a book about Motown Productions, the film and television arm of the legendary Motown Records; Preservation of the traditional language and way of life of the Yupik and Kapik Alaska Native peoples; And research into how communities in Bermuda – and insurance companies – understand the risks caused by rising sea levels and climate change, are among 245 projects across the country receiving new grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. are.
The grant, which totals $33.17 million, supports historical collections, exhibitions and documentaries, humanities infrastructure, scholarly research and course projects.
Of the 13 categories in which grants were awarded, the most money – $11 million – went to 23 infrastructure and capacity building challenge grants, which leverage federal funding to foster non-federal support for cultural institutions.
Those included awards to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, to make Hawaii and Pacific history and culture more accessible, and to the First People’s Fund in Rapid City, SD, for education programs about Lakota cultural traditions. For making. At Pine Ridge Reservation’s Oglala Lakota Artspace.
Thirty projects in New York State will receive $4.4 million in total funding, with $3.76 million going to 16 groups and individuals in New York City.
In Brooklyn, UnionDocs will receive $644,525 for producing a film about the First Amendment and the balance between free speech principles and other core values. (The project is titled “Speaking Freely: The First Amendment and the Work of Prime Attorney Floyd Abrams” and will be directed by Yale Melamed.)
In Long Island City, LaGuardia Community College will see $34,991 to create a liberal arts health humanities option for undergraduates with an interdisciplinary curriculum that focuses on the social, cultural and historical contexts of medical ethics, health, and medicine.
And in Manhattan, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum will receive $400,000 to support guided tours exploring the lives of African Americans and Irish immigrants in 19th-century New York City. Women Make Movies, also in Manhattan, will receive $500,000 to produce a film that explores the life and work of Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid. The film, “Jamaica Kincaid: Liberating the Daffodil,” will be directed by Stephanie Black.
This crop of grants is the first round of funding from the agency under Shelly C. Lowe, the first Native American to lead the agency.
“NEH is proud to support these exemplary education, media, conservation, research and infrastructure projects,” Lowe said in a statement. “These 245 projects will expand the horizons of our knowledge of culture and history, elevate humanities organizations working to preserve and tell the stories of local and global communities, and provide high-quality public programs and educational resources directly to the American community. Will bring it to the public.”
