A Hollywood screenwriter-producer with Michigan ties, Patrick S. Duncan, will add his voice to those endorsing federal support for the arts and humanities in a public lecture, Thursday, Sept. 25, in Lansing. His talk, "Courage Under Fire: Upholding the Arts and Humanities," is sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council in cooperation with its alumni group. His speech adopts the title of one of his most well-known films to make the case for cultural funding, which has been a perennial target of Congressional budget cutters in recent years. Duncan's public lecture at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing will begin at 7:45 p.m. and will be followed by questions and answers.
He will receive the Distinguished Humanities Service Award from the Michigan Humanities Council in ceremonies preceding the talk. Earlier in the afternoon, Duncan will speak with members of the Council and its new alumni group about funding for the humanities and the making of his 1996 hit movie, "Mr. Holland's Opus." Duncan, one of the film industry's most prolific and successful writers, is best known for his two 1996 box office hits, "Courage Under Fire" and "Mr. Holland's Opus," which brought an Oscar nomination for its star, Richard Dreyfus, as well as "The Nick of Time," a 1995 suspense film starring Johnny Depp. Courage Under Fire appeared in novel form in 1996.
The eldest of 12 children of a migrant farm worker, Duncan is a Texas native who traveled through seven states in his youth before settling with his family in west Michigan. A 1974 history graduate of Grand Valley State College (now university) in Allendale, Duncan moved to Los Angeles in 1976 to pursue a screenwriting career and added film and television movie production and direction to his credentials in the 1980s. In 1996, he established Screen Writer Quarterly, a magazine for members of his profession. For more information on his speech, contact the Council office in Lansing at 800/837-4532 or via e-mail at mihum@voyager.net.
'PRODUCE FOR VICTORY' TOUR OPENS. More than 50 years ago, the American public was locked in a struggle as defining as that faced by its armed forces on the battlefields in Europe and the Pacific. The American "home front" response to that national challenge will be celebrated in Michigan over the coming 10 months in a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit, "Produce for Victory -- Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-1945," sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council. The exhibit opened Sept. 7 for a two-month showing at the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center in Escanaba. Upon its conclusion there Oct. 26, it will travel to Grand Haven at the Tri Cities Historical Museum Nov. 6-Dec. 27; Alpena at the Alpena County Library Jan. 5-31, 1998; Gaylord at the Otsego County Library Feb. 3-27; Three Rivers at the Carnegie Center Council for the Arts March 6-April 26; and Port Huron at the Port Huron Museum May 2-June 28.
Each site is researching local, regional and state efforts during World War II to recall the community spirit, contributions and sacrifices that marked home front America of the early to mid-1940s. That research will supplement the Smithsonian materials during the tour with auxiliary exhibits, lectures and discussion groups, re-creations of patriotic events and conservation drives and other nostalgic and educational activities that bring to life the period's USO dances, victory gardens, "fireside chats" and generally frugal lifestyle. Support for developing the "Produce for Victory" exhibition was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution Special Exhibition Fund. For more information on "Produce for Victory," call the office at 800/837-4532 or check our web site: http://mihumanities.h-net.msu.edu.
COUNCIL MEMBER HEADS FEDERATION. As the national Federation of State Humanities Councils marked its 20th anniversary Sept. 5-7 in Washington, its House of Delegates elected Marilyn L. Williamson of West Bloomfield, a long-time member of the Michigan Humanities Council, as its Chair for the coming two years. Williamson, a member of the Federation's board of directors and its treasurer since 1995, became the second member of the Michigan council to serve in that role; the first was Jacob E. Nyenhuis of Holland, now provost at Hope College and also a current Council member. Her service to the Michigan council since 1988 has included terms as its secretary-treasurer and chair as well as work on its Executive Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. A native of Illinois and Distinguished Professor emerita and former provost of Wayne State University, she joined the WSU faculty in 1972 as professor in the Department of English where she taught until her retirement in June.
HUMANITIES-ARTS SERIES REPORT. The concluding meeting of the "Arts and Humanities: Partners at the Threshold of the 21st Century" series of regional forums occurred Sept. 12 in Lansing. A report of the findings from the three regional meetings was presented by the joint arts-humanities steering committee and opportunities to advance the partnership of the Michigan Humanities Council and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs were presented for audience discussion. Joining state participants as speaker at the noon luncheon was Jim Bower, project manager of the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, who spoke on "Humanities and Arts on the Information Highway." Anyone interested may request a copy of the final report from the Lansing office.
NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP. Wanted: nominees to fill six vacancies on the 25-member Michigan Humanities Council. The Council seeks both public and academic representatives to serve four-year terms. Members' responsibilities include participation in three meetings of the Council at locations around Michigan, program and proposal review, planning, fundraising, advocacy for the public humanities, liaison to projects and other representation of the Council. Geographic areas which will be without members on the Council in the near future include the Upper Peninsula and northeast and southwest Lower Michigan. Nominations of members from minority populations of those regions are particularly encouraged. For more information, contact Ronald Means, executive director, at the Council's Lansing office: 800/837-4532. Submit nominations to the Membership Committee, Michigan Humanities Council, 119 Pere Marquette Dr #3B, Lansing MI 48912-1270 or faxed to that address at 517/372-0027.
MINI GRANTS AWARDED. Ten humanities projects have received Mini Grant support from the Michigan Humanities Council totalling $26,825 for the June deadline under its 1997-98 program, "Creating Vision for the New Century: The Humanities and the Strengthening of Michigan's Communities." The projects include one to Artspectrum of Detroit for "Jookin' - An American Afrikana Suite" to research, choreograph and produce a dance suite exploring the history of blues and social/vernacular dances of the "Swing Era" (1920s-1950s); two separate projects to produce video resources on dance: "Kinkini" (Traditional Culture of India - Dance) by Malini's Dances of India in Ann Arbor, capturing India's tradition of dance, music and culture in two educational videotapes and accompanying study guides, and a half-hour documentary-style video, "The Birth of a Dance," by Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers of Kalamazoo to explore the process of creating a dance work; two related projects focused on the centennial of writer Ernest Hemingway's birth in 1999 by the Michigan Hemingway Society of Petoskey and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, IL. -- a traveling exhibition, "Ernest Hemingway: The Man, the Writer, the Myth," and a documentary film, "Hemingway Before Paris"; "Writers Live at the Library" for appearances by two contemporary writers -- poet Mary Jo Salter and poet-novelist Brad Leithauser -- at Birmingham's Baldwin Public Library in October; a award to the Michigan Historic Preservation Network to produce a cultural map for a northern Michigan segment of its developing cultural tourism project, "Sweetwater Trail"; for an extension of the "Ojibwe Language Course" of the Nokomis Learning Center of Okemos; an exhibition, "Cultural Reflections: Contemporary Inuit Art," at the Art Center of Battle Creek on the creative work of the Inuit people of the Canadian Arctic; and a series of lectures, "The African American Image: Lessons for the Next Millennium," to probe the traditions, heritage and perspectives of African Americans in an historical context at Wayne State University, the project of the Plowshares Theatre Company of Detroit. Deadlines for Mini Grant awards of up to $3,000 are Jan. 15 and June 15.
For a listing of humanities events happening September-January see the Fall Newsletter Calendar [an error occurred while processing this directive]