Grants to provide support for Va. cultural projects
Virginia Humanities has announced 32 new grants totaling $238,244 for nonprofit organizations across the Commonwealth.
“The winning projects include cultural celebrations, art installations, public talks, live performances and more, each meaningfully exploring Virginia’s history, culture and traditions,” said Matthew Gibson, executive director of the state government’s Humanities Council. “We’re excited to support organizations that give Virginians the opportunity to connect through the humanities, resulting in stronger and more empathetic communities across the Commonwealth.”
Some of the scholarship recipients are:
• Belmead on James Inc. (Drexel-Morrell Center): $5,000 for Ancestry 100: An African-American Church Collaborative, a digital file and graphic exhibit that chronicles the histories of African-American churches in Powhatan since the 19th century tell to date to be presented at Powhatan’s June 16, 2023 celebration and permanently archived at the Drexel-Morrell Center.
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• Birthplace of Country Music: $3,784 for a summer training bursary bringing two teachers to the Bristol location for summer training and projects.
• George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts: $20,000 for 1,001 Plays, which supports marketing and communications for the free annual play festival, which aims to use theater as a vehicle for cross-cultural communication.
• Jewish Museum & Cultural Center (Friends of Chevra T’Helim): $6,502 for “Berkley: A Peek into the Heart of a Neighborhood,” which will allow for the purchase of a touchscreen digital display for an existing exhibit on immigrant Jews and their impact on the Tidewater area.
• Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia: $4,241 for the Patawomeck Eel Pot Workshop, a hands-on event in Fredericksburg led by Dr. D. Brad Hatch, a master maker of the Patawomeck eel pot, an inductee member of the Patawomeck Tribe, and a member of Class 2022-23 of Virginia Humanities’ Folklife Apprenticeship program.
• Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia: $18,385 for “In Our Own Words: Preserving Stories of the Rappahannock Tribe,” a radio-based project aimed at sharing wisdom and experiences of elders and training young people to document tribal stories for preservation .
• Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project: $4,510 for Enslaved in Page County: Bethany Veney’s Narrative Read By Her Descendants, a reading of the narrative by Bethany Veney, who was born into slavery in the early 1800s.
• St. Luke’s Historic Church & Museum: $5,000 for 17th-Century Isle of Wight County, an annual two-day event in Smithfield that celebrates the colonial era through musical performances, themed lectures and costumed interpreters.
• The American Friends of Lafayette: $20,000 to support the bicentennial commemoration of the Marquis de Lafayette’s farewell visits to Virginia communities in 1824-25.
The Virginia Humanities Council was founded in 1974 and is based at the University of Virginia. It was established by Congress and is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the state government. Visit the website at VirginiaHumanities.org for more information.
