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The two popular touring cultural programs that each year put hundreds
of live arts and humanities presentations in classrooms, libraries,
museums and on other public stages around Michigan are being combined,
effective Oct. 1, to simplify the process for community organizations
planning arts and humanities programs and in securing grant funds to
support them. The humanities council took over the Touring Arts program
in January.
Changes in the process for applicants for the 1998-2000 directory
include a $25 nonrefundable fee, which will help cover costs of publishing
listings in the directory and on the partnership web site, Michigan
Culture link, at
http://miculturelink.h-net.msu.edu.
An application form, available from the Council's Lansing office and
on the web site, outlines the process, criteria and materials to be
submitted with the application as well as criteria for including the work
of visual artists, museums, galleries and filmmakers. Panels of
humanities scholars and arts professionals will review applications and
make recommendations for directory listings to the humanities council.
Successful applicants will be notified by mid-June.
Applications for the combined Tour Directory in 1998-2000 are
available from the Michigan Humanities Council's Lansing office, 119 Pere
Marquette Dr. #3B, Lansing MI 48912-1270, or by call 517/372-7770 or
800/837-4532.
Seven Humanities Projects Get Mini Grant
Support
The Michigan Humanities Council has awarded Mini Grant funding to seven
projects for its winter application period. Among them, project support
went to a writer's appearance at a "Festival of Faith and Writing," a
community quilt exhibit and supporting services for an exhibition on "The
Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci."
Projects receiving funding are:
- A year-long series of public programs in the Chau deAngeli
Library in
Lapeer.
- An international studies enrichment program for
a
Jackson elementary school, coordinated by the Michigan State University
Extension
4-H Youth Programs office and its Jackson County 4-H
agent.
- Research and publication of a history of the Italian population of the
eastern Upper Peninsula, sponsored by the Chippewa-Luce-Mackinac
Community Action Authority of Sault Ste. Marie.
- A month-long
storytelling project in April with second through fourth graders at
Bloomingdale Public Schools in southwestern Michigan.
- A
nine-month exhibit, "Our Quilts: Collecting Colorful Memories," at the
Muskegon County Museum.
- The appearance of Harvard
University psychologist Robert Coles at Calvin College's annual "Festival of
Faith and Writing" in April.
- Curating assistance and audience
development support for the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Kresge Art Museum at Michigan
State University.
Mini Grants of up to $3,000 are awarded twice annually under the
current program initiative, "Creating Vision for the New Century: The
Humanities and the Strengthening of Michigan's Communities." The next
deadline for Mini Grant applications is June 15.
Larger grants of up to $12,000 are awarded under the "Collaborative
Projects in
Communities" grantline. The deadline for these grant applications is
April 15.
Applications for "Collaborative Projects" are available from the
Council's Lansing office or may be downloaded from its web site:
http://mihumanities.h-net.msu.edu/grants/index.html
for completion and mailing; electronic applications are not permitted.
Draft proposals may be submitted before April 1 for staff review and
comment. Contact Suzi Kyes or LuAnn Kern in the Lansing office to discuss
draft submissions.
 Check Out 'Michigan's Great Outdoors
Culture Tour'
This summer, visitors to some of Michigan's popular parks, campgrounds
and other tourist venues will experience something more than the state's
natural, recreational and scenic assets. A new outreach initiative,
"Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour," will relate some of the
colorful ethnic, historic, artistic and cultural legacy of northern
Michigan and the Great Lakes through a series of evening programs by
storytellers, musicians, historical interpreters and artists.
The July 1 to Aug. 15 tour is sponsored and
funded by the Michigan Humanities Council and the Michigan Council for
Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) and will feature programs from the
humanities council's Chautauqua Catalogue and the arts agency's Touring
Arts Directory. The project received an ACCESS grant from MCACA in
January.
Nearly 100 free programs will take place in
state parks, national forest campgrounds, national parks and at other
community sites in northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, hosted
by the Michigan Department of
Natural Resources, four National Forests in Michigan, Keweenaw National Historical Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and
community organizations.
The six-week tour is aimed at helping to
interpret the human experience in some of Michigan's most beautiful and
popular travel regions and showing the rich and diverse arts and cultural
heritage of the state. As a cultural tourism project, the initiative
parallels a new emphasis by the state's tourism office, Travel Michigan, of marketing the
state's "cultural/historical" assets to increase the numbers of tourists
coming here each year.
The full schedule of "Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour" sites and
dates is expected to be available in print and on-line in the councils'
calendar of events by May 1. For more information, contact Nancy Mathews
at the Michigan Humanities Council's northern office in Escanaba at
906/789-9471 or by e-mail paomihum@voyager.net.
