Explore the Mass Humanities funded projects awarded from 2000 to the present. Browse by grant type, city, region or keyword. Subscribe and receive news when grants are awarded. Interact with a state map of grants awarded!
Roxbury Strong: A Story of Emergence, Performance and Discussion Series
Support for BPS and BHCC students to engage in the history and culture of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood through researching, rehearsing, performing, and leading community discussions of "Roxbury Strong," a play based on archival research and oral histories with residents.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Ron T. Jones
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $14,500
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.
Leominster, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: May Lee Tom
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $4,950
Orchestrating Change
Support for the distribution phase of a feature-length documentary film about the Me2/Orchestra in which half the musicians are diagnosed with mental illness.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County
project director: Margie Friedman
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $14,795
"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.
Granby, MA, Hampshire County
project director: Kate Way
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $15,000
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.
Oak Bluffs, MA, Dukes County (Cape & Islands)
project director: Kevin McGrath
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $9,250
To do the good I expected: Robert Roberts - Domestic Servant, Author, Abolitionist
Development of a tour focused on the life, writing, and activism of Robert Roberts, a leader in Boston's free black community and a servant at Gore Place. The tour emphasizes the value of labor over the denigration of service and explores the relationship between work, life, and activism, and the challenge of trying to change the world while also surviving in it.
Waltham, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Susan Robertson
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $7,000
Camera Kids - Genocide Victims and Genocide Perpetrators
Production a multimedia project for the 25th Anniversary of the Rwandan genocide this year in addition to creation of the trailer in for a film featuring three three men orphaned by the Rwandan genocide who teach photography as a healing practice to vulnerable children around the world, including at the Home for Little Wanderers in Boston.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Beth Murphy
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $15,000
America Transformed: Mapping Land and Dispossession in the 19th Century
Public programming, a teacher institute, and interpretive materials to accompany a two-part exhibit using maps to examine the history of U.S. expansion and Native American dispossession in the 19th and 20th century.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Michelle LeBlanc
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $14,817
The Story of the First Encounter at Eastham: from Conflict to Community
For research and writing of a revised history of the first encounter between Pilgrim settlers and Native people that will be used as the basis for web-content and programming leading up to 400th anniversary commemorations in 2020. Project programs will make the public narrative newly relevant by connecting it to crises and challenges faced by Cape residents today.
Eastham, MA, Barnstable County (Cape & Islands)
project director: Debra Dejonker-Berry
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $15,000
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.
West Springfield, MA, Hampden County (CT Valley)
project director: Gretchen Krull
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $15,000
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.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Ingrid Hess
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $12,500
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.
Cambridge, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Marieke Van Damme
awarded on: 2019-03-15
amount: $7,500
Visions of Labor: Film and Worker Voices
Support for a project using film to help local workers see their work lives as worthy of attention, and as a part of a historical trajectory in which they are agents, including a three-day digital story-telling workshop, solicited video submissions from local workers, a 1 1/2 day conference and a website showing workers' videos.
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Patricia A. Greenfield
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $15,000
100 Years Later: THe Great Molasses Flood Revisited
A series of three panel discussions exploring Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919, on its 100th anniversary.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Erica B. Lindamood
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $3,000
Beyond the Stage: Post-Production Discussions of Patrick Gabridge's Mount Auburn Plays
Support for moderated conversations following a series of one-act plays written by Patrick Gabridge.
Cambridge, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Jennifer Gilbert
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $3,000
Sonar to GPS: Exploring the Evolution and Impact of Technology on New Bedford's Fishing Industry
A project exploring how changing technologies have affected the fishing community in New Bedford that includes archival research, ethnographic interviews with members of the fishing community, two public exhibits, six panel discussions, and MA standards-based curricula for elementary and secondary school children.
New Bedford, MA, Bristol County (Southeast)
project director: Laura Orleans
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $6,960
Boston Through a Wider Lens: Communities of Color and the Narrative of Freedom
Support for a five-day summer teacher workshop highlighting historic sites in Boston where communities of color struggled for recognition and inclusion in the social contract.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Elena Stone
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $14,047
Gay Worcester: LGBTQ+ History
Support for a project that will fill a gap in Worcester Historical Museum's collections and result in an exhibition and related programming during 2019, the 50th anniversary of New York's Stonewall Uprising.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Anne Sadick
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $15,000
CodeSwitching: Race and Identity in the Suburban Schoolhouse
Support for promotion and distribution of the documentary CodeSwitching, which explores the experience of shifting between 'home' and 'away' cultures for two generations of students who were bused from urban to suburban schools as part of Boston's METCO program.
Cambridge, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Jonathan Schwartz
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $13,500
Translating Words and Worlds: Poetry Inside Out with ESL Teachers and Their Multilingual Students
Support for curricular development, a semester-long seminar for ESL teachers, and stipends for ESL teachers to learn and implement Poetry Inside Out, a translation-based approach to literary interpretation, in their ESL classrooms.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Sarah Michaels
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $14,998
Black Holyoke Oral History Project
Oral history collection, transcription, and creation of a gallery exhibit examining the lives and experiences of Black residents of Holyoke from the second half of the 20th century through the present.
