Past Grants Awarded

A series of six events combining film, live performances, and conversations with community leaders and humanities scholars on Baldwin's life, work, and message of equality.

Transportation of 75 Commonwealth Academy students to Sojourner Truth's Florence abolition and slavery walking tour, which will also be overhauled with streamlined, age-appropriate educational materials and online resources.

A county-wide reenactment of the events of September, 1774, when the local British government was overthrown by weaponless militiamen.

An extensive collaborative program exploring art and human rights, to be held as interactive seminars, theatrical productions and public conversations at the Loeb Drama Center and participating schools and organizations.

Performances of a new musical play on the immigration history of Boston and honoraria for a humanities scholar and panelists for post-performance talk back in three communities.

A summer school for budding archaeologists from underserved area high schools.

Production of two performances of an adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" with performances at Springfield Historical Museum and including an educational outreach component to include Springfield youth participants and play development workshops in Greenfield.

Finalization of improvements to their accessibility measures for sight-impaired visitors, including experiential interpretation, and for a workshop sharing best practices learned from this project.

A partnership with upwards of ten faith-based groups of diverse traditions uniting to host five film-and-discussion events on civics and religion.

Documentation of the oral histories of the working-class life of women and/or their descendants during the 1910-1940 period.

Development of a thematic and comprehensive understanding of facilitated discussion with the fishing community recorded since 2004 on the Narrative Stage and preparation of the materials for archival storage and public access.

A county-wide reenactment of the events of September, 1774, when the local British government was overthrown by weaponless militiamen.

An online exhibit and curriculum unit to be developed within the existing Disability History Museum website using the story of Anne Sullivan (Hellen Keller's famous teacher and Agawam, MA, resident) to tell the story of disability rights and poverty advocacy.

A residency to produce the local history theatre piece Mill, Mountain, River: A Child's Eye View of Olde Colraine alongside third and fourth graders in Colrain, MA. The play tells the story of child workers in the Griswoldville factories and will be produced over two weeks and presented publicly as well as to the school community.

Support for speakers, scholars, and publicity materials for the seventh annual Boston Muslim Film Festival.

Two four-day summer institutes for 60 Boston-area teachers. The institutes are loosely organized around the theme of women in African American history.

Production and installation of outdoors signage to help visitors interpret the history of the precarious entrance to Boston Harbor as viewed from Stony Beach in Hull, including the stories of pilots, lifesavers, lighthouse keepers and more.

Pre-production of a one hour television documentary on the untold story of women clerical workers organizing for pay equity, advancement, and recognition. The 9 to 5 Project addresses a significant aspect of feminist social movement history in the U.S. and raises important questions about labor history.

Production of a short film about historical discrimination against the Irish in Lowell. Lowell's "Irish Problem": The Town Vote to Fund a School for the Irish will be incorporated into fourth grade curricula.

Creation of multi-lingual playbills for the company's Road to Tolerance cycle of five plays, to be presented to Boston Public School students.

Development and implementation a multi-lingual exhibit of census-based maps of Boston telling the story of recent immigration in the city.

Support for development of the film Seams, a poetic oral history of women's experiences of the conflict between Britain and Ireland.

Production of a new, original play, The Mildred Files about a scandal involving the Academy's past interim director. The performance is part of the Academy's Women's Work Initiative, a multi-year series of events and productions focused on women in the performing arts.

A four-part reading and discussion group exploring the works of four pairs of authors who were known to have a complicated relationship with one another.

Preservation of the City of Lowell Division of Planning and Development Collection.

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.