34 nonprofits will explore questions about equality, democracy, immigration, Indigenous sovereignty, and more.
As preparations for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence continue, residents in Massachusetts are exploring the roots of the Revolution and its ongoing legacy in the commonwealth.
In October, Mass Humanities concluded its fifth round of the Expand Massachusetts Stories (EMS) initiative by providing $800,000 in grants to 46 cultural nonprofit organizations across Massachusetts. A special focus on the 250th, “Promises of the Revolution,” will deliver $600,000 in funding for 34 projects. The projects supported by the “Promises” grants include public events, documentary films, museum exhibitions and oral histories that reflect the memories and experiences of local residents past and present.
The grants will deliver funding to every region of the commonwealth, with more than two-thirds of funded organizations based outside metro Boston. These include:
- A new history of Revolutionary service and sacrifice by members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe;
- A podcast in Boston tracing LGBTQ+ leaders from the Revolution to the first Boston Pride, highlighting each generation’s ongoing pursuit of the promise that all people are created equal;
- A series of photography and storytelling workshops to help youth explore ancestry, migration, and identity in neighborhoods of Worcester;
- A public history documenting how Holyoke residents have lived out the ideals of the American Revolution—liberty, justice, self-governance, collective opportunity—for four generations
“The Revolution belongs to all of us,” said Brian Boyles, Executive Director of Mass Humanities. “We must work together to make its history and its values accessible and meaningful for every American. Communities across Massachusetts played important roles in the founding of our nation. We believe the projects funded by this year’s grants will illuminate the efforts that continue today to fulfill the promises of our democracy. The recipients of the 2026 Expand Massachusetts Stories grants deserve our thanks for rising to the meet the moment through local commemorations, the crafting of new narratives, and the courage to serve their local audiences.”
Since 2021, Mass Humanities has distributed $3.8 million in EMS grants with support from Mass Cultural Council and the Barr Foundation. The initiative creates opportunities for local organizations and audiences to delve into the past, record the experience of residents, and deepen public understanding of the ideas, events, and people who shape Massachusetts.
These grants come at a precarious time for cultural organizations of all types, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) terminated funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Institute of Museum and Library Services in April. Mass Humanities lost 35% of its annual operating budget, more than $1.3 million, as a result.
The Expand Massachusetts Stories grants complete Mass Humanities’ funding cycle for 2025, in which the foundation delivered more than $1.2 million in direct support to nonprofits.
“Democracy depends on storytelling,” said Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council. “Through the Expand Massachusetts Stories program, local artists, historians, and cultural organizations are lifting up the voices and experiences that define ‘We the People.’ Their work helps us understand our shared history and strengthen the civic fabric of the commonwealth, and we are proud to support this important initiative led by Mass Humanities.”
“The power of stories is evident in the success of the Expand Massachusetts Stories program,” said SueEllen Kroll, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation. “We are proud to help grow EMS from a pilot into a core program that has supported so many different communities to tell and share their own stories. What a powerful time at the nation’s 250th anniversary to examine the promises of the Revolution. I look forward to learning how our diverse residents interpret Massachusetts’ very important role in the American Revolution for today.”
Mass Humanities celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. The foundation serves as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A full list of grants by region is provided below.
For more information, contact Wes DeShano, communications manager, at wdeshano@masshumanities.org or 413-203-6241, ext. 102.
Berkshires
Grantee: Stockbridge Library Association
Location: Stockbridge
Project title: Stockbridge 250: A Day in Revolutionary Stockbridge
Grant: $5,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://stockbridgelibrary.org/
Project summary: “Stockbridge 250” is a day of historical interpretation & education, focusing on the role of Stockbridge & the Berkshires in the early stages of the Revolution. The day will include presentations on the Knox Noble Train of Artillery; supplying the army; and historical interpreters portraying townsfolk of the era. Mass Humanities funds will support travel, accommodation & stipends for 2 members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community who will offer a presentation on their ancestors and the Revolutionary War.
Cape and Islands
Grantee: Old Indian Meeting House Authority
Location: Mashpee
Project title: MWT – Promises Broken Sacrifices Made
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/old-indian-meeting-house
Project summary: “Promises Broken, Sacrifices Made” is a multi-format public history initiative led by the Mashpee Old Indian Meeting House Authority (MOIMHA), exploring Mashpee Wampanoag experiences of broken treaties, forced removals, and cultural resilience in the centuries following the American Revolution. The project will examine how the promises of liberty and equality were denied to Indigenous peoples—and how Mashpee citizens have continued to assert sovereignty and cultural continuity.
