Summer 2001

Calendar

Exhibits

• 2001 Culture Tour Ready To Roll
• "Yesterday's Tomorrows" at Tecumseh & Ironwood This Summer
• The Culture of Economy - From the Director
• Touring Grants To Fund 428 Cultural Presentations This Summer
• Council Welcomes Two New Members, Two Returnees
• Public Meeting/Grant Writing Workshop on August 8
• Collaborative Grants Fund Six Projects
• National Folk Festival's Sunset Year in Michigan
• Council Staff Reorganizes, Hires New PR Officer
• Resources At Your Fingertips
• Sylvia Meloche Wins NewsBytes Drawing!
• Full Steam Ahead on New Council Grants

2001 Culture Tour Ready To Roll

Tourists and Michigan residents can once again sample the unique history and culture of Michigan's northwoods this summer at its National Forests, National Parks, State Parks, community parks and historic sites in northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. Ninety-four live evening interpretive programs July 1-Aug. 14 on Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour will bring music, stories, historical characters and cultural interpreters to these locations to increase awareness of the colorful people, events, legend and lore of northern Michigan.

Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour, a partnership cultural tourism project of Michigan Humanities Council and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, has also gained national attention this spring as a model for developing heritage interpretation opportunities in cooperation with national, state and local natural resource agencies and cultural organizations.
In April, the Culture Tour concept was featured in presentations to audiences at the National Council on Public History, Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and Northeast Recreation Research conferences in Ottawa, Canada; Omaha, NE, and upstate New York.

Each summer since 1998, musicians, storytellers, historical roleplayers, dancers, artists and cultural interpreters have toured northern Michigan, telling tales of lumberjacks and miners, singing ballads of mariners on the "inland seas" and voyageurs of long ago, relating stories of immigrant settlers and the living culture and traditions of Native Americans - all surrounded by the wonders of the state's great outdoors. The tour's free programs attracted more than 8,500 visitors and local residents at popular vacation venues last summer.

A complete schedule of this summer's 20 Culture Tour presenters' tour stops is available on-line at http://michiganhumanities.org/culturetour or in a brochure from the Council's offices; call 800/837-4532 or 906/789-9471 for a copy. Then, round up the family for engaging evenings of fun and educational insights into Michigan's northwoods and Great Lakes culture. All programs begin at 7 p.m. and are offered "rain or shine," with sheltered locations in inclement weather.

The six-week tour will be recognized nationally this summer as one of 25 cultural tourism "success stories" in a "Share Your Heritage" publication of the Heritage Tourism Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

According to Amy Webb, director of the Heritage Tourism Program of the National Trust, the Culture Tour will be featured for collaborative partnerships it has developed between the state arts and humanities councils and a wide range of local, state and national organizations which have led to the program's success.

Contact Nancy Mathews, Culture Tour coordinator, at 906/789-9471 or e-mail paomihum@voyager.net for information.

Yesterday's Tomorrows At Tecumseh & Ironwood
This Summer

High-speed rail, computers, home airplane runways, Blade Runner, flying tanks, space stations, jet packs, robots, … you can see it all at the Smithsonian Institution's "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future" touring exhibit as it swings through Michigan this summer. The Tecumseh Area Historical Society in Lenawee County is hosting the exhibit through June 24, before it travels to Ironwood on July 7, Rogers City on September 5 and Leland on November 4.

The 19th century to the present is the setting for the "Yesterday's Tomorrows" exhibit, as it explores the popular expectations about what the future held for those of their time. The exhibit, sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council with support from Meijer, examines advertising, media, entertainment, and messages from popular culture over the past two centuries. Viewers are encouraged to examine what lies ahead by reviewing what many long ago thought would be typical today - especially in the roles of transportation, community lifestyles, housing and daily life.

Greenville's hosting the first leg of the Michigan tour was a resounding success. During the exhibits tenure in April, the Flat Rivers Historical Society hosted lectures on religion, ethics and law of the future. A time capsule celebration "capped off" the exhibit on April 29 in Greenville.

