Connecticut Humanities Announces more than $210,000 in Grants for Organizations in Eight Communities

Connecticut Humanities has announced that ten organizations in eight Connecticut communities will share more than $210,000 in grant money to support humanities-based programming. Each month, Connecticut Humanities distributes money allocated by the Connecticut State Legislature, through a highly-competitive, merit-based application process. These grants support programs ranging from the Mystic Seaport Museum’s exhibition on the re-installed captain’s cabin of a merchant ship to a garden-themed exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum.

The Mystic Seaport Museum was granted $10,415 for the development of an exhibition centered on the newly re-installed captain’s cabin of the Down East merchant ship, The Benjamin F. Packard. The planning phase of this project requires extensive research in the museum’s collections and an audience study on engagement. This exhibit will teach about the maritime cargo trade that shaped Connecticut throughout history.

The New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas was granted $50,000 to fund 14 lectures and panel discussions focusing on social issues, such as the value of human labor, immigration, gender equality, and place and displacement. The 2016 Festival theme “Working On It” features engaging discussions and entertainment, reaffirming the Festival’s goal that “Arts” performances and “Ideas” programs illuminate one another. The two-week long event opens June 10 and runs through June 25.

A grant of $42,875 was awarded to the Florence Griswold Museum of Old Lyme to provide funding for “The Artist’s Garden.” This garden-themed exhibition will feature the American Impressionist art story through various artistic, social and historical lenses and examine the growth in popularity of gardening as a middle-class leisure activity at the turn of the 20th Century. Galleries and educational programs will help visitors understand and discuss the garden movement. The exhibit will be held from June 3 through September 18.

The Madison Historical Society was given a grant of $15,166 for its exhibition “Over There, Over Here.” The project is a collaboration between the Historical Society and the Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archive, and includes programming which features a film series, musical programs and book talks regarding WWI and how the war affected the Madison community. The two-year exhibition will open on July 8.

For additional details about this round of Connecticut Humanities grant funding, please visit cthumanities.org.