Contact: Sheryl HayesSheryl@virginia.edu
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA
22903-4629
Phone:(434)924-3296
Fax: (434)296-4714
For Immediate Release
October 31, 2008
Contact: Sheryl Hayes
Sheryl@virginia.edu
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive
Charlottesville, VA
22903-4629
Phone:(434)924-3296
Fax: (434)296-4714
For Immediate Release
October 31, 2008
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) to date in 2008 has awarded more than 50 new grants to assist Virginia organizations in their efforts to research and interpret Virginia’s rich history, to explore issues of importance to Virginians, and to showcase Virginia’s folk life and cultural heritage.
Recipients of the grants include museums, colleges and universities, libraries, state parks, and historic sites like St. John’s Church in Richmond. The funds have been or will be used to support public programming about Monacan Indian culture; an oral history project involving African American groomsmen; a brochure for the new Capitol Square Civil Rights Memorial; a publication on “remarkable” trees in Virginia; an exhibit about Edgar Allen Poe; and an Shenandoah Valley exhibit that looks at the life of 19th century mapmaker Jedediah Hotchkiss, who served as chief cartographer for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Grant-supported activities will take place across Virginia cities and counties, from the Eastern Shore to the Shenandoah Valley, in Mecklenburg County as well as in downtown urban settings such as Alexandria or Norfolk.
Funds for this program have been provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia and by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, based in Charlottesville, is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the humanities, and to using the humanities to address issues of broad public concern. In all of its programs, the Foundation works to make scholarship accessible; to promote understanding and discussion of enduring and contemporary issues; and to broaden the range of educational opportunities available to all Virginians.
Amherst County Museum and Historical Society
Amherst
$500 to support an interpretive performance focusing on Patrick Henry and his connection to the historic Winton House in Amherst County, to be presented for a public audience in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Amherst County Historical Society.
Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Inc.
Lynchburg
$8,000 to support publication of a book presenting selections from the pretty of Anne Spencer in an interpretive context.
Appalachian Traditions, Inc.
Norton
$7,500 to support the 40th annual Dock Boggs and Kate O'Neill Peters Sturgil Memorial Festival in Wise County.
Arlington County
Arlington
$5,000 to support production of two CDs with interpretive liner notes and two related performance-discussion programs featuring masters of traditional music from Turkey and Mongolia, both of whom are recent immigrants currently living in northern Virginia.
Berryville Main Street
Berryville
$1,900 to support a four-part series of lecture / performance / discussion programs, part of a larger series on traditional American music.
Cape Charles Historical Society
Cape Charles
$2,000 to support research and database development -- the first phase of a longer-term effort to develop a new research and interpretive center at the Cape Charles Museum.
Capitol Square Civil Rights Memorial Foundation
Richmond
$2,000 to support printing costs for a brochure focusing on the Capitol Square Civil Rights Memorial and the history it commemorates.
Carver-Price Alumni Association, Inc.
Concord
$2,000 to support the continuation of an oral history project focusing on the history of African American Education in Appomattox County during the era of segregation, as well as portions of an exhibit on the same subject.
Chippokes Plantation State Park
Surry
$3,000 to support an oral history project resulting in a publication and series of pubic presentations on the relationship between traditional gardening practices and African American history and foodways.
Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History
Danville
$2,000 to support production of an interpretative exhibit and public lecture focusing on the unique musical heritage of Danville and its communities.
Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society
Onancock
$2,200 to support the initial phases of a public archaeology project designed to add another perspective to ongoing interpretation at the Ker Place historic site.
Ellis Acres Memorial Park, Inc.
Dillwyn
$6,700 to support the first phase of a longer term oral history project focusing on African American education in Buckingham County.
Fairfax County Park Authority
Falls Church
$1,500 to support a public symposium marking thirty years of archaeological work in Fairfax County.
Fairy Stone State Park
Stuart
$3,000 to support a series of interpretative performances on the evolution of the African American spiritual from call-and-response traditions of the antebellum period to the present day.