A gala concert and awards ceremony on May 13 helped welcome the opening of the exhibit in Tecumseh, led by the Michigan Chamber Brass performing John Williams' Star Wars and other futuristic music scores. A six-event lecture series continues through the end of June, including discussions of the future of architecture and automobiles, community planning, as well as the dramatically changing futuristic viewpoint from American literature. For more information, link to the website of the Tecumseh Area Historical Society at http://historictecumseh.com.

An open house on July 7 is planned to kick off the exhibit at the Ironwood Theatre. Among the wide variety of activities include: a children's theatre presentation of "Sleeping Beauty;" Silent Movie Lobby Card and Poster Collection; special Friday matinees; a classic car auto show; theatre artifacts and memorabilia; and the viewing and discussion led by local college staff of "Metropolis," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Blade Runner."

The tour meanders to the Presque Isle County Historical Museum in Rogers City on September 12; a SITES gala reception hosted by the museum will be held on August 25, at which school contests will be awarded in the categories of art, science and writing. The last stop on the tour will be at the Leelanau Historical Museum in Leland beginning on November 4; a screening of the sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet" and a "Transportation of Tomorrow" design contest are among the many activities planned.

This is the third exhibition of its kind to tour Michigan under the Museum on Main Street Partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). "Yesterdays Tomorrows" is part of the "Museum on Main Street" program which places national touring exhibits from the Smithsonian in smaller, rural communities which have space and cost limitations to such resources. For more information, visit the Council's website at http://www.michiganhumanities.org/yesterdays/mhcyt/index.html.

The Culture of Economy
By Rick Knupfer, Executive Director

One of the great pleasures of my work traveling around the state is experiencing the richness of community culture, of good-willed individuals investing themselves collectively in the quality of local life -- who they are, where they came from and what they will become. This connectedness of people, who see their self-betterment wed to community betterment, is the collective value of community, an immense investment of time, service, and money.

The culture of the local is an inherently economic activity, though it is rarely measured. Economy is defined as the community of goods and services produced, consumed, and exchanged according to mutual needs. Though this "community" of economics has over time expanded to become global (in the western world, people do not wholly produce and consume goods that are tradable locally anymore, and most consumables are aggregates of commodities created in distant places) community culture is still produced and consumed locally. It is dependent upon, and reinforces, the economy of the local, the civic life of volunteers, voters, policy makers, the local culture that defines who we are, what we believe in, where we came from, and our common, and distinct, heritage as citizens. Community culture is also the manifestation of the "higher purposes" that nourish souls, spirits, minds, and help us to understand, relieve, and advance the human condition. This aggregate is the organic chemistry of civic and cultural life, the civic glue that binds believers and doers and sharers and producers and consumers in the web of common welfare, in an economy of mutually beneficial local exchange. It is the genius of such a local balance, of individual rights and visions and multiple, shared purposes, that undergirds a productive democracy and a healthy economy. In healthy societies they are interdependent.

We can measure economic impact by traditional means -- income and expenditures, gross domestic product, relative changes in inputs and outputs, capital assessment and movement. It is the quality part that is tough to measure, even though quality is the indispensable part of the definition of economy. Terms denoting material affluence or material impoverishment contain quality in their definitions. To be rich means "owning a lot of money or expensive property", "worth a great deal", and "made from or consisting of things of the highest quality". To be bankrupt means "judged legally to be unable to pay off personal debts", or "completely lacking in a particular quality, especially in good or ethical qualities." In both instances, quality gives them value. Otherwise, they are meaningless, and thus worthless. Though quality can set its own markets and its own value (price) in the measurable form of commodity exchange, how do we value quality of life?

