Recent Community Project Grants
Major Grants ($2,001-$10,000)
Historical Society of Cheshire County
Jennie B. Powers, The Woman Who Dares: A Short Documentary
The Historical Society of Cheshire County, in partnership with the SALT Project and Stringpullers Puppet Company, produced a documentary exploring the life and work of Keene, NH, progressive-era activist Jennie Belle Powers.
Preview the film here.
SEE Science Center
A Culture of Innovation: Capturing Diverse Oral Histories of Manchester’s “Silicon Millyard”
The SEE Science Center and the Manchester Historic Association collected oral histories that explore a half-century of economic change in the Manchester Millyard.
New Hampshire Historical Society
NH Now (and Then): More Than Just a Pretty Picture
The New Hampshire Historical Society partnered with Gary Samson of the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists and Inez McDermott of New England College to support a panel discussion series to accompany NH Now, a nine-venue photography exhibition documenting life in New Hampshire in the last few years.
Learn more here.
The Portsmouth Historical Society
Imagine That! The Power of Picture Books
The Portsmouth Historical Society hosted a major literary exhibit, Imagine That! The Power of Picture Books, to highlight more than seventy books illustrated by artists from New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts over the past century. The project reasssed the region’s heritage of illustration and advanced public understanding of the vital role that picture books play in developing textual and visual literacy, connecting us across generations.
Learn more here.
Plaistow Public Library
Bitter Injustice: The Japanese American Internment of WWII
The Plaistow Public Library, in partnership with over a dozen libraries, schools, and a museum, organized a community read centered on Jamie Ford’s best-selling novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Exploring the “bitter injustice” of the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the program generated community conversations about what it meant to be an American in 1941 and what it means today.
Learn more here.
Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
2022 Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk Series: Courageous Conversations
Emphasizing dialogue for healing at the forefront of each program, the Courageous Conversations series challenged participants to think deeply about racial issues and biases based on appearance, race, gender, and political and social attitudes that have divided us, and motivated participants to make their communities places where true and full history is acknowledged, and where everyone can thrive.
Learn more and access the program recordings here.
Claremont Opera House
Claremont Arts Oral History
In 2022, The Claremont Opera House celebrated its 125th anniversary. As part of these celebrations, the Opera House used a selection of oral histories collected in 1981 to explore the history of Claremont and the Opera House, focusing on how the how the evolution of music and entertainment during the first half of the 20th century impacted the venue and town.
Learn more here.
Canterbury Shaker Village
An Introduction to the Canterbury Shakers
Canterbury Shaker Village created a video to introduce viewers to the history of the Canterbury Shakers.
Watch the video.
MINI Grants (up to $2,000)
Theatre KAPOW
Expanding the Canon: A Play Reading Circle
Theatre KAPOW hosted a play reading circle focused on five plays by contemporary playwrights from across the Asian diaspora to ask: what does an American look like? In the discussions, participants analyzed, for example, a play’s structure, characters, stage directions, its critical response and relationship to other works.
Learn more here.
Concord TV
Community Players of Concord: A Story on the Stage
Concord TV produced a documentary exploring the 95-year history of the Community Players of Concord, the community theater in Concord, NH. The film incorporated archival materials from the Community Player’s collection and featured interviews with current members as it explored the organization’s resilience—persisting through the Depression, the Second World War, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preview the film here.
John Hay Estate at the Fells
A Conversation with an Abenaki Poet
The John Hay Estate at the Fells hosted Abenaki poet Cheryl Savageau and UNH Professor of English Siobhan Senier for a conversation about Savageau’s work, her books of poetry and her recent memoir.
Learn more here.
Strawberry Banke
Dawnland StoryFest: New Hampshire’s Annual Indigenous Storytelling Festival
The annual Dawnland StoryFest is an annual storytelling event originally in created in 2015 by Papa Joe Gaudet to showcase traditional Native American storytellers. Audience members hear traditional stories and learn what they reveal about Indigenous cultures and values.
Learn about the 2022 Storyfest here.
Olive G. Pettis Memorial Library
New England Legends with Jeff Belanger
The Olive G. Pettis Memorial Library hosted Jeff Belanger, a New England-based storyteller and speaker focusing on regional legends, lore, and paranormal happenings.
World Affairs Council
Academic WorldQuest
The World Affairs Council of NH hosted the NH Academic WorldQuest challenge, which allows students the opportunity to engage in global studies beyond the classroom. Student teams are given study materials in ten subject areas – using history, geography, and international studies to consider issues such as climate migration, the war in Afghanistan, the future of work, the global health agenda, technology, 21st century monetary policy, the history of the Vietnam War, and U.S.-China relations – to prepare for a one-day competition to crown the NH champion. The winning team gets the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC for a three-day national conference and competition.
Visit www.nhhumanities.org/grants to learn more about how to apply for a grant to fund a humanities project in your community.