Grantee: Nutahkeemun Artist Collective
Location: Mashpee
Project title: Writing Liberation
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.wampanoagnationsingersanddancers.com/nutahkeemun-artist-collective.html
Project title: “Writing Liberation” is a writers’ group for Wampanoag women and two-spirit individuals, examining issues of personal and cultural freedom, reclamation and re-storying from a life-giving and life-affirming perspective. The grant will support participant honorariums, meeting and retreat costs and public panel discussion and readings that nurture the writers’ vision and unique perspective.
Central Massachusetts
Grantee: Don Claude LLC
Location: Worcester
Project title: Storytelling in the Digital Age
Grant: $18,909
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.donclaude.com/1
Project title: Storytelling in the Digital Age is a youth-led photography and storytelling project exploring ancestry, migration, and identity in Worcester’s neighborhoods. Jubilee SYAS will use the grant to support workshops guiding youth in creating visual diaries, research assistance, design and printing of exhibition materials, and honoraria for guest speakers who will help reimagine narratives of family, place, and belonging, voices often excluded from traditional histories.
Connecticut River Valley
Grantee: The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
Location: Amherst
Project title: The Precious Things We Share
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://carlemuseum.org/
Project summary: “The Precious Things We Share” is the first exhibition to celebrate Indigenous picture book art and showcase how Native peoples around the U.S. have used art and storytelling to pursue the Revolution’s long overdue promise of life, liberty, and happiness. Mass Humanities funds will be used to engage with tribal communities in Massachusetts on development of the 2027 exhibit and on a series of public programs for Massachusetts audiences during 2026 and January 2027.
Grantee: Historic Northampton
Location: Northampton
Project title: Native Strategies: Tracking the Life Choices Made by Indigenous Families in Western Massachusetts During the American Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.historicnorthampton.org/
Project summary: The “Native Strategies” project highlights the life choices made by Indigenous families in Western Massachusetts amid the social and military chaos of the American Revolution. The public programs resulting from the project’s research – essays, lectures, walking tours, and staged readings of two specially created plays – will offer an in-depth and inclusive narrative of how Native American people experienced the American Revolutionary period and the strategies they used to survive it.
Grantee: Historic Deerfield
Location: Deerfield
Project title: A Town Divided: Deerfield in the Age of Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.historic-deerfield.org/
Project summary: “A Town Divided: Deerfield in the Age of Revolution” will explore how a rural Massachusetts community responded to the upheaval of the 1770s–80s. Using objects, documents, and personal narratives, the exhibition will present multiple perspectives on how residents embraced, rejected, or questioned Revolutionary ideals. The grant will support object conservation, exhibition design, installation, case construction, and printed panels and graphics.
Grantee: Valley Arts Mentors
Location: Holyoke
Project title: Revolutionary Art Stories: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Equity
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://artsmentors.org/
Project summary: Revolutionary Art Stories: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Equity is a mentorship cohort, exhibit, community celebration and documentary film project inspired by artwork created by participants in Valley Arts Mentors 2026 cohort on the theme of “Promises of the American Revolution.” Valley Arts Mentors will use Mass Humanities funds to support cohort curriculum design, research, exhibit materials, honoraria for speakers and scholar stipends.
Grantee: Nueva Esperanza
Location: Holyoke
Project title: We the People of Holyoke
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://nuevaofholyoke.org/
Project summary: “We the People of Holyoke” is a public humanities project that explores how Holyoke residents across four centuries have lived out and expanded upon the ideals of the American Revolution—liberty, justice, self-governance, and the pursuit of collective opportunity. Through the stories of individuals from the Revolutionary era to the present day, this project illuminates the city’s ongoing work to realize the Revolution’s promises for all its residents.
Greater Boston
Grantee: Castle of our Skins
Location: Roxbury
Project title: And, Perhaps, To Bloom
Grant: $9,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.castleskins.org/
Project summary: “And, Perhaps, to Bloom” is a concert program exploring the Great Migration: the period between 1916 and 1970 where Black people fled the rural South in mass exodus, seeking homes in the urban West, Midwest, and Northeast. Drawing its name from the words penned in Black author Richard Wright’s autobiography “Black Boy,” the program will take place on May 3, 2026 at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.
