National Endowment for the Humanities
GRANTS IN PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Division of Public Programs
Announced: February 2009
 
 
Chairman’s Special Awards
The Buddha and Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art
Asia Society
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $1,000,000.00
Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a website, a symposium, a catalog, and educational and public programs, together with production of a complementary two-hour documentary film; the film concerns the sites of major events of the life of the Buddha, and the traveling exhibition concerns the art of Buddhist pilgrimages to those sites.
 
Interpreting America’s Historic Places
Planning Grants
Finding Freedom Summer in Oxford, Ohio
Miami University, Oxford
Oxford, OH
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for the development of an exhibition, a self-guided walking tour, and public programs about the Mississippi Summer Project in Oxford, Ohio, which prepared Civil Rights activists for the 1964 Freedom Summer.
 
The Ancient Ohio Trail
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for a website and other digital products that would permit visitors to download to portable digital devices customized, in-depth tour information regarding ancient Native American earthwork sites in the Ohio Valley.
 
Moton 2011: The Permanent Exhibit
Robert R. Moton Museum, Inc.
Farmville, VA
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for permanent exhibitions and a website examining the 1951 student protest at the Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County and the broader history of public school desegregation in Virginia.
 
Implementation Grants
Jane Addams and the Hull-House Settlement: Redefining Democracy
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Award: Outright; $350,000.00
Implementation of a new core exhibition at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum to incorporate new scholarship about Hull-House, Jane Addams, and the settlement house movement, and to create opportunities for civic reflection and dialogue.
 
America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations
Planning Grants
Our Stories: Resident Voices of Public Housing
National Public Housing Museum
Chicago, IL
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for an oral history initiative to include the voices of residents of public housing to expand the scholarly perspective on the history of public housing for programs by this new museum.
 
Face to Face: The African Presence in Renaissance Europe
Walters Art Museum
Baltimore, MD
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for a traveling exhibition, a website, lecture series, a catalog, and educational and public programs examining the presence of Africans in the art of Renaissance Europe.
 
Identities in Brick and Stone: Society and the Built Environment on the Mississippi
Winona County Historical Society, Inc.
Winona, MN
Award: Outright; $39,177.00
Planning for a long-term exhibition, audio walking tours, and a website on the built environment in Winona County, Minnesota.
 
Imagining a New Deal: A Documentary Portrait of Ohio
Ohio Humanities Council
Columbus, OH
Award: Outright; $39,850.00
Planning for a traveling panel exhibition, curriculum materials, education programs, and a website exploring the impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal on Ohioans using Farm Security Administration photographs taken in Ohio.
 
The Ancient Maya City
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Award: Outright; $39,996.00
Planning for a traveling exhibition, a web exhibition, a publication, and programs on the Maya city of Copán.
 
West, Copley, Trumbull: American Revolutionary Paintings in a Transatlantic World
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, TX
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for a traveling exhibition, a symposium, a website, and related public and educational programs exploring the history painting of West, Copley, and Trumbull in an Atlantic context.
 
Of Power and Place: Richmond, Virginia as the Nexus of a Nation
Valentine Richmond History Center
Richmond, VA
Award: Outright; $0.00 Match; $40,000.00
Planning for the installation of a permanent exhibition on the history of Richmond, Virginia, together with a companion website.
 
Intersections
Chippewa Valley Museum
Eau Claire, WI
Award: Outright; $40,000.00
Planning for an exhibition and related programming that focuses on the history of settlement to Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley.
 
Implementation Grants
Coming to California: The Gallery of California History
Oakland Museum/Museum of California Foundation
Oakland, CA
Award: Outright; $300,000.00
Implementation of a permanent exhibition, docent tours, a website, and public programs on the history of California.
 
Connecticut’s Urban Reading Initiative
Connecticut Humanities Council
Middletown, CT
Award: Outright; $300,000.00
The expansion of reading and discussion programs for at-risk children ages 8-12 and their families in three Connecticut cities over a three-year period and the formation of the Go Read statewide enriched reading coalition and website.
 
Make Big Plans: Daniel Burnham’s Vision of an American Metropolis—An Online and Panel Exhibition
Newberry Library
Chicago, IL
Award: Outright; $200,000.00
Development of a 60-minute television documentary on the life and work of architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham.
 
Fiery Pool: Maya and the Mythic Sea
Peabody Essex Museum
Salem, MA
Award: Outright; $380,000.00
Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a catalog, a website, and educational and public programs that will offer new perspectives on the centrality of water in ancient Maya art and culture.
 
Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Award: Outright; $0.00 Match; $350,000.00
Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a colloquium, a catalog, an interactive website, and educational and public programs exploring the alliance between printmakers and scientists in the 16th century.
 
Fences and Neighbors: New Hampshire’s Immigration Stories
New Hampshire Humanities Council
Concord, NH
Award: Outright; $200,000.00 Match; $25,000.00
Implementation of a three-year, statewide project examining immigration to New Hampshire through a wide variety of formats, including oral histories and reading and discussion programs.
 