Richness eludes us because it is hard to measure. The educational, aesthetic, spiritual, intellectual, and quality-of-life riches of the humanities, arts, culture and local cultural activity are seldom viewed or measured as commodities. They are thus consistently undervalued. Can we quantify the power of a single gifted teacher, or a single poem or piece of music, in transforming someone's life, perhaps from a community net loss (born in the high monetary and social cost of crime) to a community net gain (contributing immeasurably to that seldom-measured civic glue, volunteerism)? Can we measure the value of a Michigan Humanities Council/Smithsonian exhibition in a museum-less rural community, where children, parents, elders, and businesspeople develop complementary programming that reflects and has significant long-term impact on their local culture, on their quality of life, on their sense of community? Can we measure the economic value of "civic glue", the culture of the local? We too often ignore the economic weight of volunteer labor for the common good and the value of goods and services given over, without profit to the giver but instead to the community, by non-profit enterprises.

We need to measure the economic impact of the total value of goods and services produced, consumed, and traded as part of cultural activity. We need an economic impact analysis that reveals, in dollars, jobs, and consumer benefits, the measurable worth of cultural activity, the value of donated cash, goods, and services, of jobs produced by, in, or supporting the cultural sector, the value of produced cultural goods and services, sales at venues or in other sectors as a result of visitor cultural usage, and the labor of board and activity volunteers. We need to assess the value of cultural assets, from historic buildings to works of art, and to track cultural consumers to see what they contribute to the local economy as they shop, stay over, and recreate as part of a cultural excursion. We could go further, and track high school and college graduates to assess the value of the humanities and arts in their careers, communication skills, and their future contributions to local culture.

If we measured only a fraction of this economy of culture, we would have mega-industry figures. Even a well-done economic impact sampling of one community extrapolated to a region will tell a very, very large story.

Culture is big business. Travel, culture, heritage and cultural tourism, theme parks, and entertainment are widely predicted to be America's number-one industry in the twenty-first century. Though perceptions of the relative quality of these endeavors vary widely -- Michigan Humanities Council, for example, prefers to invest in the humanities, in the culture of the authentic, rather than in the culture of entertainment for its own sake -- they all comprise cultural activity.

When Arthur Frommer, the world's foremost travel expert, spoke at Marketing the Michigan Experience, a conference in Grand Rapids last November hosted by the Michigan Museums Association and its statewide cultural partners, he began by placing culture squarely in the middle of travel activity. Culture is at the center of Frommer's vacations, as it is for most people. After a few hours on a Caribbean island, he is ready to get off the beach towel and "experience the local culture." As important as shopping and golf are in his travel guides, they play a supporting role, in footnotes, to the experience of culture and place. Culture is an enhanced way of life, driving consumer attitudes and purchases. Culture drives what many are now calling "the experience economy."

Studies reveal the essential value of local cultural activity in individual and community life. Communities that have it are rich. Those that don't have it are bankrupt.

A scarcity of goods and services in communities defines material impoverishment. A scarcity of culture defines spiritual impoverishment. The scarcity of both defines bankrupt communities, in both senses of the word. This is poverty of the deepest kind. But worse: the loss of culture deprives people of their humanness.

Materially poor communities can be culturally rich and thrive. Materially rich communities without cultural nourishment will not survive. Nowhere has a community or a nation materially rich remained so long without culture. The decline of rich and powerful civilizations has been as much about cultural bankruptcy as it has been about the related decline of organized communication, taxes, and local autonomy. Other cultures simply rushed in to fill the vacuum. Similarly, concentrations of power in state-run societies where culture was officially determined rather than locally maintained have not passed the test of time.

In short, a community without the institutions that collectively comprise local culture -- the beliefs, values, attitudes, lifestyles of communities, represented in schools, museums, colleges, libraries, churches, societies, service groups, guilds, reading groups, and the like -- is a community at risk.

Using data from multiple sectors of American life, Robert Putnam, in his landmark study of civic life, Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community, demonstrates that civic association of all kinds has been in precipitous decline for nearly forty years. If Putnam is right, then the community value we have been describing is actually now a precious commodity, made incalculably more valuable by the pervading sense of something lost -- the sense of community -- in the face of increased mobilization, television, and other "home alone" enterprises, replaced by a more general "apathy."