Council Elects Three New
Members
Effective with the May 28-29 meeting of the Michigan Humanities Council
in Lansing, three new members join the 25-member board for four-year
terms. They are Julie Ellison of Ann Arbor, associate
vice president for research at the University of Michigan; Frank
Ettawageshik of Harbor Springs, tribal chairman of the Little
Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, and Molly Perry of Drummond
Island, director of the Marquette Mission Park and Museum of
Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace.
Julie Ellison has been a member of the University of Michigan faculty
since 1980 and gained her current administrative position in 1996; she is
also director of the university's 1997-98 observance of the Year of
Humanities and Arts. Her degrees include a B.A. in American history and
literature from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in English language and
literature from Yale University.
A former member of the Michigan Humanities
Council (1990-94), Frank Ettawageshik is a Native American storyteller and
potter, practicing traditional woodland pottery methods and utilizing
woodland designs. He has been active in northern Michigan arts
organizations and tribal activities and has served as a Chautauqua
presenter and team member for development of the Council's kit on the
culture of Great Lakes Indian peoples.
Molly Perry joined the St. Ignace museum in
1994 after serving in administrative positions with the Tri-Cities
Historical Museum of Grand Haven and the Rose Hawley Museum of Ludington;
in addition, she maintains her own non-profit management consulting
business, working with cultural and other non-profit organizations. She
holds B.S. degrees in agricultural and natural resources
communications/animal husbandry from Michigan State University and is
concluding studies for an M.B.A. from Lake Superior State University.
Nominations are accepted throughout the
year for Council membership of both public and academic representatives to
serve four-year terms. Members' responsibilities include participation in
three meetings of the Council each year at locations around Michigan,
program and proposal review, planning, fundraising, advocacy for the
public humanities, liaison to projects and other representation of the
Council.
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.
Apply Now to Host 'Barn Again!'
Exhibit
Applications are now being accepted by the Council for sites to host
the "Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon" traveling exhibit
when it comes to Michigan in 1999. "Barn Again!" is the second
exhibit from the Smithsonian
Institutions Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES) scheduled in
Michigan in as many years; the first, "Produce for Victory: Posters
on the American Home Front 1941-45," concludes its 1997-98 tour this
June (see related item). The new SITES tour will begin in September,
1999, and continue through the following spring.
"Barn Again!" examines the barn in the context of American
history and the evolution of American agriculture, delving into the origin
and development of its functions as an architectural structure and its
image as a cultural icon. Five lightweight sections comprise the
free-standing exhibit, accompanied by a scale model of an English barn and
popular cultural objects bearing the barn image. The exhibit requires
only 500 square feet of display space and travels in easy-to-handle
wheeled carts.
Assistant Director LuAnn Kern said SITES is encouraging applications
from small museums, historical societies and libraries in rural areas of
the state which do not have access to similar traveling exhibits due to
their size and the costs incurred. The Council and SITES are covering the
costs of shipping and rental for each successful applicant's two-month
exhibition period as well as providing support materials for installing
and publicizing the exhibit and $2,500 in grants to develop community
programming related to the exhibit's appearance.
Other criteria for a community to be considered to fill one of five
tour slots include a service area population of less than 50,000 and no
four-year college or university in the immediate vicinity. Host
institutions must also identify a staff member to coordinate local project
activities related to the exhibit's visit and provide up to $3,000 in
cost-share contribution to the project (either in-kind or cash).
Contact LuAnn Kern at the Council's Lansing office 800/837-4532 or
e-mail to lkernmihum@voyager.net for
details about the SITES exhibit and an application form. The deadline for
applications is March 31.
Conference to Explore Culture-Tourism
Links
An April 23 conference, "Culture and Tourism: A Template for Action,"
will launch a multi-year initiative of the Michigan Museums Association to
encourage collaboration between the cultural community and travel industry
in Michigan.
The statewide conference in Flint's Cultural Center will bring
together representatives of both groups to review the potential benefits
and opportunities for cultural and heritage tourism in the state,
according to Tamara Real, who is coordinating the MMA project which
recently received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library
Services (IMLS).
Keynoting the day's schedule will be
Rebecca Anderson of North Carolina's HandMade in America
program, speaking on "Tourism and Culture: What are the Realities, What
are the Possibilities?" Working sessions will acquaint tourism and
cultural representatives with the nuances of each others' industries and
generate ideas for regional cooperation to develop and market cultural
tourism programs.
Regional followup meetings will occur later this year to encourage
continued development of ideas and to monitor progress of initiatives
generated from the statewide conference. Ultimately, the project's goal
is to create a statewide cultural tourism communications network and
develop a "how-to" handbook to encourage joint cultural tourism efforts in
Michigan.
