Past Grants Awarded

Production of an 80-minute documentary featuring footage from more than 50 oral-history interviews of elderly Lenox residents to mark the town's 250th anniversary.

Support for a public reading of Frederick Douglass' famous Fourth of July oratory as part of the Mass Humanities Reading Frederick Douglass program.

Preproduction work on a documentary covering the role of music in the maintaining of cultural identity among Tibetan exiles.

A bilingual exhibit on Latino heritage created in consultation with Holyoke residents and focused on the relationships of the subjects with their grandmothers.

A local history day at Mohawk Trail Regional High School uniting teachers, students, and the public with local history organizations.

Inventory, translation, and assessment of client files from the Harry H. Dow papers archived at the Suffolk Law School Library.

A multimedia oral history project with workers and employers about the MA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, including two public events.

Support for the 80th season of the speaker series, consisting of five free public lectures.

Creation of a trailer, script, and fundraising plan for a one-hour documentary film by Bestor Cram about the post-war realities in Vietnam and American veterans' ongoing involvement there.

A four-day themed film festival on intergenerational immigrant experiences.

Production of a play by Yussef El Guindi, post-performance talks with the playwright, and a free, public symposium on the role of the arts in challenging stereotypes.

Creation of a five-to-twelve minute pilot video about Portuguese cuisine and its history hosted by Manny Lopes of "Cooking with Dad TV."

A reading, discussion, and performance program for Boston cab drivers based on Dmitry Samarov's Where To?

A short film featuring an animation of the 1790s building of the USS Constitution, to be shown while Old Ironsides is in dry dock and can be seen in her entirety.

A community art and discussion project that will engage former chair manufacturing workers in producing 400 copies of eleven oral histories recorded in 2009, after the closing of the city's last chair manufacturer.

Production of a 3-minute film that is to provide background for Tsongas Center interactive civic activity that focuses on immigration.

A one-day symposium familiarizing regional historic and cultural resource organizations with the history and legacy of slavery in the north and helping them develop programming and materials.

Writing of the libretto of a "folk opera" about the mid-nineteenth-century African American experience on Martha's Vineyard.

Creation of two short films by Roberto Mighty featuring historical figures, their monuments, and the cemetery landscape, to be included in a series of twenty shorts that will be the basis of a walking tour mobile app.

Research and fabrication of six historical plaques, to be awarded to property owners for their efforts in maintaining the historical integrity and condition of their property.

Short-film social media efforts to support the creation and distribution of the full-length documentary film DAWNLAND, about the Maine Wabanaki-State Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

Development of an educational website about the history of the commercial fishing industry in New Bedford, providing online access to oral histories and other materials gathered by the Working Waterfront Festival.

Support for a public reading of Frederick Douglass' famous Fourth of July oratory as part of the Mass Humanities Reading Frederick Douglass program.

Support for a public reading of Frederick Douglass' famous Fourth of July oratory as part of the Mass Humanities Reading Frederick Douglass program.

Examination and interpretation of Hatfield Historical Museum's medical collection from the early 1900s, focusing on Dr. Charles A. Byrne.

A convention of Native groups in Boston, Worcester, Cape Cod Islands, South Coast, and Amherst in roundtable discussions envisioning a new social contract between the Commonwealth and its Native peoples.

A conversation between jazz legend Archie Shepp and students from Science and Technology of Springfield and Holyoke High Schools on how social and political current events impact the direction of contemporary music.

A three-part moderated film-and-discussion program with underserved Lawrence youth.

Multi-lingual playbill essays and study for local high schools and community college classes illuminating the relationship between the Provincetown Playhouse's famous founders and the Portuguese fishing community on the theater's 100th anniversary.

Support for a summer youth program as part of the Biannual Lift Ev'ry Voice Festival, focused on African-American identity in the Berkshires as well as the history and question of civil rights.

A program engaging 25 young black men from grades three through five in nominating the home of local hero Suzanne Revaleon Green for inclusion on the African American Heritage Trail in Cambridge.

An archaeological dig at the 1719 Parsons House, to which area third and fourth grade students and the public will be invited.

Support for an exhibit to focus on the Skinner department store in downtown Taunton at the turn of the twentieth century as part of the Society's revitalized community engagement efforts.

Support for a social media campaign to launch a multimedia electronic book depicting the history of China's One-Child Policy and the experiences of two adopted Chinese-American girls who visited their place of birth.

Memoir writing workshops for 75 adult basic education students in five western Massachusetts classrooms.

Support for programs for girls 10 and older learning about the famous Lowell Mill Girls through history lessons, site visits, and walking-and-photography tours.

Support for the development of an educational and informational program focusing on the economic and civic history of local agriculture by telling the stories of 6 farms in 6 towns in the region served by the Trust.

Training of the summer program staff to engage new audiences in humanities storytelling about Boston Harbor and its historical denizens.

A community conversation on historic approaches to social contract negotiation and achieving citizen rights and freedoms, and signage marking approaches to the subject by notable historical figures.

11th graders' dramatic reading of the voices of selected human rights leaders in a theatrical performance of "Voices From Beyond the Dark" by Ariel Dorfman.