Why do we feel it is lost? Has some ephemeral, purely nostalgic, past been replaced by an uncertain future lacking the loyalties or sustenance of tradition? Are communities now too mobile and transient to have meaning, or to form the patterns of tradition? Is change too rapid to permit the nurturing of associative behavior that underlies civic life and a civil society?

Take away a community of culture and its relative associations of beliefs, values, traditions, lifestyles, imagination, ideas, heritage, spirit and worship, sharing, and learning, and you have disembodied souls, islands, with television as the lifeline to collective identity, civic culture, and state dependency. If community culture is an endangered species, civilization is an endangered species.

Yet, in communities throughout Michigan, it is my belief that out of the sense of loss there is growing a powerful desire for community. Desire underlies new associations.

It will not be enough to measure the impact of strong, vigorous community culture. Culture is a continuing investment in quality of life. Like other investments, both material, and what Putnam calls social, capital will be required for communities to survive and to flourish. We're going to need a good deal more investment in the culture of the local and the authentic, in the history, heritage, collective ideas and beliefs of people and their journeys in communities, if we want the future communities of democracy strengthened by the organic bonds of cultural, civic, and commercial engagement.

Touring grants to fund 428 cultural presentations this summer

The Michigan Humanities Council dispersed over $77,000 in grants to local Michigan organizations in support of 428 live cultural presentations between April 1 and September 30, 2001. The touring program, which consists of a wide diversity of cultural programs from school assembly musical performances to library storytellers, will reach 54 of 83 counties in Michigan. Additionally, the program will reach 20 of 45 counties considered "underserved" by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA), as well as other low-income areas throughout the state. Awardees anticipate serving more than 120,000 citizens at funded programs.

Touring program grants support live presenters - musicians, storytellers, theater companies, speakers and dancers - and visual arts programs from the 2000-2003 Arts & Humanities Touring Directory. The programs are hosted and sponsored by community schools, libraries, museums, festivals, art councils and other nonprofit organizations.

Examples of the diversity of programs reaching underserved areas as supported by these grants include: a comedy ventriloquist who will appear in Charlotte; a storyteller to captivate audiences in Iron River; a versatile pianist to perform in Plainwell; and, first-person portrayals of President and Mrs. Lincoln in Cassopolis. Examples of programs reaching low-income and/or far-reaching areas of southwestern Michigan include a Native American dance and cultural program in Inkster as well as an interactive science theatre in Holly. Michigan's Arts and Humanities Touring Program also supports presenters in well-served areas, such as a fur trade history program in Haslett and a modern dance company in Detroit.

Applications for the next round of grants for Michigan's Arts and Humanities Touring Program will be accepted between August 15 and September 25, 2001. Touring Program Director Jan Fedewa reminds applicants to complete the entire application and include required attachments before submitting it by the September 25 closing date.

Council welcomes two new members, two returnees

Michigan Humanities Council Chair Stephen Williams has announced the Council's election to the board of: Dr. Arthur Puotinen, Provost of Finlandia University in Hancock; Anne-Marie Oomen, Chairperson for Creative Writing at the Interlochen Arts Academy; Dr. William Anderson, President Emeritus of West Shore Community College in Scottville; and, Sheila Cannatti, former Michigan Humanities Council chairperson from Battle Creek. Anderson and Cannatti return to the council after a one-year absence. Each will serve a four-year term.