Registration fee for the conference is $40 by April 1; after that
date, the fee is $55. For more information or a full conference brochure,
contact Tamara Real at 734/677-8288, by fax at 734/677-8965 or by
e-mail getreal@pobox.com.
'Produce for Victory' Tour
Nearing Conclusion
With assistance from the Council, the Carnegie Center Council for the
Arts in Three Rivers is hosting the fourth Michigan appearance of the
Smithsonian traveling exhibit, "Produce for Victory: Posters on the
 American Home Front
1941-45," through April 25. The exhibit's
Michigan tour concludes in southeast Michigan with its May 2-June 28
appearance at the Port Huron Museum.
In Three Rivers, center director Tom
Lowry reports the exhibit was launched March 7 with a USO-theme
Canteen program, complete with swing music of the era, '40s-style clothing
and jitterbug lessons. A locally produced video of a veterans roundtable
discussion about the war and area residents' memorabilia from the war
years add a St. Joseph County flavor to the exhibit. Screening of
war-era films is scheduled for "Movie Night" March 28.
Prior to its arrival in Three Rivers, the
exhibit was on display at the Alpena County Library during January and at
the Otsego County Library in Gaylord during February.
In Alpena, about 90 sixth and eighth
graders were involved in an intergenerational oral history interview
project inspired by the exhibit which culminated in production of a book,
What Did You Do During the War, Grandma? They were among
some 3,500 youth reached by programming focused on the local community's
connections to World War II; they created posters, learned the jitterbug,
sampled foods of the '40s and prepared a time capsule containing
information about the war years. Other community activities created
around the exhibit included a "radio show" and USO dinner dance, showings
of the film "Rosie the Riveter," and an old hometown-style singalong.
Among programs undertaken in Gaylord was a special outreach to home
schooling students.
German Culture Kit to Debut in
Spring
A Michigan Week debut is being planned for the new German Culture Kits
by the Frankenmuth Historical Association, which is working with the
Michigan Humanities Council to produce the sixth ethnic unit in the
Council's culture kit series.
According to German kit project coordinator
Tracey Weber, among topics being developed are units on family
life; German states and national symbols; the country's history,
reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall; traditions of holiday
celebrations such as Christmas and Oktoberfest; Germans of achievement;
German religions and religious personages; foods of the culture, and
renown German composers and musicians. For information on the kits or the
reservation process, contact Weber at the Frankenmuth Historical
Association, 613 S. Main St., Frankenmuth, MI 48734, or telephone
517/652-9701.
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Meanwhile, the Native American unit,
"Native Peoples: Indians of the Great Lakes," is being previewed at
educator conferences in Michigan this spring and will be featured at a
teacher workshop July 23 in conjunction with the MSU Museum's Native quilt
exhibit, "To Honor and Comfort," which opens April 19.
For information on availability of the
"Native Peoples" culture kit, contact LuAnn Kern in the Council's Lansing
office.
Spotlight on Regional Council
Activities
April will be a busy month for the Grand Rapids Area Council for
the Humanities as it hosts its continuing "Life Journey With Books"
reading and discussion program series and a special evening of Irish
culture in cooperation with Aquinas College.
"Lessons for Living on Life Journey with
Books" begins April 2 with Angela's Ashes by Frank
McCourt, followed on April 16 with discussion of Solar
Storms by Linda Hogan and on April 30 with Ernest Gaines'
A Lesson Before Dying. The free morning programs begin at
9:30 a.m. at the East Grand Rapids Recreation Department. No registration
is required.
Two poets with Irish roots and a group of
Irish musicians are part of the regional council's program to "Celebrate
the Gifts of Ireland" April 9 at Aquinas College. Mary O'Malley, one of
Ireland's premier poets, and Thomas Lynch, an Irish-American poet and
author of the much acclaimed book, The Undertaking, will
be on hand to provide literary selections, while the group Amadaun will
entertain with the tunes and tales of Ireland. The celebration begins at
7:30 p.m. in the Classroom Building at Aquinas, complete with Irish beer
and sausage or tea and oatmeal cookies.
For details on either program in the Grand
Rapids area, contact the regional council's executive director, Linda
Samuelson, at 616/774-1776.
Learn about resources of the Humanities
Council of West Central Michigan, which is based in Big Rapids, on the
Michigan Humanities Council's web site
http://mihumanities.h-net.msu.edu/hcwcm.html.
On-line information about work done by this regional council in its
five-county service area covers its Speakers Bureau, Traveling Display
loans and other outreach programs such as its "Up and Down the River"
newspaper feature.
