Past Grants Awarded

Exile and Community: The Life of Carola Domar

A distribution grant for a documentary focused on the life of a Jewish teen living in Germany in the 1930s who was gradually targeted by the Nazis and eventually escaped to Britain and then to Massachusetts. The project produces a trailer and a curriculum guide, and includes 6 screenings, in order to build outreach to middle- and high school teachers.

Facing Closed Doors: Exploring the Roots of Racial & Ethnic Exclusion Through Theater

A public programming series designed to complement STC's October production of "The Diary of Anne Frank". Anne's voice, in her search for identity as a child of an oppressed minority in dangerous times, is iconic.

The Citizens' Senate: Women's Fight for Suffrage

Production of a 20-minute program on the suffrage movement in the U.S., with a focus on 1910-20, that will become part of EMK's rotating repertoire of daily programs.

Diary of a Confused Immigrant -Telling Our Stories

A community based participatory research project into the experiences of the Ugandan immigrant community in Waltham, followed by public performances based on the findings.

Valley Playwright Mentorship

Two concurrent series of scholar-supported workshops in which Franklin County youth explore the social and historical context of their identity and develop a performance based on the workshops.

Paradise for All: Forging New Aspirations Through Mentorship

A project with 20 underserved Pittsfield girls in an after-school science program that uses theater and humanities-based discussion to help them understand the production of scientific knowledge as a process shaped by social and cultural forces.

Robbins House Family Tree Exhibit

Creation of an expansive "family tree" exhibit.

When Voices Carry: The Power of Voices from Inside

A pre-production film grant for a documentary on the experiences of four women from Voices From Inside, a Greenfield-based organization that facilitates writing groups for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.

How Do You Know

Creation of a documentary that explores the institution of marriage and the couples whose own marriages have broken new ground, including the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license in the U.S., and an interracial couple who wed overseas because of anti-miscegenation laws in their home state.

The Day History Marched Down Our Streets

A permanent exhibit about the site of the most intense fighting on the first day of the American Revolution.

Beyond Jazz: History of the 19th-Century Gatherings and Cultural Expresssion at the Boston African Meeting House

Support for an exhibit and lectures making the historical connection between people gathering socially and people organizing for political change.

"Biography of the Landscape: Unearthed Voices of 17th Century Plimoth/Pawtuxet" Exhibition

Springfield Public Forum

A lecture series centered around "The Achievement Gap."

Mansfield Public Library Local Newspaper Digitization Project

Digitization of 30 reels of the Mansfield News, a local newspaper dating back to 1873.

Half-Hulls in Hanover: Inventorying One Town's Shipbuilding Past

Support for the production of an annotated catalog of documents and artifacts related to the history of shipbuilding on the North River.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together Family Day and Community Round Table Discussion

A reading and round table discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

Environmental Challenges in the Berkshires Symposium

A free symposium in conjunction with a performance of "Fall Springs," a dark musical comedy about environmental disaster.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together

A community reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

Reading Frederick Douglass and Founding Documents in Plainfield, 2019

A reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July, as well as a follow-up discussion of the Massachusetts State Constitution.

What to the Negro is the Fourth of July?

A reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

Building Bridges at the Great Falls: Native Roots and Current Challenges

Funding for two events for participants to experience and reflect upon Native culture and presence in Western Massachusetts.

From the Declaration of Independence Through the Long Civil Rights Movement

A public reading and discussion of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July."

Jack Kerouac Comes Home Again: Bringing Kerouac's Manuscripts Back to Lowell, Massachusetts

Creation of a finding aid for a collection of Jack Kerouac's papers recently gifted to the University.

The Unfinished Agenda of Frederick Douglass in the 21st Century: Which Way is the Arc of Justice Bending Today?

A July 3rd reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July, and a follow-up discussion in September.

New Bedford LGBTQ Winter Film Series

A series of 4 films at the New Bedford Whaling Museum followed by a panel discussion and conversation with the audience.

Chester Theatre Company's 2019 Panel Discussion Series

A series of four scholar-led post-performance discussions.

Lee Historical Society Archive Inventory and Finding Aid

Inventory and creation of a finding aid for Lee Historical Society's collection.

Encountering History Using Innovative and Disruptive Narratives

A series of scholar-led discussions, accompanying a performance that tells the story of one of the first Native Hawai'ian missionaries to travel to New England.

Her Story Is: The Effects of War on Collaboration Between Iraqi and U.S. Women Writers

A moderated discussion as part of the Her Story project.

Class and Culture in the Gilded Age Berkshires: Through the Early Lens of James VanDerZee and Pen of W.E.B. Du Bois.

A lecture and moderated discussion that is part of The Mastheads 2019 season.

The Eugene Tappan Papers

Reparation and digitization of the papers of Eugene Tappan (1840-1908), the town's first historian, and creation of a finding aid.

Incorporating the Arts and Humanities in Death and Dying Education

A series of 4 lecture/small-group discussion events to support conversations about end-of-life planning.

We Read Frederick Douglass as a Community: One Voice, Many Languages

Join us for a community reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

Preservation of Auburn's Winfried P Sommerfeld Photographic Archive

Inventory, organization, and digitization of items from the collection of photographer Winfried Sommerfeld.

What Our Voices Carry

A collaboration between formerly incarcerated women, a scholar, facilitators, and a playwright to create a performance exploring the history of incarceration and its connection to the women's personal experiences.

The Chinese and the Iron Road

Funding to host a traveling exhibit created by the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum and Stanford University in addition to public programs refocusing commemorating the transcontinental railroad on the experience of Chinese workers who did much of the labor.

Sweet Souls: Voices from the Margaret Fuller House in Cambridge

Funding to conduct and interpret 12 oral histories with affiliates of Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, a 112-year-old settlement house, adding under-documented narratives into the archives that address the relationship between providers and patrons in the settlement house movement, and reflect on how such settlement houses were transformed by patrons who became providers.

Cross-Cultural Perceptions vs. Reality Through Global Conversations

Funding for a project engaging the island in cross-cultural conversations, with a thematic focus on the experiences of immigrants and refugees and an interest in teaching cultural literacy by having students actually converse with people from other countries.

Making Lowell's Immigration and Refugee History Accessible in the Classroom

Completion of a digital site on the history of immigration to Lowell, with a particular emphasis on immigration since 1965 to make often scattered information publicly available.

"Lucio" Documentary Film Treatment and Trailer

Production of a treatment and trailer to aid in production of a feature-length documentary film exploring U.S. immigration from Central America and the current sanctuary movement through the story of Lucio, an immigrant from Guatemala who came to the U.S. illegally and who entered sanctuary in the First Congregational Church in Amherst in 2017 after receiving deportation orders.