Past Grants Awarded

For the development of a widely accessible digital walking tour and virtual visit focused on the little-known story of enslaved and free Black people in 18th-century Deerfield, MA.

A virtual experience of our program, Conference of the Birds.

Technology to stream, broadcast and video record programs in the Calvin Coolidge Museum for audiences who can’t or prefer not to attend in person.

A virtual exhibition of the upcoming show Many Trails Muhheconeok: The people of the waters that never stand still. A digital platform will enhance the narrative of the exhibition through digital representation of the objects and space on the explore.berkshiremuseum.org website and expands the audience to serve those who are unable to visit the exhibition in person.

An online virtual tour of Old North Church and accompanying enrichment materials designed for middle and high school classrooms.

An online program on U.S. fascism from the 1930s until today, and how that threat motivated activists and writers to create cultural and political works to counter it. The program will include NAASR's personal archives of Avedis Derounian, aka John Roy Carlson, who infiltrated the Nazi underground and wrote “Under Cover."

"Sharing Our Stories: An Interactive, Digital Exploration of Our Lives" is a humanities program for 30 adult literacy students that includes a free, open to the public, online reading and discussion forum that features local authors.

Two online exhibits and accompanying gallery talks about the history of the Black community of abolitionists and formerly enslaved in Florence, Northampton, Massachusetts in the two decades before the Civil War.

The Early Stages Conversation Series showcases writers, historians, poets, thinkers, scientists, and more in hybrid events, and there will be a web-based archive of the series.

Improve the Museum's virtual lecture experience with video editing, upgraded streaming capabilities and equipment purchases.

An upgrade and redesign for the museum's website, including migration of the website to Wordpress and support the addition of additional content.

For the Digital Native Connections and Ancestral Story Circles project.

For the creation of a digital tour of three of the museum's historic houses and a walking tour of historic Gloucester.

Workshops with Lawrence high school teachers who want to bring Latinx history, art, culture and pedagogy into their humanities classrooms.

Weekly classes on poetry for male inmates preparing to reenter society at the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department Pre-Release Center. Participants will discuss poems and write their own, exploring how language and storytelling are central to the ways concepts like crime and humanity are defined, becoming well-versed in a literary form that will complement their work on how to deal with common uncertainties about re-entrance.

A take-home story and activity booklet on invention as a creative process and as local history, with teacher training to use it in the classroom, for all of Springfield’s first graders when they take a field trip to the Springfield Museums.

Development of a new guided house tour and supporting exhibit panels to tell the story of the domestic workers who lived at the house over its 100 years of occupancy.

Recently incarcerated persons to tell their stories and engage the public in conversation about the challenges of life after prison.

Five Schools Speak Out about Free Speech, pre-production for a feature documentary about free speech on college campuses today, with a focus on the 5 Colleges.

The roots and consequences of the opium trade between China and the United States, connecting the Forbes family’s wealth derived from opium trading with contemporary debates about the opioid epidemic.

Two-week summer residential program at UMass Amherst for 14 underserved high school students from Holyoke and Springfield, using philosophy to think through the theme of identity and diversity.

An Exploration of Past and Present in the “Kwinitekw” River Valley’s Indigenous Communities. Community dialog and lecture series on the past, present, and contemporary experiences of Indigenous communities in the Valley.

Collaboration with local historical societies on a website highlighting items in their collections that reveal diverse, on-the-ground stories of the American Revolution in the Connecticut River Valley.

Youth engagement project centered on voting as a civic practice. Funding supports outreach, panel discussions, and training of youth to lead reflection workshops that follow a youth-generated play about voting.

Bringing residents together to narrate their families’ immigration stories and to use those stories to create an audio documentary and supporting laser show, with further events to inspire deeper reflection on the immigrant experience.

Research, analyze and interpret the history of enslaved laborers who harvested live oak for the construction of the USS Constitution.

Short documentary and a second short film aimed at high schools and focused on how people helped each other during and after the Holocaust.

A week-long educator workshop on teaching histories of genocide and survival, with an emphasis on Native perspectives.

Abolition, Activism, and Social Justice from the 19th Century to Today

Research on the collection of Native American artifacts to prepare for a permanent exhibition on Native American history and culture in Wellfleet before 1620, and to pilot a mini-exhibit and produce programming this summer on the same subject.

Community readings and a podcast series on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence to audiences today.

A discussion of voting rights and experiences with voting, focusing on past and present immigrant communities, with residents of The Point neighborhood in Salem

Writing workshops with those who are homeless, transitional, and recently-housed, culminating in publication of their works in The Pilgrim magazine and four public reading and discussion programs.

Family-size group discussions of Dr. Seuss' book Oh, the Thinks You Can Think, led by a graphic facilitator who translates children's ideas into pictures, which are then displayed on a knowledge wall at the Dr. Seuss Birthday Party, the Museum's flagship event.

A panel discussion on the political theories and practical differences between the right to vote and the right to be elected, comparing the US with countries where more women hold elected office.

4 panel/discussion events on 4 aspects of voting: women's suffrage, civil rights movement, current barriers to voting, and teen voting.

3 panel discussions, led by accomplished women of color, following 3 different plays in Company One's 2020 season, all connected by the theme of American stories.

4-hour panel and discussion event focused on problematizing the creation of monuments to memorialize historical events.

Two discussions with Billie Jean Young, creator of a one woman show on labor and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

Seven female students from Berkshire Community College will be guided in developing a public presentation -- to take place before the performance of Seven -- on 7 local women who have made a significant contribution to the world around them.