American Arcadia: People, Landscape, and Nature at Montgomery Place
Historic Hudson Valley
Tarrytown, NY
Award: Outright; $350,000.00
Implementation of a reinterpretation of a historic country estate, using the experiences of residents and workers to illustrate important turning points in American attitudes toward nature and landscape.
 
Tipi of the Great Plains Exhibition
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $250,000.00 Match; $75,000.00
Implementation of a traveling exhibition and a catalog on the Plains Indian tipi, highlighting its historical role in Plains cultures and its continued importance as a symbol of identity.
 
America’s Media Makers
Development Grants
The Latino Americans
GWETA, Inc.
Washington, DC
Award: Outright; $75,000.00
Development of two one-hour scripts for an eight-part film series to be broadcast nationally, with a companion radio series on National Public Radio and an accompanying website that would examine the history of Latino Americans through the lens of immigration.
 
Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City
Archimedia Workshop NFP
Chicago, IL
Award: Outright; $63,575.00
Development of a 60-minute television documentary on the life and work of architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham.
 
BackStory with the American History Guys
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Charlottesville, VA
Award: Outright; $74,990.00
Development of 28 programs for a new series of one-hour radio programs with interviews, discussion, and special features providing historical perspective on a variety of contemporary issues and topics.
 
Production Grants
Young American Heroes
Connecticut Public Broadcasting
Hartford, CT
Award: Outright; $375,000.00
Post-production of a 28-minute pilot television program for PBS and the development of detailed treatments for an additional four episodes, a Web 2.0 interactive website, a curriculum-based teacher’s website, a retail DVD, and a graphic novel examining the early life of Frederick Douglass.
 
Robert E. Lee
WGBH Educational Foundation
Boston, MA
Award: Outright; $350,000.00 Match; $200,000.00
Production of a two-hour television program with accompanying website for The American Experience that examines the life of Robert E. Lee.
 
American Icons II on Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC
Public Radio International
Minneapolis, MN
Award: Outright; $300,000.00
Production of four hour-long radio programs and five shorter segments on iconic works of American culture for Public Radio International's Studio 360, together with development and production of digital companion materials.
 
Afropop Worldwide
World Music Productions
Brooklyn, NY
Award: Outright; $150,000.00
Production of six new one-hour episodes, re-editing of twelve encore episodes, development of a set of interactive maps of the history of music in Mali, and revision of the website to enhance user-friendly access and interactivity.
 
John Muir in the New World
International Cultural Programming
New York, NY
Award: Outright; $700,000.00 Match; $50,000.00
Production of a two-hour television documentary and website that examines the life of the Scottish-American naturalist John Muir and places his writing, his beliefs, and his activism in the context of late 19th- and 20th-century American history.
 
Small Grants to Libraries
The following libraries received $2,500 to participate in the nationwide program Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience—A Traveling Exhibition to Libraries.
 
Birmingham Public Library
Birmingham, AL
 
Aurora Public Library
Aurora, CO
 
Colorado State University-Pueblo
Pueblo, CO
 
University of Central Florida, Orlando
Orlando, FL
 
Hills County Library
Tampa, FL
 
Augusta State University
Augusta, GA
 
Highland Park Public Library
Highland Park, IL
 
Des Plaines Valley Public Library District
Lockport, IL
 
Illinois State University, Milner Library
Normal, IL
 
Marion Public Library
Marion, IN
 
Towson University, Albert S. Cook Library
Towson, MD
 
Harper Woods Public Library
Harper Woods, MI
 
University of Oregon, Eugene
Eugene, OR
 
Multnomah County Library
Portland, OR
 
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown, PA
 
Greenville County Library System
Greenville, SC
 
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
 
Chesterfield County Public Library
Chesterfield, VA
 
McIntyre Library
Eau Claire, WI
 
Verona Public Library
Verona, WI
 
St. Louis Public Library
St. Louis, MO
 
Elmont Public Library
Elmont, NY
 
Rochester Public Library
Rochester, NY
 
New Bern-Craven County Public Library
New Bern, NC
 
Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland, OH
 
NEH on the Road
The following organizations received $1,000 grants for ancillary public humanities programs to accompany NEH on the Road traveling exhibitions..
 
NEH on the Road: Asian Games
Wilmette Historical Society
Wilmette, IL
NEH on the Road: Lee and Grant
Barrington Area Historical Society
Barrington, IL
NEH On the Road: Asian Games
Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center
Moorhead, MN
NEH on the Road: Carnaval
Black World History Wax Museum
St. Louis, MO
NEH on the Road: Grass Roots
Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens
Youngstown, OH
NEH on the Road: Wrapped in Pride
Memphis Museums, Inc.
Memphis, TN
NEH on the Road: Carnaval
Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council
Texarkana, TX
NEH on the Road: Farm Life
Moses Lake Museum & Art Center
Moses Lake, WA
NEH on the Road: Lee and Grant
Civil War Museum
Kenosha, WI