Foundation supports 12 cultural nonprofits exploring how climate change impacts Massachusetts residents.
Mass Humanities, the state’s leading funder of humanities programs, is equipping cultural nonprofits to be the next wave of climate change storytellers.
In September, the foundation awarded twelve grants totaling more than $206,000 to a group including a library, a historical society, a community access television station, independent filmmakers, and nonprofit organizations. Mass Humanities introduced the grants as part of its Expand Massachusetts Stories (EMS) initiative, encouraging organizations to examine the many different sides of the climate crisis and its impact on Massachusetts residents.
“The humanities belong at the center of climate change policies and decisions,” said Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities. “Our traditions and cultures can help us imagine new solutions and choose the most ethical pathways for our hometowns and our state. The stories and wisdom generated through these projects should offer essential data as communities and policymakers calculate risks and develop equitable strategies for meeting this challenge.”
The range of proposed projects is diverse, including documentary films, a program to elevate youth perspectives on climate change, a digital humanities mapping project, a place-based education curriculum, a podcast, and more. Several projects will engage Boston residents about their experiences of rising sea levels around Seaport and Boston Harbor.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a nonprofit based in Boston, received funding for a series of community conversations about climate challenges impacting the Massachusetts coast titled “A Bay State without Beaches?”
“Climate change is an overwhelming concept, and the existential crisis of our time,” said Chris Mancini, executive director of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay. “The goal of our Bay State Without Beaches project is to humanize people’s real-life experiences even as we strive to find ways to adapt to planet-wide changes. Mass Humanities’ approach is uniquely suited to helping us understand the mind-boggling impacts we can expect to face.”
A group of researchers from Brandeis University received funding for an oral history and digital mapping project titled “Building Climate Resilience via Collective Memory: An Oral History of Flooding in Waltham, MA.” Project Director Sara Shostak, a professor of sociology and health: science, society, and policy at Brandeis, says the project will document local residents’ knowledge as a resource for understanding and mitigating climate-related challenges.
“The aim of the Building Collective Resilience project is to create more resilient, just, and equitable future for all residents of Waltham,” said Shostak. “At the same time, we aim to provide a model for Massachusetts cities seeking to use humanistic engagement to develop resources for environmental justice communities facing the many challenges posed by a changing climate.”
The group of grantees includes:
- Lani Asuncion
- Blues to Green
- Brandeis University
- Andrea Patiño Contreras
- Friends Group of Egleston Square Branch Library
- Hitchcock Center for the Environment
- Hola Cultura
- Kujali International
- Lower Cape Community Access Television
- Local Access to Valley Arts (The LAVA Center)
- Save the Harbor/Save the Bay
- Sudbury Historical Society
Since launching EMS in 2021, Mass Humanities has prioritized funding projects that give voice to those who are often excluded from mainstream histories and stories. This year’s group of climate change grantees is part of more than $3 million awarded over the last three years.
Mass Humanities celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. The foundation serves as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Expand Massachusetts Stories initiative is made possible through support from Mass Cultural Council.
“Culture celebrates the past, the present, and our collective future,” said Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council. “With support from Mass Humanities EMS program, 64 more organizations will capture the lessons, the learning, and the highs and lows of our Commonwealth communities. Mass Cultural Council is proud to support this important work, and congratulates this year’s award recipients.”
A full list of climate change grants by region is provided below.
For more information, contact Wes DeShano, communications manager, at wdeshano@masshumanities.org or 413-203-6241, ext. 102.
Cape and Islands
Lower Cape Community Access Television
Orleans
“Shifting Tides”
Shifting Tides is a documentary exploring community attitudes towards climate change on Cape Cod.
$8,030
lowercapetv.org
Connecticut River Valley
Blues to Green
Springfield
“Boricua Resilience Beyond the Storm: Springfield & Holyoke Puerto Ricans & Climate Justice”
Boricua Resilience is a project engaging residents, culture bearers, and climate justice activists from Springfield & Holyoke’s large Puerto Rican community to create a 20-minute film on their stories of climate injustice and resilience, from leaving Puerto Rico mainly due to climate injustice, to transplanting and using their culture to cope with new climate injustices in MA.
$20,000
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Amherst
“Youth Climate Ambassadors”
Youth Climate Ambassadors will create a comprehensive program to elevate the often overlooked voices of youth in the climate conversation
$17,798
https://www.hitchcockcenter.org
Local Access to Valley Arts (The LAVA Center)
Greenfield
“Rising River’s Edge: The Climate Crisis in Franklin County”
Rising River’s Edge is a 20-minute video documentary looking at the impacts of the climate crisis on the food systems of Franklin County, one of the poorest and most rural counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and how the consumers most affected by these impacts are coping.
$20,000
localaccess.org
Greater Boston
Andrea Patiño Contreras
Jamaica Plain
“A WILD PROMISE: stories of resilience of local Massachusetts communities coping with climate change”
A WILD PROMISE will uncover yet-to be told stories of local communities and the key species that inform their culture, tradition and identity as both struggle to cope with the adverse effects of climate change, with a strong emphasis on solutions and locals’s strength, ingenuity, and resilience.
$20,000
Brandeis University
Waltham
“Building Climate Resilience via Collective Memory: An Oral History of Flooding in Waltham, MA”
Building Collective Resilience via Collective Memory is an oral history and digital humanities (mapping) project that documents and makes publicly available place-based histories of urban flooding in historically marginalized communities in Waltham, MA.
$19,800
https://www.brandeis.edu/
Friends Group of Egleston Square Branch Library
Boston
“Gardens of Egleston: Community Climate Resiliency Stories”
Gardens of Egleston will be a community oral history, education, and community engagement project based in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. Our community’s diverse gardeners will share stories of resiliency in the face of multiple climate justice and socioeconomic challenges.
$17,237
Hola Cultura
East Boston
“Tide Talks: Changing Attitudes and Access to East Boston’s Waterfront”
Tide Talks is an oral history project interviewing East Boston residents across demographic groups and generations about living next to Boston Harbor.
$20,000
Kujali International
“Narrating Local Climate Change: Telling Current And Future MA Stories With Eco Memoir and Eco Speculation”
Narrating Local Climate Change is a free curriculum unit, rooted in the humanities, environmental justice, and place-based education.
$19,200
Lani Asuncion
Boston
“Water Warnings: Stories of Climate Change in Boston”
Water Warnings is community engagement in the form of a public panel event of professionals and a podcast of community oral histories that speak to experiences of climate change and the effects of sea levels rising around Seaport and Boston Harbor. The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy will serve as the fiscal sponsor for this project.
$20,000
rosekennedygreenway.org
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay
Boston
“A Bay State without Beaches? Stories of the Shoreline”
A Bay State without Beaches? is a series of local climate conversations that will harness the power of storytelling to address climate challenges facing the Massachusetts coast.
$20,000
https://www.savetheharbor.org/
Metro West
Sudbury Historical Society
Sudbury
“Sudbury’s Changing Landscape, Phase 2”
This exhibit covers how the environment that comprises the town of Sudbury has changed since the glaciers formed its surface. Phase 1 has covered Glaciers-1780, and Phase 2 will cover 1781-present day.
$4,000