Contact its executive director, Elizabeth Czinder, at
616/796-9365
or hcwcm@tucker-usa.com for
more information on the regional council in west-central Michigan.
 Public Radio's Tamar Charney
Humanities/Arts Broadcasts Now
On-Line
Humanities and arts feature stories
originally aired by Public Radio stations in Michigan from the Arts and
Humanities Radio Project of Michigan Radio are now available on-line at
the partnership web site of the Michigan Humanities Council and the
Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
http://miculturelink.h-net.msu.edu.
Information for downloading audio software to hear these features is
provided at the site.
The radio project from which the on-line
selections are drawn is funded by the two councils to provide statewide
access to and visibility for the arts and humanities and is coordinated by
producer Tamar Charney. She reports that upcoming broadcast
segments on Public Radio stations statewide will focus on efforts to teach
children in Suttons Bay how to speak Odawa - a once widely spoken Native
American language - as well as the colorful history of Detroit's Pewabic
Pottery and the life and work of poet and University of Michigan professor
Richard Tillinghast.
In recent months, the project has
introduced Public Radio listeners to the creative life of 91-year-old
Gwen Frostic of Benzonia as well as the memories and writings of
Borka Tomljenovic of Michigan about her homeland, the former
Yugoslavia. Charney also looked into art history and the currently
popular surrealist art game, Exquisite Corpse, with Eastern Michigan
University professor Richard Rubenfield.
A new radio opportunity for discussion of
arts and humanities topics is the Todd Mundt Show which debuted in
February on Michigan Radio stations in Ann Arbor (WUOM), Flint (WFUM-FM)
and Grand Rapids (WVGR). It currently is heard on Fridays at 1 p.m. and
will expand to every weekday from 1 to 2 p.m. beginning April 13. Todd's
talk show interviews with authors, scientists, commentators and scholars
have already included Poet Laureate Robert Haas and University of
Michigan English professor and poet Laurence Goldstein; he also
will host live performances by artists, musicians and poets.
News From Our Projects
A 1994 photo and artifact exhibit project,
"The People, Culture and Architecture of West Africa," which debuted in
1995 at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, was on display
throughout January at the LuCille Tack Center for the Arts in Spencer, WI.
Programming around the exhibit included a
slide presentation and discussion with the exhibit's curators, Raymond
White and Mari Fleet, and workshops for students at Spencer
High School on West African art, culture and drumming.
* * * * *
The "Scribbling Women" radio dramatization
project has received a $140,000 Corporation for Public Broadcasting award
to develop an Internet component to its curriculum materials and to
provide teacher workshops this fall in three locations, including the
Oakland Schools in Oakland County as well as in Boston and Connecticut.
The project's web site, which will offer
RealAudio of the radio plays, is expected to be operational by mid-summer.
For more information, contact the project director, Valerie
Henderson at the Public Media Foundation, 100 Boylston St., Suite 230,
Boston MA 02116; by e-mail at pmf@ma.ultranet.com or by telephone
at 617/357-5835.
White House Opens 'Millennium
Evenings'
A series of lectures and cultural
showcases, "Millennium Evenings at the White House," hosted by
President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
has begun with the sponsorship of the National Endowment for the
Humanities and Sun Microsystems. The programs are intended to highlight
the creativity and inventiveness of the American people through the ideas,
art and scientific discoveries of prominent scholars, creators and
visionaries.
To date, two programs have taken place and
have been made accessible to the public via cybercast over the Internet
and broadcast via satellite, including to groups at downlink sites around
the country. Satellite coordinates are posted on the White House web page
http://www.whitehouse.gov several
days before the event; cybercast access is available from that page or
from Sun Microsystems web page http://www.sun.com. Programs may be
videotaped for future use.
On Feb. 11, historian Bernard Bailyn of Harvard University
spoke on "The Living Past
-- Commitments for the Future," followed on March 6 by physicist and
author Stephen
Hawking of Cambridge University in England, speaking on "Science in
the Next
Millennium."
Future programs in the series have not yet
been announced but will be listed on the Michigan Humanities Council web
site http://mihumanities.h-net.msu.edu
as notification arrives from NEH. Please check regularly for posting of
scheduled "Millennium Evening" programs.
Several Michigan community colleges which
are providing downlink service or sites, including Kalamazoo Valley
Community College in Kalamazoo and Bay de Noc Community College in
Escanaba; the Council is offering small support grants to cover downlink
fees and related costs in making these programs available to the public.
For more information, contact LuAnn Kern in the Council's Lansing office.
Library Projects
Announced
Special humanities projects have been
announced by two Michigan libraries, the Ann Arbor District Library and
the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative.
