$151,581 Awarded for 12 Humanities Programs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 24, 2009
CONTACT: Scott Hirko, Public Relations Officer,
shirko [at] mihumanities.org, 517-372-0029 ext. 25
(LANSING)-----The Michigan Humanities Council announces 12 organizations from across Michigan will receive $151,581 to help support public humanities programs. The grants are part of the Council’s Michigan People, Michigan Places … Our Stories, Our Lives program which emphasizes collaboration among cultural, educational, and community-based organizations.
“These programs demonstrate the breadth of the humanities, considering public community activities across Michigan over the next year will focus on the leadership of Native American women, stories relating to Title IX and intercollegiate athletics, sustainable agriculture, culinary history and publications, the art of storytelling, and the collection and presentation of oral histories,” said Janice Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council. “The Council is pleased to support these efforts to engage the public in programs to enhance cultural understanding.”
The funded programs include:
The Michigan State University American Indian Studies Program (East Lansing) will receive $8,046 to support the program, Women of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians: Lives and Leadership. The program aims to document the impact of the lives and leadership of Odawa women on the urban Indian community. It includes bi-weekly talking circles involving Odawa women from multiple generations from February to March 2010 at Michigan State University.
Sustainable Farmer (Mason) will receive $2,657 to support MEDIA: Print and Online Profiles of Michigan Sustainable Farmers. This project will create multimedia profiles of the lives of 16 of Michigan’s sustainable farmers. A live webcast will kickoff a series of community-based lectures on the role of sustainable farming. Two profiles will be published online monthly beginning November 2009.
Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant) will receive $15,000 in support of the 2009 Michigan Story Festival on October 24, 2009. The festival offers a diverse, interdisciplinary approach to narrative, showcasing story elements of art, media, movement, dance, photo essays, music, and the spoken word. The 2009 festival will focus on Michigan themes and reach out to central Michigan schools and community centers. The Council supported the Michigan Story Festival previously in 2008, 2006, 2004, 2003, and 2002.
The Plowshares Theatre Company (Lathrup Village) will receive $15,000 to support The Invisible Seasons Theatre Project. Plowshares Theatre will write and perform a play that will engage Michigan communities in dialogue around themes of equity, leadership, and the law by telling the story of Nell Jackson and the 1979 Michigan State University (MSU) women’s basketball team and the team’s struggle for equal protection under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX. The play will be written by Marshall Estell, a resident playwright with Chicago Dramatists. It is is based on the work of Kelly Belanger, Associate Professor and Director Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society Dept. of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. A partial script will be shared by Belanger at the MSU Feminism and Rhetoric Conference in October 2009, with a final production scheduled in Spring 2010 at Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor.
The Polish Mission at Orchard Lake Schools (Orchard Lake) will receive $14,878 to support a project commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, as well as celebrating the 100th anniversary of the SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary at Orchard Lake. The project includes recording oral histories of local surviving home army veterans, creating exhibits, podcasts, a catalog for the general public, and lesson plans for middle and high school teachers. The exhibit and events will be held at the Mission in September and October 2009.
The Kerrytown Bookfest (Ann Arbor) will receive $6,000 to support its 7th annual festival as well as Culinary Michigan: Books & Cooks, an event in response to the local food movement with an exhibition, presentations, workshops, demonstrations, and other interactive activities involving local writers and publishers of culinary works. The event will be held September 13, 2009, at Farmers’ Market in Ann Arbor.
The Eastern Michigan University Art Department (Ypsilanti) will receive $15,000 to support Exhibition Energy: Charles McGee at Eighty-five, a retrospective exhibition and art education outreach programs about the work African American artist Charles McGee from Detroit. The exhibition will be held at the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) art gallery from November 9 to December 19, 2009; at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Association from late December 2009 to January 2010; and, at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit in January and February 2010. McGee will present a lecture on his work from 6 – 7 p.m. on November 9, 2009, at the EMU Gallery.
Living Arts (Detroit) will receive $15,000 to support Youth Research and Create. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in the Academy of the Americas will work with humanities scholars to research their lives, family histories, and cultures to create presentations of their findings at several schools and at an El Dia del Nino community event in April 2010.
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts will receive $15,000 to support Blurring the Lines Between Us, an exhibition with supporting public presentations relating to three emerging African American artists who create works that challenge conventions about race, identity, history, and culture. The three artists are: Titus Kaphar (a Kalamazoo native/New York post-modernist painter), Wardell Milan II (artist who makes large-scale photos of elaborately constructed dioramas of historical figures, photographed figures, family snapshots, and text from American authors); and Demetrius Oliver (a Texas artist whose diverse and distorted photographs of every day items reveal how materials can defy their boundaries). The exhibit will open October 3, 2009 and remain through November 29, 2009.
Long Haul Productions (Three Oaks) will receive $15,000 to support Community Anthology: The Region of Three Oaks, a year-long oral history and photography project documenting the past, present, and future of the region of Three Oaks. By June 1, 2010, the interviews will be published and broadcast to the media and on a website.
The Grand Rapids Area Council for the Humanities will receive $15,000 to support Cultivating a Sense of Place. The project includes 20 studio interviews and filming on location for “Eating in Place: Grand Rapids’ Local Food Pioneers,” a documentary of West Michigan food pioneers such as the founders of Mixed Greens, West Michigan Food Co-op, the Greater Grand Rapids Food System Council, “Local First: Eat Local Challenge,” Heffrom Farms, Our Kitchen Table, Slow Food Potawatomi Chapter, Food for Thought magazine, and Organic Growers of Michigan. A movie premier is set for March 2010 at the Wealthy Street Theatre in Grand Rapids. The grant will also support a chapbook poetry challenge involving the Grand Rapids poet laureate, published on Through the Third Eye (www.throughthe3rdeye.com), as well as continuation of its annual book discussion series, Life Journey with Books and Biography, with author visits by Tom Springer (Looking for Hickories) on November 3, 2009, and Gayle Brandeis (Self Storage) on April 7-8, 2010.
The Marquette County Historical Museum (Marquette) will receive $15,000 to support the Arrivals and Departures Interactive Station. This is a permanent, interactive exhibit to examine the role of Upper Michigan veterans at war and their families at home during various military engagements from the Civil War though the Cold War. It is scheduled to open with the new museum in the summer of 2010.
The Michigan Humanities Council, founded in 1974, is a private, non-profit organization, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For additional information, please visit: www.michiganhumanities.org or call 517-372-7770.
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