We are excited to share the following list of Grant Awards totaling $86,894!
These grants support a range of projects that offer educational, cultural and civic opportunities for Wisconsinites around the state.
We hope that reading about them will give you a little taste of the big ideas coming from communities of all sizes.
We also hope you’ll be inspired! Consider attending an event, applying for a grant, or contacting us to discuss your own communities’ needs!
The Wisconsin Humanities Council couldn’t fund these projects without support from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the State of Wisconsin, and private donors. This money invested in our state multiplies locally! Learn more…
Grant applications are reviewed by our board members, a group of people who represent the breadth of the humanities and the diversity of our state. In February, board members met in Madison to make funding decisions about Major Grants. We are excited to share the following list of Grant Awards totaling $86,894!
Congratulations to the following 15 organizations recently awarded Major Grants and Mini Grants in Brown, Chippewa, Clark, Dane, Douglas, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Ozaukee, St. Croix, Vernon, and Washington Counties:
$2,000 to City of New Richmond | “Stories of Service” Veterans Oral History Project
The goal of this project is to open intergenerational discussion about our country’s conflicts and those who served their country and return to civilian life. The city will install interpretive trail signage along a walking trail in a city park, featuring photos and interview excerpts from local veterans. Local volunteers will be trained in oral history collection as part of the project.
$2,000 to Fox Cities Performing Arts Center (Appleton) | Middle Eastern Cultural Programming and Festival in the Fox Valley
This program will use the production of “The Band’s Visit,” which explores music and cultures in Egypt and Israel, as an opportunity to gain understanding about Middle Eastern cultures with community book discussions, talks and the showing of a documentary. This organization is new to WHC grants and we look forward to working with them! This project meets our focus on race and ethnicity.
$1,952 to Luxembourg Cultural Society and Center | Votes for Women! 2020 Cultural Conference|
This project aims to place the suffrage movement in Wisconsin in the context with what was happening at the same time in Europe. This organization is new to WHC grants and we look forward to working with them!
$2,000 to UW-Superior | Refugees in Wisconsin: A Community Conversation
Our former ShopTalk speaker Khalil “Haji” Dokhanchi has expanded his discussion of refuges with a program that will engage with K-12 teachers. This program will engage several communities across the state in a discussion of the legal definition of refugees and migrants and their experiences, offer an interactive exhibit, and introduce teachers to children’s books by and about refugees and migrants.
$2,000 to La Crosse Public Library | 2020 Regional Community Read of “Waking Up White”
This regional reading program creates venues for this predominantly white community to explore the origins of biases and gain awareness and empathy for the lived experiences of Americans of different backgrounds. The project builds on ongoing community work on issues of racism. This project meets our focus on race and ethnicity.
$2,000 to Mount Horeb Area Historical Society | 3rd Annual Native Art Marketplace
Funds will be used to expand and enhance the museum’s annual Native Art Marketplace in collaboration with Little Eagle Arts Foundation to celebrate and showcase the art and culture of Wisconsin’s indigenous peoples. This project meets our focus on race and ethnicity.
$862 to UW-Eau Claire Ruth Foster Gallery | What’s Sex (Gender, Race, Place, Love) Got to Do with It?
A panel and Q&A as part of the Midwest Queertivities exhibit of visual and written artworks at the Ruth Foster Gallery at UW-Eau Claire will help participants explore the ways that a Midwestern regional affiliation intersects with affective identities.
$6,720 to Norskedalen | (Coon Valley) Moving History
This project will build an audio-based oral history that visitors can tune into to hear the story of the physical moving of the many historic buildings and the people who moved them: where they came from, how the buildings were de-assembled, transported, reassembled, and all the challenges and obstacles that were faced in this process.
$10,000 to Chippewa Valley Museum (Eau Claire) | Music of the North
Eau Claire has laid claim to the identity of “Music City.” Working with community partners, the Chippewa Valley Museum will produce “Music of the North,” a 15-minute Object Theater show in its Farmhouse Theater that explores music in everyday life. This project will provide a deeper, more inclusive history of local music and help student and local resident audiences make connections between music heritage, local history, regional identity, and each other.
$10,000 UntitledTown | UntitledTown Book and Author Festival 2020
WHC has funded this festival since its inception. Now entering its fourth year, it has become an annual event for Green Bay that promotes storytelling and book culture. In 2020 the festival theme of Community will bring core questions in the humanities to an even wider audience in Northeastern Wisconsin through community partnerships and intentionally impactful programming.
$10,000 Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project (The Highground, Neillsville) | “We Were There-Korea”
WHC is proud to again support a Highground traveling exhibit that collects the personal pictures, stories, and experiences of veterans. This time the focus is Korea. The exhibit will include era-specific uniforms and memorabilia, music, and, eventually, personal veteran interviews on DVDs.
$10,000 to Summit Player’s Theatre (Milwaukee) | Shakespeare in the State Parks – “The Winter’s Tale”
We’ve been proud to support this non-profit traveling theater company, which produces free workshops and performances in the Wisconsin State Parks. This season will include newly updated curriculum that relates the plot and characters of the play to its outdoor setting and the works of Shakespeare as a whole. Workshops take place prior to each performance free of charge for park patrons 25 times in 24 state parks and state forests around Wisconsin between June 13 and August 23, 2020.
$10,000 Neighborhood House of Milwaukee | Nature of Culture: Come Grow with Us!
This project is a dynamic initiative for low income Milwaukee youth focused on historical and artistic exploration of culture in Milwaukee from 1945-2020. The project will engage children in activities that examine arts and culture over time, how people have used the arts to express positive and challenging aspects of community, and how cultures influence artistic expression. Children learn about key visual art styles such as abstract art, graffiti and pop art, as well as musical genres like jazz, blues and Latin music, and popular dance forms like the cakewalk, tap and hip hop.
$8,000 to Milwaukee Public Library Foundation | Recalling Milwaukee’s Socialist History
With the Democratic National Convention (DNC) convention in Milwaukee in 2020, interest has increased in Milwaukee’s unique local history as the largest city governed for four decades, and well into the twentieth century, by three mayors identified as socialists. Utilizing the library’s vast archive collection for its Socialist mayors, the library will design, create and facilitate a multi-media exhibit. This organization is new to WHC grants and we look forward to working with them!
$9,360 Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend) | “Wisconsin Funnies: Fifty Years of Comics” Exhibition, Programs and Catalog
This exhibition includes hand-drawn comic originals, spanning the late 1960s to the present, representing sixteen artists. The exhibition will be hosted in two locations: MOWA’s West Bend home and MOWA/DTN, the new outpost located in Saint Kate the Arts Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. Because the exhibition will coincide with the Democratic National Convention, the MOWA/DTN component will focus on the relationship between comics and politics. The West Bend component will explore the legacy of Kitchen Sink Press — Wisconsin’s most significant comics publisher.
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