Grantee: Community Art Center
Location: Cambridge
Project title: Trilogy of The Black Patriot: And The Story of Parting Ways
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.communityartcenter.org/
Project summary: Trilogy of The Black Patriot: And The Story of Parting Ways is a short documentary told in three parts; it focuses on the lesser-told story of Plymouth, Massachusetts, that of the Black Revolutionary soldiers who ultimately formed a settlement of freedmen not far from the more well-known stories of Plymouth, MA. Mass Humanities will support Community Art Center’s Teen Media Program to complete a documentary that illuminates the history of Black American Revolutionary soldiers in Mass.
Grantee: Somerville Museum
Location: Somerville
Project title: Land/Mark: The History of Mark, Phillis and Phoebe
Grant: $5,700
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.somervillemuseum.org/
Project summary: “Land/Mark” is a set of panel discussions co-sponsored by the Somerville Museum and the Royall House and Slave Quarters exploring themes of the country’s 250th anniversary including freedom, resistance, enslavement and legal inheritance before and during the American Revolution in 18th century Massachusetts through the story of Mark, Phillis and Phoebe. The grant will support promoting and producing the events as well as honoraria and travel expenses for the speakers.
Grantee: Concord Museum/Concord Antiquarian Society
Location: Concord
Project title: Revolutionary Legacies
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://concordmuseum.org/
Project summary: “Revolutionary Legacies” is an exhibition and public program series that explores how Concord’s role in the American Revolution has been remembered, reinterpreted, and commemorated over the past 250 years. Through new research, and by highlighting underrepresented perspectives, including Indigenous voices, the exhibit explores national myths, shifting understandings of liberty and identity, and the power of commemoration in shaping American memory.
Grantee: Company One
Location: Boston
Project title: Community-building, workshops, and discussions around “THE GREAT PRIVATION (How to flip ten cents into a dollar)”
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://companyone.org/
Project summary: Community-building activities will explore themes of the legacies of medical exploitation, Black genealogy, and archiving local memory in conjunction with “THE GREAT PRIVATION (How to flip ten cents into a dollar),” an ambitious new inter-city co-production between Company One and Woolly Mammoth in Washington D.C. Mass Humanities funds will provide support for professional fees, honoraria, supplies, and promotional materials and outreach for supplementary humanities-based programs in Boston.
Grantee: Silence Dogood Project
Location: Boston
Project title: The Silence Dogood Project: Precedented Times Series
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://silencedogoodproject.com
Project summary: Silence Dogood’s Precedented Times series is a set of public discussions and participatory projection-mapped installations at historic Massachusetts sites linking past revolutionary ideals to present struggles. Funds will be used to support speaker and humanities advisor honoraria, facilitation of discussions, and research, design, and installation of the culminating public projection. The grant will support research, design, and production for a series of 6 installations.
Grantee: Queer History Boston
Location: Boston
Project title: Queering the Revolution
Grant: $13,299
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.historyproject.org/
Project summary: “Queering the Revolution” is a new podcast profiling revolutionary trailblazers in the Massachusetts LGBTQ+ community from the American Revolution to the first Boston Pride, highlighting each generation’s ongoing pursuit of the promise that all people are created equal. The History Project will use Mass Humanities funds to support research, content development, recording equipment, podcast media hosting, and compensation for an audio producer.
Grantee: WordPowered (formerly WriteBoston)
Location: Jamaica Plain
Project title: Teens in Print Special Issue: Promises of the Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.wordpowered.org/
Project summary: Teens in Print Special Issue: Promises of the Revolution requests support to create a magazine showcasing perspectives from Boston’s youth on the promises made in the Declaration of Independence. Students in Teens in Print will reflect on how these promises manifest in Boston and its people. Funding will support student stipends, staff salaries, and food costs, as well as the costs of designing, publishing, and distributing the magazine.
Grantee: Society of King’s Chapel
Location: Boston
Project title: Journey Toward Reconciliation: A Memorial to Enslaved Persons at King’s Chapel
Grant: $19,965
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.kings-chapel.org/
Project summary: Journey Toward Reconciliation: A Memorial to Enslaved Persons at King’s Chapel honors the 219 known individuals enslaved by past members and ministers. Through public history, art, and community engagement, the initiative seeks to expand education, promote healing, and center descendant voices and experiences. The grant will provide support for interpretive programming that fosters a truthful, inclusive, and reparative understanding of this history.
Grantee: Cambridge Women’s Center
Location: Cambridge
Project title: CAMBRIDGE WOMEN TALKIN’ BOUT A REVOLUTION : 1971 & 2026
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.cambridgewomenscenter.org/
Project summary: Cambridge Women Talkin’ Bout A Revolution is a storytelling and public history project exploring the 1971 women’s march and takeover of a Harvard-owned building at 888 Memorial Drive that led to the founding of the longest continuously operating women’s center in the US. Mass Humanities funding will provide support for public events that include screenings of Left on Pearl, panels, and a photography/storytelling exhibit featuring intergenerational women talkin’ bout revolutions of 1971 and today.