Funding from the National Endowment for the
Humanities is also supporting continuation of work on the Michigan
Newspaper Project by staff at the Library of Michigan. That project, part
of a national effort headed by the Library of Congress and NEH, is
identifying and cataloging all newspaper collections in state library
holdings.
At the local level, a "Touring Mideastern
Michigan's Libraries" program of enrichment activities and outreach to
library constituents of Genesee, Shiawassee, Oakland and Lapeer counties
got underway March 11 and continues through May 23. A series of afternoon
and evening presentations by Council-sponsored Chautauqua presenters will
take place over 10 weeks -- with the assistance of Humanities Resource
Grants -- in Flint, Perry, Lapeer, Durand, Almont, Owosso, Burton,
Flushing, Holly, Clio, Fenton, Jennings and Davison.
A special focus of these urban and rural
programs will be to utilize library facilities and live humanities
programs to encourage lifelong learning and parental involvement in their
children's education as well as appreciation of Michigan history and
culture.
In Ann Arbor, the district library is
preparing for its involvement in a national project, "From Rosie to
Roosevelt: A Film History of Americans in World War II," following its
selection as one of 20 participants by National Video Resources. The
viewing, reading and discussion program on the American experience during
this period in history is a joint effort of NVR, the NEH and the American
Library Association.
Details of the library's participation will
be available in early April following training for its project coordinator
Amy Cantu and scholar David Fitzpatrick. The library's
telephone number is 734/327-4200; its web site is http://www.annarbor.lib.mi.us.
Notes of Interest
The National Gallery of Art announces a
1998 Teacher Institute on Mythology, which will be offered in three
separate sessions July 13-18, July 27-Aug. 1 and Aug. 10-15. The program
will focus on Greco-Roman mythology, drawing on the gallery's permanent
collection of European art and examining select myths from African, Native
American and Asian cultures.
 Kitty
Donohoe at the UP Children's Museum
The institute is open to K-12 educators,
including teams of two-three teachers or administrators planning
collaborative efforts. The program enrollment fee is $200, and
applications are due by April 3. For an application, contact the
Department of Teacher and School Programs, National Gallery of Art, Sixth
and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20565, or leave address for
mailing at 202/842-6796.
* * * * *
Docent training sessions will be available
to interested volunteers from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the
University of Michigan, beginning in early September and continuing
through next March. Learn the truth about "The Curse of the Mummy" and
discover more about life in the ancient Mediterranean through the field of
archaeology and behind-the-scenes work at the museum. Call 734/647-0441
for more information.
* * * * *
Artist biographies for the 1998 Directory
of Michigan Artists are currently being solicited. To qualify, artists
must have work in permanent collections, show in juried art shows,
be represented by galleries or have won special awards or recognition for
their work. Submissions and questions should be directed to Marilyn
Fosberg, 11900 N. Brinton Road, Lake, MI 48632, or by telephone at
517/544-2455. Copies of the 1997 directory are also available from
Marilyn Fosberg.
* * * * *
Native American Public Telecommunications
is now offering AIROS public radio programming on Native American culture,
language and identity in RealAudio on its web site www.nativetelecom.org. Programs include:
"Native Sounds - Native Voices," a program of traditional and
contemporary music and stories; "Native America Calling," archived
segments from a daily call-in program, and "Native American Showcase,"
featuring the work of Native producers on Native American issues. For
details, contact AIROS at 800/571-6885 or email to airos@unlinfo.unl.edu.
* * * * *
The Institute for the Humanities at the
University of Michigan is hosting a five-part lecture series, "Textual
Property and the Common Good," focusing on copyright in literature, dance
and music. Programs are scheduled at noon on March 13 and 20 and April 3,
6 and 17 in 1524 Rackham. For more information, contact the institute at
734/936-3518 or by e-mail at humin@umich.edu; the institute's web
site is located at
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/humanities_institute.
* * * * *
Oral History Association awards this fall
will recognize outstanding work in the field of oral history. Categories
for recognition are: published article or essay using oral history to
advance an important historical interpretation or significant theoretical
or methodological issues; a completed oral history project on a
significant historical subject or theme showing excellence in methodology,
and a post-secondary educator involved in undergraduate, graduate,
continuing or professional education who has made outstanding use of oral
history in the classroom. To qualify, work must have occurred between
April 1, 1996, and March, 30, 1998.
Deadline for nominations is April 1.
Contact the Oral History Association, Baylor University, PO Box 97234,
Waco, TX 76798-7234, or e-mail to OHA_Support@Baylor; the OHA home page is
found at http://www.baylor.edu/~OHA/.
* * * * *
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