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
February 15, 2008
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
February 15, 2008
VIRGINIA FOUNDATION FOR THE HUMANITIES ANNOUNCES
NEW GRANTS FOR VIRGINIA ORGANIZATIONS
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) has recently awarded sixteen new grants totaling $86,700 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, and historic sites like James Madison’s Montpelier. The funds will be used to support a teachers’ institute on the Civil War; a scholars’ colloquium on Pentacostalism; research on 19th-century African America family ancestral data, using estate books; a living history festival; an educational web site on the separation of church and state; and a catalogue to accompany a photo exhibit on women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Grant-supported activities will take place across Virginia cities and counties, from the Eastern Shore to the Shenandoah Valley, in Lancaster County in the Northern Neck as well as in downtown urban settings such as Richmond and Virginia Beach.
Funds for this program have been provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia and by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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.
Grants were awarded to the following organizations and projects:
Belle Grove Plantation Middletown, VA
Architecture and History Research at Harmony Hall
$7,500 to support research on the history and architectural significance of Harmony Hall in Shenandoah County.
Capitol Square Civil Rights Memorial Foundation Richmond, VA
$2,000 to support printing costs for a brochure focusing on a monument to the civil rights movement on the grounds of the State Capitol in Richmond and the history it commemorates.
College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA
The Serpentine Wall
$9,000 to support the development of essays, teacher resources, and other humanities content for a permanent web-based "Resource Center" devoted to exploring the principle of separation of church and state from a variety of historical, philosophical, political and legal perspectives.
Eastern Shore Center for Black History and Culture, Inc. Eastville, VA
"Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair"
$11,500 to support publication of a book of biographies profiling African American residents of Virginia's Eastern Shore who made significant contributions in civil rights, business, education, the military, law, politics, and religion. The book is designed as a companion to a volume on Eastern Shore African American historic sites, published in 2007 with VFH grant support.
Edgar Allan Poe Museum Richmond, VA
$1,000 to support the cost of printing an interpretative publication designed to accompany an exhibit examining the continuing influence of Edgar Allan Poe on popular culture, specifically comics and graphic novels.
Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance Harrisonburg, VA
Court Days Festival 2008
$3,100 to support a series of workshops designed to enhance the interpretive aspects of Downtown Harrisonburg's annual Court Days Festival.
Legacy Museum of African American History Lynchburg, VA
For Our Own Good: African American Civic and Social Groups in Central Virginia
$10,000 to support an interpretive exhibit and accompanying brochure on the history of African American social groups and their influence in Central Virginia, the Lynchburg area in particular.
Library of Virginia Foundation Richmond, VA
$2,500 to support the cost of printing and distributing an interpretative poster honoring Virginia women -- past and present -- who have made important contributions to Virginia and the U.S.
Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library Lancaster, VA
An Expanded Portrait of African Americans in Lancaster County, Virginia 1830-1865
$10,000 to support Phase II of a three-part project focusing on the history of slave families in Lancaster County during the period 1830 -1865.
Museum of the Confederacy Richmond, VA
Davis and Lincoln: Reflections of a Divided Nation
$5,300 to support a one-week teachers' institute focusing on the lives, political views and presidencies of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln.
The Montpelier Foundation Orange, VA
The Montpelier Slave Community
$3,500 to support the development of new interpretive materials focusing on the lives and experiences of Montpelier's enslaved community.
National D-Day Memorial Foundation Bedford, VA
$1,000 to support a public lecture, the fifth in an annual series, focusing on the contributions of African American soldiers and support personnel during WWII. This year's program focuses on the "Port Chicago" incident in California and its after math.
Regent University Virginia Beach, VA
African American Pentacostalism Colloquium
$5,000 to support a public symposium on the subject of African American Pentacostalism, its history, current status, and influence within African American communities and beyond.
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
Virginia and Liberia
$6,500 to support development of a website devoted to the history of emigration of more than 3,700 African Americans from Virginia to Liberia between 1820 and 1865.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond Richmond, VA
When Janey Comes Marching Home
$7,300 to support a panel discussion and publication of an interpretive gallery guide to accompany a photographic exhibit, also funded by VFH, on the experience of women combat veterans in Afghanistan and Iraq.
William King Regional Arts Center Abingdon, VA
$1,500 to support a series of public events offered in conjunction with an exhibit exploring the relationship between art and faith in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
For further information, contact Sheryl Hayes at 434-924-3296 or Sheryl@virginia.edu