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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE -- May 22, 2008
CONTACT: Scott Hirko, Public Relations Officer,
shirko [at] mihumanities.org, 517-372-0029 ext. 25
$136,000 AWARDED FOR 13 HUMANITIES
PROGRAMS
(LANSING)-----The Michigan Humanities Council recently awarded $135,774 for 13 public humanities programs. The grants were awarded for programs in two different categories: nine awards for Michigan People, Michigan Places … Our Stories, Our Lives; and four awards for The Great Michigan Read.
Michigan People, Michigan Places … Our Stories, Our Lives program emphasizes collaboration among cultural, educational, and community-based organizations and institutions to serve Michigan's people with public humanities programming.
Launched in July 2007, The Great Michigan Read is a reading program for the entire state with one book – Ernest Hemingway’s The Nick Adams Stories – used to encourage Michiganians to read or rediscover literature. Awards for The Great Michigan Read program were provided to organizations that will create programs to expose audiences to literature using Hemingway and his The Nick Adams Stories.
“The Michigan Humanities Council is pleased to award grants for a wide variety of community based humanities programs,” said Jan Fedewa, executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council. “The proposals reflect the diverse nature of the humanities and the different ways that communities propose to learn about people, places, stories, and lives.”
Michigan People, Michigan Places … Our Stories, Our Lives grant awards include:
- Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant) was awarded $15,000 for “The Will,” an interpretive drama about the history of African Americans in opera and classical music. A performance of “The Will” and panel discussions will occur in Idlewild from May 30 - June 1, 2008.
- The Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant) was awarded $14,863 to record and broadcast public radio presentations made by or about authors who live or have lived in Michigan or who have written books on a Michigan-related topic. There will be 12 specials, each 57 minutes long that will air once each month from April 2009 through March 2010.
- The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park (Grand Rapids) was awarded $15,000 in support of its Jaume Plensa exhibition. The exhibit includes school programs and curriculum, interpretive art lectures, and poetry featuring west Michigan poets. It will occur in October and November, 2008.
- The Michigan Historical Center Foundation (Lansing) was awarded $13,990 for “Following the West Michigan Pike to Michigan’s Beachtowns,” a traveling exhibit and public programming that will tour southwest Michigan beach towns from November 2008-November 2009.
- Saginaw Valley State University (University Center) was awarded $11,930 for “Open House: A Community Celebration of Theodore Roethke’s Centennial.” The grant will support the open house in Saginaw in November 2008, create secondary school and college teacher resources, and produce a Roethke tour book, calendar, poetry unit, and student video project.
- Wayne State University (Detroit) was awarded $15,000 to create a 30-minute signature film documentary, “Regional Roots: The Birth and Evolution of Detroit and Its People,” to be premiered in November 2008 with a panel discussion.
The Great Michigan Read grant awards include:
- The Flint Public Library was awarded $2,950 for “Making Memories in Michigan” to incorporate Ernest Hemingway’s The Nick Adams Stories into the Flint Public Library’s summer reading program.
- The Kerrytown BookFest (Ann Arbor) was awarded $7,500 to present a celebration of Ernest Hemingway’s time in Michigan. The celebration will be held on September 7, 2008. It will include a book jacket design contest based on The Nick Adams Stories, a panel discussion moderated by a Hemingway scholar, and hand letterpress printing of a limited edition broadsheet featuring Hemingway’s 1923 Michigan poem, Along With Youth.
- The Nuveen Community Center for the Arts (White Lake) was awarded $7,491 for “Reflection of White Lake – Its People, Their Stories.” Local students will use The Nick Adams Stories as a context to research local history, create a book of their own writings, interpret their writings into visual format by working with local artists, and have an opening premier in February 2009 to exhibit their work.
- The Pit and Balcony Community Theatre (Saginaw) was awarded $8,000 for the project “Triple Threat: Students adapt, produce, and perform Hemingway’s Nick Adams Stories.” Middle-school students in the summer youth theater program will read and adapt The Nick Adams Stories for theater. The play will be performed on July 5, 2008.
More information on each of the grants is available on the Internet at www.michiganhumanities.org. The Michigan Humanities Council, founded in 1974, is a private, non-profit organization funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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