Holyoke, MA, Hampden County (CT Valley)
project director: Penni Martorell
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $14,500
Isaiah Thomas - Patriot Printer
Support for the final planning stages of an interactive educational website on Isaiah Thomas that will introduce children, particularly high school students, to archival material.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: James D. Moran
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $14,935
Radical Interconnectedness Festival Follow-up Public Panel Conversation
Support for historical, contextual, and interpretive conversations between scholars, artists, and participating audience on art expressing the stories of marginalized social groups.
Greenfield, MA, Franklin County (CT Valley)
project director: Linda McInerney
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $7,500
Examining Our Shared Humanity: Holocaust Education and Social Responsibility
Support for a weeklong teacher's institute in July on the holocaust, genocide, and human rights, that employs a multidisciplinary approach engaging history, philosophy, ethics, and religion with an emphasis on literature and reflective writing.
New York, NY, New York County
project director: Cara Crandall
awarded on: 2018-12-14
amount: $12,209
"The History of Immigration and Refugee Settlement in Greater Lowell" Discussion Series
A three-part discussion series, led by Historian Bob Forrant, on immigration in the Lowell area.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Robert Forrant
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $3,500
Shaping the Social Contract - Insights from the Women of Brook Farm
Two public events-moderated by Scholar Kerri Greenidge and held in Cambridge and in Roslindale-based on writings by the women of Brook Farm, a 19th-century transcendentalist community in Boston.
West Roxbury, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Gretchen Dietz
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $1,883
Consolidation of Inventories and Catalogs for Lowell Historical Society
A reorganization of archival documents and electronic inventories to create a searchable, accessible inventory for both scholars and the public.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Anthony Sampas
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $2,000
Plymouth Colony in the Collection of Taunton's Old Colony History Museum
Research by Scholar Stephen O'Neill on 17th-century Plymouth Colony artifacts in order to produce a draft manuscript with photos, as well as a monograph and a public lecture.
Hanover, MA, Plymouth County (Southeast)
project director: Bronson Michaud
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $3,500
A Century Later: Norwood's Experience in the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918
A series of discussion-based events on local history and public health, inspired by Norwood's Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 and led by Scholar Patricia Fanning.
Norwood, MA, Norfolk County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Elizabeth Reed
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $3,000
Literature and the Experience of War
A Literature & Medicine series, led by Scholar Ruth Rhode, at Bedford's local VA facility.
Bedford, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Mary Cutter
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $1,450
Who are We? Literature & Medicine at Baystate Health
A Literature & Medicine series, led by Scholar Kent Jacobson, at Baystate Medical Center.
Springfield, MA, Hampden County (CT Valley)
project director: Bridget Gunn
awarded on: 2018-07-30
amount: $1,800
Story of Our Streets Project
A program for young people in Boston that will combine literary discussion, archival research, and community interviews in order for participants to learn and write about Boston as a city, while focusing on the history and community of an individual street.
Jamaica Plain, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Cara Solomon
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $7,500
My Town, My History
An out-of-school digital humanities project to introduce teenagers to local history and archival research, which will result in the creation of a replicable curriculum.
Salem, MA, Essex County (Northeast)
project director: Susan Edwards
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $12,250
Poetry Beyond Walls
Three sections of a twelve-week course on poetry for male inmates at the Hampden County Sheriff's Department Pre-Release Center.
Ludlow, MA, Hampden County (CT Valley)
project director: Susan Goodwin
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $11,198
Please Touch the Art
A disability-studies exhibit-to accompany a tactile art exhibit- on the history of accessibility in arts programming and on how both blind and sighted artists and audiences influence and affect the fine arts.
Watertown, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Kimberly Thompson
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $10,000
Resistance and Movements: Puerto Ricans in Worcester 1960's to Today
Research and organization of three discussion events for Puerto Rican community members to compare events in Worcester that took place in the 1960s with the current reception of those relocating in Worcester due to Hurricane Maria.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Olga Lopez Hill
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $10,000
The Hurricane Maria Project: Negotiating Diaspora in Western Massachusetts
The creation, by Springfield-area youth producers, of three filmed segments, based in documentary journalism and storytelling, to explore the effects of Hurricane Maria on Springfield-area communities.
Springfield, MA, Hampden County (CT Valley)
project director: Vanessa Pabon-Hernandez
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $15,000
My Voice, My Community
A project that uses performance and documentary photography to allow middle-school students in Springfield to learn about Puerto-Rican immigrant experiences in their community.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Milagros Martinez
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $10,000
The Ethics of Public Memory in Boston
A year-long project that asks high school students to consider the ethical and philosophical questions raised by controversial public monuments-including those debated nationally, as well as controversial removals and renamings of Boston-area landmarks.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Nir Eiskovits
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $14,692
North Adams: Discovering a Community at the Crossroads
The development and launch of a digital public history project, combined with an annual History Harvest event, at which community members will share their own artifacts and stories.
North Adams, MA, Berkshire County (Berkshire)
project director: Ely Janis
awarded on: 2018-06-15
amount: $15,000