Grantee: New Beginnings Reentry Services
Location: Boston
Project title: Echoes of a Promise: Reclaiming Freedom — From Chains to Change
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.newbeginningsreentryservices.org/
Project summary: Echoes of a Promise: Reclaiming Freedom From Chains to Change is a multimedia humanities project exploring freedom in Massachusetts, past, present, and future. Mass Humanities funds will help provide support for research, exhibits,, a short film, honoraria for artists and advisors, and community circles on justice and liberation
Grantee: Essex Art Center
Location: Lawrence
Project title: Labor, Lawrence, and the Promises of the Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.essexartcenter.org/
Project summary: Labor, Lawrence, and the Promises of the Revolution is a 10-week visual arts program for high school students at Essex Art Center that explores the legacies of the American Revolution through the lens of the Industrial Revolution in Lawrence. The program will result in a series of zines. Essex Art Center will use grant funds to support for stipends for teens, printing materials, compensation for teaching artist and humanities advisor, costs for field trips, installation and participatory programming.
Metro West
Grantee: Natick Historical Society
Location: Natick
Project title: Natick in the American Revolution
Grant: $12,250
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.natickhistoricalsociety.org/
Project summary: “Natick in the American Revolution” will bring together researchers and teachers to create a traveling memorial, online exhibit, secondary-school archive-in-a-box project, and community event to recognize Natick’s Revolutionary War soldiers. Mass Humanities funds will provide support for a diverse team of independent researchers and teachers to provide the foundational work for the memorial, archive-in-a-box, online exhibit, and community event.
Grantee: Golden Ball Tavern Museum
Location: Weston
Project title: Lost Liberties – Broken Promises
Grant: $5,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.goldenballtavern.org/
Project summary: History is written by the victors—but what of the overshadowed, whose fates were sealed by forces beyond their control? The Golden Ball Tavern Museum, a historic site in Weston, MA, is committed to illuminating the “broken promises” of the American Revolution. With your support for the design, printing and speakers, we will launch “Lost Liberties”, a yearlong exhibit focusing on the enslaved, indigenous, displaced Loyalists, and veterans of Weston who were on the wrong side of history.
Northeast
Grantee: Essex National Heritage Commission
Location: Salem
Project title: Untold Voices of Essex County’s Revolutionary Maritime History
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://essexheritage.org/
Project summary: “Untold Voices of Essex County’s Revolutionary Maritime History” is a research and humanities driven digital exhibit focusing on the contributions of Black individuals and women during the American Revolution. Designed to complement an upcoming in-person exhibit and educational programming developed by Essex Heritage and Salem Maritime National Historical Park for 2026–27, the project will expand public access and deepen understanding of these significant and mostly untold stories.
Grantee: Town of Marblehead
Location: Marblehead
Project title: We Were There: Reclaiming the Histories of Black and Indigenous Marbleheaders in the Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://marbleheadma.gov/
Project summary: “We Were There” is an exhibit and education initiative exploring the lives of Black and Indigenous, enslaved and free, who served in the Revolutionary War. The Town of Marblehead, in partnership with the Marblehead Museum and Marblehead Public Schools, will use grant funds to expand a permanent exhibit and co-develop an inclusive curriculum aligned with state frameworks, highlighting these underrepresented local histories.
Grantee: Merrimack Valley Young Men’s Christian Association
Location: Lawrence
Project title: Historias Revolucionarias de Inmigrantes en Lawrence / Revolutionary Stories of Immigrants in Lawrence
Grant: $10,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://mvymca.org/
Project summary: Historias Revolucionarias de Inmigrantes en Lawrence/Revolutionary Stories of Immigrants in Lawrence is an oral history project conducted by Lawrence teens highlighting extraordinary lives of senior Dominican residents in Lawrence and their contributions to this vibrant city’s culture and revitalization. MVYMCA will use grant funds to provide support for teens who will select interviewees, research, prepare questions, interview, create a 15 minute oral history video, honoraria for Humanities advisor and view party.
