Past Grants Awarded

An on-line exhibit and archive of images, film clips and sound files related to the early years of WBCN FM in Boston and protest movements on Boston Common.

A pre-production grant to ValleyCAST for a script and trailer for a documentary about the Whitin family's mills in Whitinsville, MA and the employees in this company town.

Core exhibit planning for the Robbins House, a home built by the son of slavery survivor and Revolutionary War veteran Caesar Robbins in the early 1800s.

A series of six staged readings of plays from August Wilson's ten-play cycle about the lives of African Americans in the decades of the twentieth century.

Support for a script and trailer for a documentary film about the meaning of race in America.

Design and fabrication of a display about the varied career and entrepreneurship of Paul Revere.

Springfield-based programs featuring artists whose new work about the vision of W.E.B. Du Bois will be exhibited at the Umass Amherst Museum of Contemporary Art.

Three one-hour radio segments taking a look at civility (and the lack thereof) in public discourse.

French-Canadian historical re-enactors take part in a public commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the treaty that ended the French and Indian Wars.

An exhibit and programs exploring the history and culture of Carnival in eight communities in Europe and the Americas.

A video installation about how Old Ironsides was built by skilled boatwrights, focusing on the all important axe.

Three days of varied programs with multiple literary collaborators including authors of national repute.

Research into and documentation of the land use history of Hawk Valley Farm (1664), a five-acre conservation property that is still occupied by the descendants of the settlers.

Research into the life of Elizabeth Cadman White (1685-1768), one of the first owners of the 1710 Cadman-White-Handy House, and her social, cultural, economic, and political environment.

Community conversations about violence in America by way of a series of public events, lectures, panels, oral history, film, literature, radio interviews or "town meetings," and online outreach.

Community conversations and other interactive programming around the production of a historical pageant commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The pageant will be focused on the Haitian Revolution (a defining moment in the history of slavery in the Americas) and the larger-than-life figure of Haitian liberator Toussaint Louverture.

The introduction of 75 adult basic education students to literature through poetry workshops that will culminate in a reading alongside nationally and regionally known poets at the fourth annual Greenfield Annual Word Festival.

A complex and multifaceted oral history project to record the new voices and life histories of recent immigrants to the island.

Six public events-in the Berkshires, Roxbury, Cambridge, Medford, Watertown and Worcester-that explore the unfinished business of the Civil War and the civil rights era.

A community-based oral history/musical theatre project drawn from personal interviews within the Latino community in Lawrence, collected by Spanish-speaking students at Merrimack College, and dramatized by playwright Jose Cruz Gonzalez.

Two-months of community programming on the history and contemporary role of censorship in our society, using Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" as the centerpiece.

Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester will bring reproductions of regional landscape paintings from the Museum collection to seniors in care facilities in and around Gloucester, and also to support field trips for these seniors to the museum.

Development of a play that tackles issues in the history of women's work, based on the life of the strong-willed Mildred E. Walker, box office manager at the Academy whose controversial promotion to interim manager became the occasion of a scandal, criminal accusations, and the loss of her job.

A three-day workshop to introduce local teachers to the significant Civil War resources at the Center, and work with them in preparing to create lesson plans on the topic.

A weeklong workshop between beginner musicians from a selection of Hill Towns (Ashfield, Plainfield, Hawley, and Buckland) and mentors conversant in regional folk classics in preparation for storytelling performances.

The fourth annual history fair on the Boston Common for third and fifth grade students. The fair has grown into an annual collaboration between FPG, the schools, and various history organizations that interpret, re-enact, and engage students in how the Common has been used throughout history.

Four dinner concerts and 10 lunchtime concerts, to be followed by scholar-facilitated discussions at the Center, a community organization that serves homeless and low-income people.

A new audio tour for Buckman Tavern, the gathering place for the Lexington militia before they encountered British soldiers in the first battle of the American Revolution.

Awarded to catalogue, re-house, and transcribe the "Paul White documents," a group of about fifty documents that date from the 1740's to the early nineteenth century, with an eye towards future public programming.

Reading and discussion series focusing on books by Jack Kerouac.

A three-part effort to bring 300 Springfield students to Florence for a Sojourner Truth walking tour, which will include exploration of historic houses and places where African-American fugitives lived and worked during the antebellum period.

A reading, discussion, and writing initiative in nursing homes, retirement facilities, hospitals, and care centers. Using Virginia Woolf's "On Being Ill" along with "Notes from Sick Rooms" by Julia Stephen (Woolf's mother), staff and residents in these facilities will explore the experience, meaning, and transformational aspect of illness and care giving.

An oral history project about immigration to Worcester, in which the oral histories are conversations between two people about migration to Worcester, recorded in a Story Corps booth.

A program in which professional Massachusetts storytellers teach 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in 10 Massachusetts high schools the art of personal storytelling while imparting formative public speaking skills and writing strategies. The program culminates in an intramural story slam (with cash prizes).

Creation and installation of three historic markers about local history concerning slavery and abolition. The new markers will feature "QR codes" that, when scanned with a smartphone, will lead to Web resources that feature more information than the marker, such as short audio and video files.

Honoraria for visiting authors of national repute and two chartered buses that will be used to transport seniors to readings held at the Center.

A panel at the "Making Media Now," conference, that will offer insights and best practices to filmmakers on developing the most productive working relationships between humanities scholars and documentary filmmakers.

A 10-session professional development course for 20 teachers to study primary sources and teaching materials on notable nonviolent movements in the modern world.

A month-long, community-wide series of readings, lectures, films and discussions, writing workshops, networking events, and performances by and for women writers. The festival focuses on the concept of strengthening women's voices through writing.