$95,552 Awarded for Seven Humanities Projects
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- November 23, 2009
CONTACT: Scott Hirko, Public Relations Officer,
shirko [at] mihumanities.org, 517-372-0029 ext. 25
Projects include: 2 in West Michigan, 2 in Southwest Michigan, 2 in metro Detroit, 1 in Lansing
(LANSING)-----The Michigan Humanities Council awarded $95,552 in grants to support seven public humanities projects in Michigan. The grants emphasize collaboration among cultural, educational, and community-based organizations and institutions to serve Michigan’s people with public humanities programming. Organizations awarded grants stated their intent to generate an additional $212,420 in cost-share and other revenue in support of the projects.
“The Michigan Humanities Council is pleased to support community projects that involve significant collaborations,” said Janice Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council. “The projects are consistent with our mission to promote the examination of culture and the understanding of sense of place.”
The seven grants and their supporting organizations are:
WEST MICHIGAN
The Mason County Historical Society (Ludington) was awarded $15,000 for Farmstead Completion, a horsepower/transportation exhibit for the historic White Pine Village. Horse equipage, dairy and milking equipment, milk house and stable artifacts, and milk processing/bottling will all be incorporated into a new exhibit of a mid-20th century farm. An open house upon completion will showcase the opening of the new exhibit. “We thank the Michigan Humanities Council for the grant award allowing us to complete our farmstead exhibit at Historic White Pine Village,” said Ronald Wood, executive director of the Mason County Historical Society.
The White Lake Community Library (White Lake) was awarded $11,500 for Our Lumbering Legacy: A Gift from the White Lake Community Library. The library will create a multi-faceted lumbering legacy festival to coincide with the city’s upcoming sesquicentennial in August 2010. An illustrated history of the White Lake lumbering era will be created, historical lumbering art prints will be duplicated, local history experts will deliver keynote addresses, educational workshops, historical dramatic interpretations, and an interactive lumberjack show featuring logging skills from the 1800s will be incorporated into the festival "I am pleased to have been awarded this grant so that the library is able to give the community a gift focusing on our rich heritage from the lumbering era," said White Lake Community Library director Bette Carlson..
SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN
The Minority Coalition of Cass County (Cassopolis) was awarded $15,000 for Sanctuary and Deliverance in Cass County, MI. A group of organizations will collaborate to create an outdoor mural, a descriptive pamphlet, and a set of portable exhibit banners depicting the historic Kentucky Raid of 1847 in Cass County, where Kentucky slave owners came to Michigan to retrieve their escaped slaves and the resulting court case and impact on the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. A mural will be created by high school students and a local artist to represent the resistance. The mural will be two stories tall by 75 feet wide and painted on a brick building in downtown Cassopolis. The pamphlet will tell the story of those people’s lives impacted by the raid and pose critical thinking questions. Collaborating on this project are the Southwest Michigan Women’s Action for New Direction, Cassopolis Public Schools, Museum at Southwestern Michigan College, Underground Railroad Society of Cass County, Chain Lake Missionary Baptist Church, Village of Vandalia, and Michigan Freedom Trails Commission.
The Genevieve & Donald S. Gilmore Foundation and Gilmore Car Museum (Kalamazoo) were awarded $15,000 to support The Checkers Motors Corporation: Making Its Last Stop, an effort to record the history, memory, and archives of the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. The museum will collect and interpret relevant artifacts and share the history through a permanent exhibit, a traveling exhibit, a hardcover book, and a DVD. The permanent exhibit is expected to open in May 2010. A Checker Day at the museum will be held in September 2010 and the release of other resources will be announced at that time.
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN/METRO DETROIT
The Rackham Symphony Choir (Grosse Pointe) was awarded $15,000 for the project, Voices for Michigan’s Homeless, a project involving the development of a curriculum, classroom activities, and additional engagement relating to the theme of homelessness. Beginning in January 2010, students from four 11th grade classrooms in the Detroit Public Schools will engaged in group discussions and writing to gain a better understanding in a current and historical context of Michigan’s homelessness dilemma. Students will complete online discussion board entries, receive classroom visits by homelessness experts, and will attend a performance of composer Henry Mollicone’s large-scale choral work, Beatitude Mass, written in 2006 to raise money for the homeless.Collaborating on this project areDetroit Public Schools, the University of Michigan, Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, and the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
The Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University (Detroit) was awarded $9,092 to support support post-production and a community screening of the documentary film, Brothers on the Line. The documentary tells the story of the Michigan history, culture, and legacy of brothers Walter, Roy, and Victor Reuther as they pioneered the labor movement for the United Auto Workers. The film is expected to be completed by April 2010. “We are honored and excited about this award as we move closer to completing this important film in the new year,” said Alexander Reuther, the project director and a producer/director at Porter Street Pictures.
MID-MICHIGAN
The Library of Michigan Foundation (Lansing) was awarded $15,000 in support of the 2010 Michigan Notable Books Program. The program will engage 35 libraries across the state to support a tour of authors of books selected as Michigan Notable Books. Titles must be set in Michigan or the Great Lakes or written by a Michigan author and published in 2009.
The seven funded projects were among 19 applications reviewed by the Council. The total request of all applications was $233,237 in grant funds with the potential to generate an additional $761,057 in cost-share support.
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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