Frontier Culture Museum
Staunton
$5,800 to support a one-week teachers' institute focusing on the contributions made by Africans and their African American descendants to the creation of American frontier culture.
George Mason University
Fairfax
$1,000 to support an interpretive performance and public conversation on the subject of ballad singing and traditional ballads of Virginia, featuring Elizabeth LaPrelle, an acknowledged master of this tradition.
Historic Crab Orchard Museum and Pioneer Park, Inc.
Tazewell
$2,500 to support two interpretative performances and a publication on Southwest Virginia musical traditions, to be presented as a complement to the Smithsonian Institution's "New Harmonies" traveling exhibit.
Isle of Wight County Museum Foundation, Inc.
Smithfield
$6,500 to support a nine-day teachers' institute focusing on life in Western Tidewater, Virginia from 1750-1820 -- the second of three "ethnohistory" institutes presented as a collaboration between the Isle of Wight County Museum, the Nansemond Tribe, and Paul D. Camp Community College.
James Madison University
Harrisonburg
$6,000 to support installation of the exhibit "Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present" and a series of related programs on the history of Virginia Indians and their culture in the present day.
Laurel School Association
Alexandria
$11,000 to support a multi-stage curriculum development project focusing on the history of Laurel Grove School in Fairfax, the County's last remaining African American school that has recently been restored to accurately reflect its appearance ca. 1920 and is now a museum.
Library of Virginia Foundation
Richmond
$2,500 to support the cost of printing and distributing an interpretative poster honoring Virginia women -- past and present -- who have made important contributions to Virginia and the U.S.
Literacy InterActives
Mecklenburg County
$2,500 to support a one-day public event focusing on the history of the Patrick Robert Sydnor Log Cabin in Mecklenburg County, which was originally part of the Prestwould Plantation and home to several generations of African Americans, both pre- and post-emancipation.
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
Winchester
$5,000 to support an interpretive exhibit on the life and cartographic contributions of Jedediah Hotchkiss, a 19th century map-maker who served as chief cartographer for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
National D-Day Memorial Foundation
Bedford
$1,000 to support a public lecture, the fifth in an annual series, focusing on the contributions of African American soldiers and support personnel during WWII. This year's program focuses on the "Port Chicago" incident in California and its aftermath.
Network of South Asian Professionals
Washington
$5,000 to support the 8th annual South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival.
Norfolk State University Foundation, Inc.
Norfolk
$1,250 to support a lecture/interpretative performance on the life, work, and artistic achievements of photographer, filmmaker and poet Gordon Parks.
Old City Cemetery
Lynchburg
$10,000 to support creation of a website containing the burial records of the Diuguid Funeral Home in Lynchburg, a large and unique collection of more than 78,000 individual records which has been called a "national treasure."
Old Dominion University
Norfolk
$4,000 to support a month-long symposium on the subject of incarceration and its impact.
Partnership for Floyd
Floyd
$7,000 to support a series of four performances and discussion programs focusing on the musical heritage of Floyd County, with a special emphasis on the role of the Floyd Country Store in helping to foster and sustain the music of this region.
Prince William County Public Schools
Manassas
$10,000 to support development of two video programs, and educational website, and promotional brochure/poster focusing on the Cactus Hill archeological site in Virginia, and how the work of archaeologists at this and other pre-Clovis sites are revising long-held theories about the origins of Native Americans on the North American continent.
Public Media Foundation
Boston
$9,000 to support a half hour audio dramatization of Mary Lee Settle's short story, "The Old Wives Tale," as part of an ongoing series of similar productions for public radio broadcast and educational use.
Robert Russa Moton Museum
Farmville
$2,500 to support two public lectures on the history of Civil Rights in education in Virginia, featuring former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton and John Stokes, one of the plaintiffs in the Davis vs. Prince Edward Co. case, both of whom have written recent books dealing with this history.
Robert Russa Moton Museum
Farmville
$5,000 to support planning for a permanent exhibit on the history of the civil rights and education as embodied in the history of the Robert R. Moton School and Prince Edward County, VA.
