Shoreline Arts Alliance Receives Major Grant from Connecticut Humanities

Editor's note: Funding for these grants is provided by money allocated to Connecticut Humanities (CTh) in the 2015-16 state budget. This funding has been eliminated by line-item veto for the 2016-17 fiscal year, resulting in the suspension of the Connecticut Humanities Fund granting program effective July 1, 2016. As a result, this will be the final round of CTh grants funded for the foreseeable future. For additional details, please visit cthumanities.org.

Middletown, Conn. — Connecticut Humanities has announced that ten nonprofit organizations will share more than $175,500 in grant money to support humanities-based programming across the state.

Connecticut Humanities distributes money, allocated by the Connecticut General Assembly, through a competitive, merit-based application process. In Greater New Haven, these Major Grants will fund a series of programs at the Jewish Community Center, provide educational enrichment in conjunction with productions at the Yale Repertory Theatre and help audiences better understand and appreciate the Shoreline Arts Alliance’s summer Shakespeare performances.

The Shoreline Arts Alliance in Guilford received a $24,872 Connecticut Humanities grant to enrich this summer’s Shakespeare on the Shoreline program on the Guilford Town Green by enabling educational discussions and activities around the performances. In an effort to engage a more diverse and inclusive audience, this year’s project includes performances of Two Gentlemen of Verona and Gulliver’s Travels. The Shoreline Arts Alliance is scheduling a series of forums and pre- and post-show discussions to examine Shakespeare’s plots, characters, and themes in historical context and to explore how they remain relevant in modern society.

Yale Repertory Theatre received a $20,933 grant to support its "Will Power!" (WP!) program, which enables students and teachers to derive meaning from thetheater and become lifelong critical thinkers. Through study guides and teacher preparation, WP! provides participants with historical and literary context about a production, helps them ask critical questions and make contemporary connections. The 2016-17 WP! program focuses on Yale Rep’s productions of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, which chronicles African American life throughout the 20th century, and John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, a musical featuring some of the most infamous Americans. Through these two works, students will see how these writers and composers embrace and deviate from history to create art that speaks to present-day society.

The Westport Country Playhouse will also encourage a deeper exploration of theater this month, using a $20,000 grant to fund an ambitious community engagement initiative around a production of Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar’s timely and riveting play The Invisible Hand. The play juxtaposes the potent lures of both religion and money and examines how power and greed can corrupt even those with the best of intentions. "Money, Power and Belief: Reflections on The Invisible Hand" will feature lectures, films, discussions and exhibits to encourage audience-goers to explore the work on stage, its relationship to their own lives, and its impact on the larger world.

The Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater New Haven received a $24,000 grant to support its 2016-2017 cultural enrichment season, which includes a live podcast, two theater production talkbacks, a lecture, and a film screening and audience talkback which address various themes including politics, racism, religion, history, global education, and media culture. The Tablet Magazine podcast “Unorthodox” will look at media portrayals of religion and the weight of religion on voters’ minds in the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential election. Rain Pryor’s Fried Chicken and Latkes looks at issues including being raised in a multi-racial and religious household and racism. A Jewish Joke tackles the Communist blacklist of the 1950s and censorship in general. “An Evening with Lewis Bernstein” talks to one of the main figures behind Sesame Street and explores changing strategies for educational children’s programming. "Beneath the Helmet" looks at the difficulties of transitioning back and forth from civilian to military life.

The Greenwich Historical Society, Goodwin College, Connecticut Dance Alliance, Connecticut Landmarks, Mystic Seaport, and Klingberg Family Centers in New Britain also received grants in this round of Connecticut Humanities funding. For more information, visit www.cthumanities.org.