Grantee: Newburyport Preservation Trust
Location: Newburyport
Project title: The 6th Annual William Lloyd Garrison Lecture; A Conversation with Renee Graham, Boston Globe Associate Editor and Columnist, on the Evolution of Equality for All
Grant: $650
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://nbptpreservationtrust.org/
Project summary: The Annual Garrison Lecture is held to raise awareness about themes proposed by Newburyport native, journalist, abolitionist, and suffragist, Garrison, and relate them to modern issues, especially around diversity, race, gender, and inclusion. This year’s lecture is entitled, “A Conversation with Renee Graham, Boston Globe Associate Editor and Columnist, on the Evolution of Equality for All.” Mass Humanities funds will provide support for the honoraria for this speaker and printing costs for flyers and a program.
Grantee: The Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition
Location: Malden
Project title: Everyday Revolutions: AAPI Voices of Greater Malden Reclaiming the Promise of the American Revolution
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.gmaacc.org/
Project summary: Everyday Revolutions” uplifts untold AAPI stories in Greater Malden, reimagining the promises of the American Revolution—freedom, justice, and self-determination—through everyday acts of resilience. Using methods from Theatre of the Oppressed and storytelling, participants explore power, identity, and belonging through workshops and performances. The project centers intergenerational storytelling and community action to expand who is included in the vision of “We the People.”
Grantee: Debra Farrar-Parkman, Filmmaker
Location: Dorchester
Project title: The Final Letter: Reed Peggram’s Harrowing Quest To Belong
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.korsiconsulting.com/about/our-team/debra-farrar-parkman
Project summary: “The Final Letter” is a docudrama based on the letters of Reed Peggram written to his family while he was a Harvard doctoral student in Paris when World War II erupted. By this time, the gay Black Bostonian was in love and attempted to remain in Europe and weather the war before he and his lover were caught and imprisoned in an Italian concentration camp. Funds will be used to produce the film to open up a shared dialogue about racism, homophobia and anti-semitism and its relevance to today.
Grantee: Aquinnah Cultural Center
Location: Aquinnah
Project title: The Aquinnah Wampanoag Oral History Project: Maintaining Our Sovereignty
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.aquinnah.org/
Project summary: The Aquinnah Wampanoag Oral History Project: Maintaining Our Sovereignty is a year-long archiving initiative and exhibit that gathers Aquinnah Wampanoag elders’ stories about the Tribe’s ongoing fights for self-determination and sovereignty on Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard island). Mass Humanities funding will support oral history collection, accessioning belongings, exhibit development, programming, and staff labor.
Grantee: Ohketeau Cultural Center
Location: Rowley
Project title: Into The Circle
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://www.ohketeau.org/
Project summary: ‘Into the Circle’ is a public conversation series featuring Indigenous scholars, change makers and historians to speak about issues and stories from the American Revolution forward that affect Massachusetts’ peoples. Mass Humanities funding will support honorariums, event costs, documentation and administrative management.
Southeast
Grantee: SOFAFEA (Society of First African Families of English America)
Location: South Dartmouth
Project title: “Revolutionary Massachusetts: Stories of Promise and Progress”
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://sofafea.org/
Project summary: “Revolutionary Massachusetts: Stories of Promise and Progress is a series of arts and literature workshops, student presentations, and a publication highlighting African, Afro-Indigenous, and Indigenous patriots of the American Revolution. Mass Humanities funds will provide support for workshops, student training, publication costs, and honoraria for community and civil rights leaders.”
Grantee: Belsali Photo and Video
Location: New Bedford
Project title: “Migrants in the USA: A Journey in Search of a Happy Life”
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Project summary: “Migrants in the U.S.: A Journey in Search of a Happy Life” is a 20-minute documentary and community event about migrants who come to New Bedford in search of a better life, a core value of the American Revolution. The documentary will document their daily lives, their resilience, and recent challenges, such as the impact of ICE raids. Mass Humanities funds will provide support for the production of the documentary, honoraria for the humanities advisor and panelists, and logistics for the community event.
Grantee: Casa dos Acores da Nova Inglaterra
Location: Fall River
Project title: Fabric Arts Festival presents CALAFONAS – MUSIC OF THE AZOREAN AND PORTUGUESE DIASPORA (1970–1980)
Grant: $20,000
Category: Promises of the Revolution
Website: https://casasdosacores.org/en/casas-dos-acores/casa-dos-acores-da-nova-inglaterra/
Project summary: Calafonas: Music of the Azorean and Portuguese Diaspora (1970–1980) is a transdisciplinary project centered on a documentary, music compilation, exhibition, and public programs. It tells the stories of Azorean and Portuguese immigrant musicians, exploring identity, belonging, and working-class life, while challenging dominant narratives by placing their cultural expressions at the center of conversations on liberty, representation, and resistance.