• Dr. Arthur Puotinen was selected as Provost of Finlandia University (formerly Suomi College) in 1996, and also serves as its Chief Operating Officer and Professor of Religion. Since graduating with a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1973, Puotinen has served as a top-level higher education administrator at five institutions including Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, which he served as president from 1988 to 1996.
• Anne-Marie Oomen is the Creative Writing Chair at Interlochen Arts Academy, an organization to which she has contributed since 1997. Her duties include all administrative and leadership responsibilities, as well as poetry and playwriting workshops, introduction to fiction, and membership in six other committees with the academy. Oomen received a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College in Vermont in 1994, and has had numerous works appear in scores of different literary publications.
• Dr. William Anderson is currently a strategic planning consultant, professional speaker, and a historian in addition to his duties as a Professor Emeritus from West Shore Community College. Anderson, who received his Doctorate in Administration of Higher Education from Southern Illinois University in 1973, is the former President of both West Shore CC and Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Anderson previously served on the board of Michigan Humanities Council from 1996 to 1999.
• Sheila Cannatti, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and Political Science from the University of North Dakota, currently serves as a board member for a variety of community organizations. She is the chair of the United Arts Council of Calhoun County, the immediate past chair of the Battle Creek Community Foundation, a member of the United Way Board of Directors for Battle Creek, a member of the Board of Directors of the Non-Profit Alliance of Calhoun County, a member of the Battle Creek Health Systems Board of Directors, and a founding trustee of the Michigan Dental Foundation. Cannatti was first appointed to the board of Michigan Humanities Council by Governor John Engler in 1993, and served as its chair from 1997 to 2000.

The 25-person Michigan Humanities Council board is responsible for program and proposal review, planning, fundraising, advocacy for the public humanities, liaison to projects and other representation of the Council at activities around the state. Six members are gubernatorial appointees while 19 are elected by the Council under guidelines to meet program and advancement needs and reflect demographic balance.

Public Meeting/Grant Writing Workshop On August 8

Want the inside scoop on how to apply for a MHC grant? You'll be pointed in the right direction at the Council's Public Meeting and Grant Writing Workshop to be held on Wednesday, August 8, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Michigan Library and Historical Center in Lansing. The workshop will discuss the new 2000-2005 Grants Program, "Creating Vision For the New Century: The Humanities and the Strengthening of Michigan's Communities," Touring Program Grants, and Council's Quick Grants Program. Also at this free workshop will be information on Michigan Humanities Council's different programming and resource opportunities - and you can pick up the 2000-2003 Arts & Humanities Touring Directory.

Organizations interested in learning about the new grants program are encouraged to attend this workshop. There is no cost, but registration is recommended. For more info and reservations, contact Phyllis Rathbun at 800/837-4532 or by e-mail at mihum@voyager.net.

Collaborative Grants Fund Six Projects

More than $54,000 in grants, have been awarded to six projects through Michigan Humanities Council's "Collaborative Project in Communities" program.

Lansing-area Italians will have the opportunity to trace their roots through pictorial exhibits as well as genealogy seminars and resources. Awarded $12,000, the "Italian-American Heritage Project," sponsored by the Sons of Italy Foundation of Order Sons of Italy in America and the Italian American Club of Lansing, will draw on scholars and humanists to develop a portable exhibit that will parallel the flow of Italian immigration with the history of Lansing.

"A Radio-based Humanistic Consideration of Environmental Problems" will secure an infusion of $3,600 from the Council for a project that will contribute to a balanced understanding of the social values in conflict at the root of two Michigan-based environmental problems. The project will create a five-minute radio module with corresponding web-based materials regarding: the Inland Seas Education Association and the unusual means through which it develops knowledge of the Grand Traverse Bay; and, the efforts of local people to address the issues of degradation of the Au Sable River. The project is sponsored by Central Michigan University, Bowling Green State University, and Middle Tennessee State University.

In October, the history conference, "Detroit's Story: 300 Years of Opportunity, Diversity and Success," will receive $11,638 from the Council as a means to focus on Detroit's history and bring together the largest gathering of scholars in the city's history from October 5-7, 2001. The conference is sponsored by the Historical Society of Michigan, Detroit Historical Society, and Detroit 300, Inc.

Michigan Humanities Council has awarded $12,000 to Adrian College in its efforts towards a long-term project entitled the "Sojourner Truth Technical Training Center." The Training Center plans to preserve Underground Railroad history through advanced technology and train others to research and preserve Underground Railroad History, collect oral history, and learn more about preservation process.

