetop Mountain area.

Northern Virginia Urban League                                                                          Alexandria,VA
The Franklin and Armfield Office

   $3,000 to support the development of a "Teaching with Historic Places" lesson plan,
   focusing on the Franklin and Armfield Office in Alexandria, a center of the slave trade
   in Virginia.

Pamplin Historical Park Petersburg,VA
Teaching Antebellum Slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction

$10,000 to support a summer Institute for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers, exploring   
   the interrelated themes of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Scrabble School Preservation Foundation                                                            Scrabble,VA
History of Scrabble School Community Mapping Project

$3,000 to support a "community mapping project" as the first step in a long-term
   effort to interpret the history of Scrabble School, a Rosenwald School in   
   Rappahannock County. 

The Rose Group for Cross-Cultural Understanding                                     Washington, D.C.
China-America Festival of Film and Culture

   $14,000 to support the 2nd annual China-America Festival of Film and Culture, a four-
   day event focused on the need for better understanding between the U.S. and China.

Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation                                                                   Falls Church, VA
Mary Ellen Henderson: A Teacher's Journey, A Traveling Exhibit
   
   $9,000 to support production of a traveling exhibit on the life and achievements of  
   Mary Ellen Henderson, a well known African American educator and Civil Rights
   activist in Falls Church.

University of Virginia SAVANA Consortium                                             Charlottesville, VA
African Music in Virginia: Cultural Survey

   $3,000 to support a cultural survey of African musicians currently living in Northern
   Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

Virginia Commonwealth University                                                              Richmond,VA
Teacher Workshop on China

   $6,000.00 to support a two-day workshop for teachers focusing on Chinese history
   and culture, timed to coincide with the 2nd annual China-America Festival of Film
   and Culture in Richmond.

Virginia Military Institute                                                                              Lexington, VA
The African American Community in 20th Century Lexington, Virginia

   $1,000 to support a series of public lectures and the creation of a traveling exhibit on   
   the Knights of Pythias Hall, an African American historic site adjacent to the VMI
    campus in Lexington.

Virginia Union University                                                                               Richmond, VA
Museum Brochure Project

   $2,500 to support production of an interpretive brochure focusing on the history and
   collections of the Virginia Union University Art Museum, which has significant
   collections of African and African American art.

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library                                                          Staunton,VA
History and the Web: Virginia and the Jim Crow South

   $6,000 to support publication and distribution of educational materials generated for
   and during a three-day teachers' institute focusing on "Virginia and the Jim Crow    
   South."

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, based in Charlottesville, is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the humanities, and to using the humanities to address issues of broad public concern.

In all of its programs, the Foundations works to make scholarship accessible; to promote understanding and discussion of enduring and contemporary issues; and to broaden the range of educational opportunities available to all Virginians.    

For further information, contact Sheryl Hayes at 434-924-3286 or Sheryl@virginia.edu.