Past Grants Awarded

A series of humanities seminars offered to BPS teachers to enrich curriculum and humanities pedagogy.

Reading & Discussion Series

Egyptian art and artifacts on exhibit at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, 1/15/03 - 1/6/04, with related humanities programming.

Short documentary of portraits of people and institutions that reflect Northampton's diverse 350-year history.

The Fund for Women Artists will distribute a one hour documentary about Jane Sapp, a leader in cultural activism and music education workshops for 'at-risk' youth.

Massachusetts Center for the Book will plan a two-phase literary map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, both in-print and on-line.

Five public readings and discussions of Dante's Inferno plus an unspecified 'day-long event.'

Pre-production grant for a documentary exploring the Connecticut River log drives, 1868-1915.

Historic, interpretative installation to accompany the Korean War Memorial, extended until 10/31/02

An oral history project documenting the lives of men who earned livings working at the oldest continuously operating marine railway in the country.

Lecture on American Jewish music, including presentations by three scholars of Jewish music and history. The Zamir Chorale will sing works to illustrate the speakers' points.

Youth residents of Maverick Gardens public housing will attend formal photography training and lab courses, in order to then document images of their community, slated for demolition within the next few years. Photos will be displayed at Maverick Gardens, and a public space TBD.

A humanities panel discussion about the use of film in times of war.

Script development for a play, "GEE!," to be written by Natalie Ross Miller and based on the life of Gertrude Lawrence, one of the most celebrated actresses of the twentieth century. The play will be performed on the Gertrude Lawrence Stage at the Dennis Union Church in late August 2002.

Curriculum, lesson plans, and web site development relating to the radio play production of Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Flight of Betsey Lane", distributed by NPR in February/March 2002.

Series featuring books by Massachusetts authors: _Murder at the Gardner_ by Janet Langdon, _Pagoda_ by Patricial Powell, _Family Orchard_ by Nomi Eve, _Fortune's Rocks_ by Anita Shreve.

A film based on Jay Neugeboren's memoir about himself and his mentally ill brother, Robert. The film will provide the occasion to draw together people involved with mental health--family members, medical personnel, patients, police--to explore the impact of chronic mental illness on families.

A four-part lecture series, which is part of a larger observance commemorating the 400th anniversary of the landing of Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607) in the Buzzard's Bay region. The focus of the project is to foster connections between the past and the present, between the Native people who lived in the region and the Europeans who explored and settled there.

A series of professional development workshops for teachers using methods and curriculum materials developed by the Choices for the 21st Century Education Project at Brown University.

Two public forums on the opportunities and challenges presented by aging.

A 14-week course for nine youths and three community-based organizations' representatives with instruction on how to research, design, and implement public history projects in their own community.

Public performances by Gerald Dickens, great-great grandson of Charles Dickens, who visited Lowell in 1842. These performances, which combine history, literature, and biography in a unique one-man show format, will include new material about that visit gathered through the research of two humanities scholars. The performances will commemorate the 160th anniversary of Charles Dickens' visit to Lowell.

K-12 dissemination project aimed at upgrading on-line curriculum materials that use Cambodian traditional arts to promote understanding of Khmer culture in schools and communities across the state.

The dramatization of "Afterward," by Edith Wharton - one of the ten short stories included in the second Scribbling Women collection - and accompanying related curriculum and lesson plans.

A week-long teacher training institute in using selected documents from several recently opened collections collectively known as the Agents for Social Justice. The intent of this program is to provide the same level of engagement with the documents, scholarly background and curriculum support. The program will be geared for both middle and high school teachers.

A public program for general audiences by Richard Nelson emphasizing the importance of our having both physical and spiritual connections to the places that we live. The scholar will also address issues surrounding our allegiance to the American landscape and explore our connections and obligations towards the earth, leading to a possible redefinition of patriotism.

A week-long summer institute for middle and high school teachers aimed at helping teachers learn to conduct archival research so that they may enhance curricula in English Language Arts and New England social and cultural history from the 18th century through the 20th centuries. In addition, there will be a follow-up session and public presentation in the fall.

A 2001 summer poetry institute for Massachusetts educators, designed to affect lasting improvements to the teaching of poetry in Massachusetts schools. A 5-day program on Boston University's Charles River campus will immerse 50 teachers and administrators in the art of poetry, reinforcing their familiarity with a broad range of poems-contemporary authors and great authors of the past, both American and those from foreign cultures.

A two-year professional development initiative including a teacher training institute to introduce Massachusetts middle and high school teachers to major resources in African-American intellectual history.

Five performances of Charles Pace as Frederick Douglass in a Southern Massachusetts community.

A symposium with a featured speaker (Sylvia McDowell) on 19th century women activists. The event will focus on the visibility of diverse women activists in American history who varied in ideas and interests but helped to inspire positive social change.

A combination of theatrical performance by a professional actor and a facsimile/curriculum packet containing historic documents and graphic images from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society. The packet will contain background materials and lesson plans developed by classroom teachers from grades five through high school.

Preparations for the documentary, "Nantucket/Rock of Changes" for national broadcast by PBS. The films tells an important historical story relevant to our time: the African American whaling community of Nantucket and its fight for equal education two decades before the Civil War.

Pre-production for "Monkey Dance", a one hour documentary video following three Cambodian-American teenagers in the Angkor Dance Troupe of Lowell, Massachusetts. All three are leaders in their community who find positive solutions to challenges they face with poverty, gang violence, and ethnic identity. Their life stories will serve as a lens through which to examine issues of cultural identity, ethnic relations, and family bonds-and the role that traditional arts play in these arenas.

Completion of the production and post-productiion stages of a documentary "The North Adams Project: A Case Study for Industrial Transformation". This film is an hour long independent documentary that will examine the case of North Adams, former mill town in rural western Massachusetts, which is using a visionary arts initiative to break out of a long period of economic decline.

The completion of a one-hour documentary motion picture that examines the role of dissenting citizens as participants in the process of a democratic government. The film focuses on the Vietnam War veterans and Lexington townspeople who participated in an anti-war demonstration over the Memorial Dat weekend, May 1971.

A documentary that will explore the rich tradition of trapfishing along the Massachusetts coastline and consider the crisis of a fishery in jeopardy.

An exhibition about the former Northampton State Hospital to be viewed at the Center for the Arts in Northampton. The exhibition will focus on the historical and artistic aspects of the hospital through the selected works of the scholars involved in the project.

The preproduction funding for the research and development of a four-part radio documentary and internet website on blues composer and singer William "Bog Bill" Broonzy. The project will explore the connections between African-American social, economic and cultural history, the codification of the country blues between 1925 and 1940, and the influence of the blues on American popular music.

A site interpretation of a frontier colonial house and farm site.