A proposal to create a web site to celebrate Detroit/Windsor writers has received $3,600 in funding from the Council. "Writing the River: a portal to Detroit/Windsor writers, literature, and small presses, 1960 to the present" will connect creative area writers of the 1960s and 1970s with contemporary writers, critics, readers and audiences. The web site, sponsored by Wayne State University, Detroit Public Library, University of Windsor Library, University of Detroit Mercy, and Black Moss Press, is to serve as a local writing/small press portal, drawing together several projects, programs and initiatives.

Michigan Humanities Council has also awarded $12,000 for the "Talkers and Tellers" project to feature humanities interpreters on four stages at the National Folk Festival this summer. Please see the article relating to the National Folk Festival in this newsletter for more information.

National Folk Festival's Sunset Year in Michigan

Downtown East Lansing hosts the finale of the three-year National Folk Festival from August 10-12. The 63rd annual festival, which features a program sponsored in part by the Michigan Humanities Council, celebrates America's rich cultural heritage and is free to the public.

Included among the sights, sounds and tastes of our national culture is a variety of live musical and dance performances, traditional crafts from basketry to furniture, storytelling, parades, games and children's activities. Visitors will be drawn by the smell and taste of sensational entrees such as southwestern barbeque, Italian-american cuisine and spicy gourmet Caribbean dishes. Appalachian, Zydeco and Irish music will allow listeners to tap their toes or cut a rug along with the tunes.

Michigan Humanities Council has collaborated with Folk Festival producers to help fund a program entitled "Talkers and Tellers." The event will feature narrative presentations on four stages to highlight the artistry and cultural significance of traditional art, quilts, food and children's folklore.

The National Folk Festival is produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the City of East Lansing and the Michigan State University Museum. For more information, call 517-351-2735 of visit online at http://www.nff.net.

Council staff reorganizes, hires new PR Officer

Scott Hirko was hired in late April to fill the shoes of Nancy Mathews, the previous Public Relations Officer for Michigan Humanities Council. Nancy is now the Director of Community Programs and Northern Michigan Liaison for Michigan Humanities Council, and will continue to direct the popular Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour program throughout the state. Also: Carole Hoyt is now the Business Manager; Jan Fedewa is Director of Grants and Partnership Programs; Michael Pankow is Resource Center Coordinator; and, Phyllis Rathbun is Executive Assistant.

Scott previously spent the past five years in all levels of intercollegiate athletic communications for which he was responsible for media relations, website maintenance, media guide design and content, and marketing. He earned a Master's degree from Central Michigan University in 1998, and has a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University. Scott also served as a legislative assistant and constituent relations specialist in the Michigan legislature from 1990-95.

Resources at Your Fingertips

Are you a K-12 Teacher, Curriculum Developer, Home School Parent, Librarian/Media Specialist, Program Director, Researcher, MSU Extension Officer or a College/University Instructor? Then you are guaranteed to benefit from Resource Center membership privileges.

The Resource Center has made available 17 pre-arranged themes that compliment your summer activities, home-schooling, independent research or community program. Explore ethnic heritage and cultures using one of the Council's ROADS Culture Kits, or visit the Resource Center's Media & Exhibit Library collection. Resources are available in various formats (video and audio programs, slide presentations, exhibits, curriculum manuals and other print materials). We can ship statewide within 2 or 3 days, if the resource is available. Ponder these themes, or others that are available:

June Theme: Preservation I: Architecture & Land Use Studies:

• The Early Rochester Area: Our Legacy, Your Heritage -History of the first settlement in Oakland County (1817) (video)
• The Renewing of a Vision: Meyer May House, Grand Rapids, Michigan - The meticulous restoration of the Meyer May house to its original 1910 condition (video)
  

July Theme: The American Experience

• Baseball - Ken Burn's epic (18 volume video series, print materials)
• Millennium Evenings at the White House - Lectures and cultural showcases hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton that highlight creativity and inventiveness through our ideas, art and scientific discoveries (7 videos)

August Theme: African History & Cultures

• African History ROADS Culture Kit - Multi-media educational resource unit featuring units on geography, art, music and family life. Available for elementary and secondary levels (multimedia unit)
• The Africans - Series exploring Africa from the history of Egyptian pharaohs, matriarchal social systems, and the slave trade, to the contemporary political crises of post-colonialism, famine, and apartheid.

