Past Grants Awarded

Two concurrent series of scholar-supported workshops in which Franklin County youth explore the social and historical context of their identity and develop a performance based on the workshops.

A pre-production film grant for a documentary on the experiences of four women from Voices From Inside, a Greenfield-based organization that facilitates writing groups for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.

A project with 20 underserved Pittsfield girls in an after-school science program that uses theater and humanities-based discussion to help them understand the production of scientific knowledge as a process shaped by social and cultural forces.

An exhibit on the relationships between Pilgrim settlers, Wampanoag peoples, and their shared environment. In addition to the exhibit, Plimoth Plantation will also hold public lectures.

A lecture series centered around "The Achievement Gap."

Production of a 20-minute program on the suffrage movement in the U.S., with a focus on 1910-20, that will become part of EMK's rotating repertoire of daily programs.

Creation of an expansive "family tree" exhibit.

A permanent exhibit about the site of the most intense fighting on the first day of the American Revolution.

Support for an exhibit and lectures making the historical connection between people gathering socially and people organizing for political change.

A public programming series designed to complement STC's October production of "The Diary of Anne Frank". Anne's voice, in her search for identity as a child of an oppressed minority in dangerous times, is iconic.

Creation of a documentary that explores the institution of marriage and the couples whose own marriages have broken new ground, including the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license in the U.S., and an interracial couple who wed overseas because of anti-miscegenation laws in their home state.

A distribution grant for a documentary focused on the life of a Jewish teen living in Germany in the 1930s who was gradually targeted by the Nazis and eventually escaped to Britain and then to Massachusetts. The project produces a trailer and a curriculum guide, and includes 6 screenings, in order to build outreach to middle- and high school teachers.

A community based participatory research project into the experiences of the Ugandan immigrant community in Waltham, followed by public performances based on the findings.

A series of 4 lecture/small-group discussion events to support conversations about end-of-life planning.

A reading and round table discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

A moderated discussion as part of the Her Story project.

Support for the production of an annotated catalog of documents and artifacts related to the history of shipbuilding on the North River.

A free symposium in conjunction with a performance of "Fall Springs," a dark musical comedy about environmental disaster.

A series of scholar-led discussions, accompanying a performance that tells the story of one of the first Native Hawai'ian missionaries to travel to New England.

A lecture and moderated discussion that is part of The Mastheads 2019 season.

Funding for two events for participants to experience and reflect upon Native culture and presence in Western Massachusetts.

Creation of a finding aid for a collection of Jack Kerouac's papers recently gifted to the University.

Digitization of 30 reels of the Mansfield News, a local newspaper dating back to 1873.

Inventory and creation of a finding aid for Lee Historical Society's collection.

A series of four scholar-led post-performance discussions.

A public reading and discussion of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July."

A reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July, as well as a follow-up discussion of the Massachusetts State Constitution.

A reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

A July 3rd reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July, and a follow-up discussion in September.

Reparation and digitization of the papers of Eugene Tappan (1840-1908), the town's first historian, and creation of a finding aid.

A series of 4 films at the New Bedford Whaling Museum followed by a panel discussion and conversation with the audience.

Join us for a community reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

Inventory, organization, and digitization of items from the collection of photographer Winfried Sommerfeld.

A community reading and discussion of Douglass's speech on the meaning of the 4th of July.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.