Past Grants Awarded

The first online web tour of the Emily Dickinson Museum.

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

Offer Virtual Field Trips curriculum packages for students in grades 8-12 based on Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms which will explore America's democratic ideals and practice. Also provide Virtual Gallery tours of our new exhibitions for adults.

An ongoing comprehensive digital initiative for the purposes of making valuable content available and accessible to the public, educational institutions, partnering organizations, and researchers.

For the creation of a digital interactive component to an outdoor exhibit telling the story of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians in Berkshire County.

For the Digital Native Connections and Ancestral Story Circles project.

For Combahee’s Radical Call: Black Feminisms (Re)Awaken Boston, an online program about Combahee River Collective and how its work still impacts racial, social, and gender justice.

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

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.

For the digitization of the Tewksbury State Hospital intake records, which when completed, will be accompanied by a genealogy program, a virtual exhibit, and a website redesign showcasing newly digitized content.

For production of an online version of the "A Changing Way of Life" section of our new permanent exhibit and downloadable discussion guides, as well as QR codes to enable in person visitors to listen to oral history excerpts presented at five listening stations on their cell phones. A variety of audio, video, and still images will enable visitors to explore themes of labor, immigration, the environment, family & community and sea stories.

For the production of a series of interactive online exhibits of historical photos highlighting the culture and landscape of central Massachusetts, framed as a microcosm of the American post-war way of life.

Phase II of an online virtual tour program about Ayer's historic Sandy Pond Schoolhouse, a National Register of Historic Places site, and Ayer's oldest public building.

For the expansion of the Digital Danvers program to primary school-aged students and their families in Danvers and across the North Shore.

For the creation of interactive story maps of two recent Pao Arts Center projects, Inside Chinatown and Love Letters, that will be featured on the Pao Arts Center website.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.