Resource Center Members enjoy unlimited access to Media & Exhibit Library materials and save $25 on every ROADS Culture Kit Rental. Annual memberships are available for individuals ($25) and organizations ($100). For more information, visit: http://michiganhumanities.org/resources, or call 517-372-7770 to become a Resource Center Member and start your value savings.

Directory of Scholars: The Council is seeking college/university professors, humanities professionals, librarians, curators, media specialists, and traditional culture bearers. Become an active participant in the Council's Directory of Scholars and our efforts to support a variety of public humanities programs across Michigan. Contact: Michael S. Pankow, Resource Center Coordinator at 517/372-7770 or email resources@voyager.net. You can also fill out and submit the Scholars Application Form on-line at: http://michiganhumanities.org/scholars.

Sylvia Meloche Wins NewsBytes Drawing!

In May, NewsBytes subscriber Sylvia M. Meloche won a free subscription to Humanities magazine, the bi-monthly publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities. NewsBytes, an e-mail service from the Michigan Humanities Council, is the most reliable and timely source of information about the humanities in Michigan. Subscribers are also given the opportunity to provide feedback on some of the MHC's outreach efforts. Other gifts will be drawn on a monthly basis for those participating in the NewsBytes subscription service.

How do I sign up? Link to: http://michiganhumanities.org/newsbytes/index.html

Full steam ahead on new council grants

The 2002-2005 Michigan Humanities Council's grants program reflects its determination to expand and sustain the access of Michiganians to the humanities by making the best possible use of federal support, by increasing the role of private and public non-federal support, and by strengthening programs through the power achieved in partnerships.

The new program, to be in effect as of the Sept. 1 deadline, is intended to:

• Meet the needs of applicant organizations of different kinds, sizes, and varying levels of expertise;
• Provide suitable incentive for larger institutions with humanities resources to use them off-site or off-campus;
• Complement or enhance Council initiatives;
• Encourage nonprofit entrepreneurship.

Project Directors Workshops are available on November 15 and June 10. The annual Grant Writing Workshop will be held on August 8. The deadlines for the new granting period are as follows:

Types of grants available include Public Humanities Development Grants, Extending the Reach Grants, Local Network Grants, General Humanities Grants, and Quick Grants.

Public Humanities Development Grants (up to $15,000) are intended to plan and/or create a significant public humanities project with the capacity to reach multiple sites or an identified network of users, or to draw underserved audiences.

Extending the Reach Grants (up to $7,500) are designed to take an established and/or previously Council-funded, successful program into other venues for new or underserved audiences, multiple sites or networks of the applicant's defining. Funding would be targeted for distribution expenses.

Local Network Grants (up to $15,000) are developed for communities, areas, or local cultural organizations seeking funding for new local/regional collaborative efforts toward planning and/or joint programming for new projects reaching new audiences.

General Humanities Grants (up to $3,000) are to support public humanities programs on miscellaneous topics that clearly fit outside the other grant categories. Applicants will only be considered if the project cannot meet objectives established in the other categories and will be requested to provide rationale.

Quick Grants (up to $500) are designed to match humanities resources (scholars, materials or programs) with local needs. Quick Grants may be used to supplement, but not substitute for, the Council's Arts & Humanities Touring Program or Resource Center membership fees.

For more information on details and examples of the grants, as well as for grant application forms jump on-line at
http://www.michiganhumanities.org/grants/2002.html