Contact: Sheryl HayesSheryl@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 25, 2007
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 25, 2007
VIRGINIA FOUNDATION FOR THE HUMANITIES ANNOUNCES
GRANTS TO ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT VIRGINIA
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) has awarded 24 grants totaling $107,700 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, libraries, African American heritage organizations, civic groups, and historic sites. The funds will be used to support Teachers’ institutes, archeological research, exhibits, oral history research and collection, educational websites, and conferences. Grant-supported activities will take place across Virginia cities and counties, from Machipongo to Galax, from Virginia Beach to Warm Springs.
Funds for this program have been provided by private donors, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Grants were awarded to the following organizations and projects:
American Shakespeare Center Staunton, VA
Shakesfear and How to Cure It
$5,000 to support a one-week teachers’ institute focusing on the teaching of Shakespeare and his use of language in relation to Virginia’s English standards of learning.
Association of American Geographers Washington, DC
Geography and the Humanities Symposium
$5,000 to support a three-day public symposium exploring the growing reciprocal influence between geography and the humanities, focusing on issues such as globalization, space and place, and the increasing use of tools such as GPS in humanities research.
Barrier Islands Center Machipongo, VA
Stories From the Barrier Islands of Virginia: An Oral History
$9,650 to support the first phase of a long-term oral history project focusing on the former residents of Virginia’s Barrier Islands and their descendants.
Bath County Historical Society Warm Springs, VA
Connecting with the Past: Historical Inquiry in Bath County Classroom
$5,000 to support a long-term initiative in which Bath County teachers will develop local history curricula and resource materials based on their own research into primary documents related to the history of Bath County. The project was developed as a collaborative effort between the local historical society and the public schools.
Black History Museum & Cultural Center Richmond, VA
African American Trailblazers
$8,000 to support production of a traveling exhibit on African American history in Virginia, focusing on the lives of twelve exemplary figures from the fields of politics, finance, literature, music and sports.
Blue Ridge Music Center Galax, VA
Restoring a Sense of Place
$7,500 to support a series of interpretative programs, to be presented weekly from June-September 2007, focusing on the cultural history and musical traditions native to the communities of Virginia’s southern Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains.
Carver-Price Alumni Association, Inc. Concord, VA
Carver-Price School Oral History Project
$3,000 to support an oral history project focusing on interviews with former students, teachers, and staff of the Carver-Price High School in Appomattox County, resulting in a series of DVDs based on these interviews.
Chincoteague Island Library Chincoteague, VA
Chincoteague Island Community Heritage Project
$8,600 to support an oral history project designed to document the disappearing cultural traditions of Chincoteague Island.
Christiansburg Institute, Inc Christiansburg, VA
The Rosenwald-Christiansburg Institute Connection: Revising an On-Line History
$3,000 to support revisions and additions to an existing website on the history of Christiansburg Institute, focusing on extensive connections between Christiansburg Institute and the beginnings of the Rosenwald School movements in Virginia and nationwide.
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia Virginia Beach, VA
Individual Freedom in the 21st Century
$2,000.00 to support a public forum on "Individual Rights in the 21st Century," presented in conjunction with an exhibit in which several of the original documents (including the Magna Carta) that created the foundations of individual rights and democracy will be on display.
Fluvanna County Historical Society Palmyra, VA
Fluvanna County Rosenwald Schools Project
$3,000 to support development of a strategic plan to preserve and interpret the history of Fluvanna County’s five remaining Rosenwald schools.
Halifax County Historical Society South Boston, VA
The Crossing of the Dan -- The American Revolution in Southern Virginia
$6,000 to support production of an interpretative exhibit that tells the story of an significant Revolutionary War event in Halifax County – General Nathaniel Greene’s crossing of the Dan River in 1781.
Hampton University Hampton, VA
Literary Reading Series
$3,000 to support two new programs in an ongoing “Literary Reading Series,” featuring discussion with leading African American authors.
Isle of Wight County Museum Foundation Smithfield, VA
Educators' Ethnohistory Institute
$5,700 to support a nine-day Institute for Teachers in southeastern Virginia, focusing on Virginia Indian – specifically Nansemond – history and culture. Members of the Nansemond tribe are active participants and partners in this project.
Legacy Museum of African American History Lynchburg VA
Slave Cabin Documentation
$1,500.00 to support archaeological and documentary research on two nineteenth century slave cabins located within the current Lynchburg city limits. In the near future, one of these structures is to be moved to Legacy Museum, the other to Popular Forest, when they will become part of the interpretation of each site.
Liberty University Lynchburg, VA
Christianity and American History Conference
$1,500.00 to support a two-day scholarly and public conference on Christianity and American history, with a particular focus on how Virginians (Jefferson and others) helped to determine the role of Christianity in the U.S. during and following the Founding period.
Library of Virginia Foundation Richmond, VA
2007 Virginia Women in History
$2,500.00 to support the cost of printing an interpretive poster honoring eight Virginia women-- past and present--who have made important contributions to Virginia and America.
Montpelier Foundation Orange ,VA
Slave Descendant Reunion and Conference at James Madison's Montpelier
$5,000 to support a reunion and conference bringing together the descendants of African Americans enslaved at Montpelier and neighboring plantations in Orange County, with leading historians, African American scholars and the broader public.
National D-Day Memorial Foundation Bedford, VA
The USS Mason
$1,250.00 to support the fourth in an annual series of public programs on the contributions of African American soldiers and support personnel during World War II. The program this year focuses on the crew of the USS Mason.
Pamplin Historical Park Petersburg, VA
Diverging Americas: Antecedents of the Civil War
$8,000 to support a one-week Institute for middle and high school teachers focusing on the causes of the American Civil War.
Urban Alternatives Foundation Arlington, VA Arlington, VA
A History of Columbia Pike
$2,500.00 to support the first phase of a large-scale research and oral history project to document the buildings, people and traditions of Columbia Pike in Arlington, one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhoods in Virginia.
Virginia Arts Festival Norfolk, VA
The Crooked Road Project
$5,000 to support the contributions of traditional artisans from Virginia’s “Crooked Road” region to a new one-day folklife festival in Williamsburg.
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
African American Schools in Virginia during the Depression
$3,000 to support development of a website devoted to the subject of African American schools and education in Virginia during the Great Depression.
Virginia University of Lynchburg Lynchburg, VA
Ota Benga, Lynchburg and the Empowerment of the Pygmies
$3,000 to support a three-day conference on the life of Ota Benga, an African Pygmy who was brought to the U.S. in 1904 and exhibited as a curiosity at the St. Louis World’s Fair and the Bronx Zoo before being rescued by African American ministers and given a home at the Virginia Baptist Seminary (now Virginia University of Lynchburg) where he died in 1916.
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 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 Foundation 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 434-924-3296 or Sheryl@virginia.edu.