Rockfish Valley Organization
Nellysford
$2,000 to support an archaeological and historical research project focusing on the Elk Hill community in Nelson County.
Scrabble School Preservation Foundation
Scrabble
$9,000 to support planning for two related interpretive exhibits -- one physical, one web-based -- on the history of Scrabble School in Rappahannock County, one of the Rosenwald Schools in Virginia established to provide education for African American students during the years of legalized racial segregation.
St. John's Church
Richmond
$2,500 to support a one-day planning meeting, part of a larger process leading to the development of new teaching materials and resources that address the foundations of Virginia and United States government.
State Fair of Virginia, Inc.
Richmond
$2,500 to support a series of oral history interviews with African American former groomsmen at the Meadow farm/stable in Doswell, Virginia, home of Triple Crown-winner Secretariat and a number of other world-class thoroughbred racehorses.
Taubman Museum of Art
Roanoke
$4,000 to support a pilot oral history project based on recorded interviews with master musicians from the Appalachian region, focusing on their artistic development. The project is the first step toward creating a regional music history archive.
The Edgar Allan Poe Museum
Richmond
$1,000 to support the printing an interpretative publication designed to accompany an exhibit examining the continuing influence of Edgar Allen Poe on popular culture, specifically comics and graphic novels.
The Fairfield Foundation
White Marsh
$3,000 to support research leading to the creation of a booklet and website exhibit on the everyday material life of African American living in the vicinity of Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County) during the decades immediately following the Civil War.
Trees Virginia
Charlottesville
$5,000 to support research leading to the publication of a book connecting the most "remarkable" trees in Virginia with human history.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville
$10,000 to support a photographic exhibit, panel discussion, and interpretative booklet exploring issues of violence, poverty and social changes in El Salvador.
University of Virginia
Charlottesville
$10,000 to support development of an online exhibit and website, based on an on-going oral and community history project, focusing on events related to the Civil Rights Movement in Danville, VA, in particular the protests during the summer of 1963, and their long-term legacy within the community and beyond.
Urban Alternatives Foundation
Arlington
$6,000 to support community interviews, photo documentation, two exhibits, and a public forum, part of a long-term effort to document the buildings, communities, and physical and cultural changes along Columbia Pike in Arlington County.
Venture Richmond
Richmond
$7,500 to support portions of the first annual (2008) Richmond Folk Festival, focusing on "the artistry, creativity, and community life of new immigrants to Virginia."
Virginia Commonwealth University Foundation
Richmond
$5,000 to support the development of ten 30-minute radio interviews/conversations with leading scientists and humanities scholars focusing on topics related to "Darwin, Evolution, Creation, and Intelligent Design," part of a larger series entitled "Conversations in Science and Religion."
Virginia Discovery Museum
Charlottesville
$2,000 to support a series of three public programs focusing on various aspects of Monacan culture, to coincide with the exhibit "Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians, Yesterday and Today" during its display at Charlottesville's Virginia Discovery Museum.
Virginia Discovery Museum
Charlottesville
$3,000 to support a series of five performance/discussion workshops on Virginia "Roots" music, presented in conjunction with display of the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit entitled "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music."
Virginia Division of State Parks
Richmond
$5,000 to support a series of one and two-day programs held at state parks throughout Virginia, focusing on Native American technologies, material culture, and use of wild foods and medicinal plants.
Virginia Peninsula Literary Consortium
Newport News
$6,000 to support a free public lecture by the author Walter Mosley and seven book discussion programs focusing on his work, to be held at libraries in the Hampton/Newport News area.
Virginia Quarterly Review
Charlottesville
$2,500 to support the continuation of a long-term effort to document the literary history of The Virginia Quarterly Review, focusing on important "backstories" involving major European and American authors whose works were published in the VQR.
William King Regional Arts Center
Abingdon
$1,500 to support a series of public events offered in conjunction with an exhibit exploring the relationship between art and faith in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
For further information, contact Sheryl Hayes at 434-924-3296 or Sheryl@virginia.edu