Alabama Humanities Foundation awarded nonprofit organizations around the state $53,338.50 in its latest round of grant giving. Many of the grants were awarded to programming focused on digital projects, such as virtual field trips, museum tours, webinars, lectures and other online programming, as humanities-based programs face outreach and delivery issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Projects awarded in the Major and Media grants category:
- EarlyWorks Family of Museums (Huntsville)
EarlyWorks Online Virtual Field Trips: As schools prepare for a new year with blended and virtual learning, the EarlyWorks Family of Museums will support the educational community through high-quality interactive virtual field trips. The organization will make programs available to all schools, including educational partners in north Alabama who would usually visit the museums in person each year. - Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association (Montgomery)
Bethany Collins “My Destiny is in Your Hands” Exhibition and Programming Support: The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will present “My destiny is in your hands,” a solo exhibition of the work of Bethany Collins, a native of Montgomery who lives in Chicago. Collins’ works explore the intersection between race, language and history. In addition to the exhibition, MMFA will present a brochure, an artist-designed musical performance, an artist talk and additional programs that explore how the changes in rhetoric have shifted throughout time and have changed history. - Northeast Alabama Community College Learning Resources Center (Rainsville)
Family History: A Webinar for Beginners: The Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) Learning Resources Center will host three introductory webinars on family history using newly licensed software. The program’s purpose will be to assist people who have an interest in family history research but are not sure where to begin. It will also help people in Jackson and DeKalb counties better understand the history and culture of the region. - Providence Missionary Baptist Church Inc. (Grand Bay)
Voices of Heritage: The Negro Spiritual: Through lectures, workshops and musical interpretations, Providence Missionary Baptist Church will present the history of the Negro spirituals to make those in attendance aware of the circumstances under which Negro spirituals developed in this country. The overall goal is to raise the level of awareness of an important American genre by presenting its historical, religious, musical, linguistic and ethical background. - Safe House Black History Museum (Greensboro)
Foot Soldiers: The Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement: Safe House Black History Museum will recognize those who risked their lives and incomes to fight for justice, civil rights and voting rights for African Americans in the 1960s. The organization will frame each unique story in its historic context, along with freedom songs, and upload the videos to YouTube and the museum’s website as part of its oral archives. The organization will also present the foot soldiers with medals of honor for their services. - Tennessee Valley Jazz Society (Madison)
The Humanity of Black Music in Alabama and the Civil Rights Movement: The Tennessee Valley Jazz Society will invite scholars, including educators and artists, to teach and demonstrate The Humanity of Black Music in Alabama and the Civil Rights Movement. This project will present both educational and entertaining events including a panel discussion, exhibits of significant historical humanities collections, visiting lecturer and musical demonstrations, workshops and performances. - Urban Impact Birmingham (Birmingham)
Nobody Knows My Name: Urban Impact Birmingham will generate rich content about the people, places and structures in the history of the civil rights movement and the Historic Fourth Avenue Business District. The organization will interpret their role in the Birmingham community, advance civics education about the crucial growth of this community in American history, and ultimately help the protection of endangered African American sites and architecture while inspiring Black business development as part of cultural heritage. - 16th Street Baptist Church (Birmingham)
16th Street Baptist Church Digital Interpretation and Virtual Tour Program (Phase 1): 16th Street Baptist Church will implement immersive augmented and virtual reality content of its history in three phases that will enable visitors to take a journey through time on the role of the church in history and the civil rights movement. The church will expand a partnership with TimeLooper, a global storytelling company that specializes in the design, production, and distribution of augmented and virtual reality content for historic sites, museums and cultural institutions. - Birmingham Black Radio Museum (Birmingham)
Building Alabama Support for Preservation Statewide: The Birmingham Black Radio Museum (BBRM) will work to assess the capacity of identified partners in eight Alabama cities to facilitate the collection, identification, preservation and cataloging of important local ephemera and oral histories related to the history of Black radio in Alabama. The organization will conclude the project with a public program in Huntsville to bring the community and members of local Black radio and institutions together to archive their recollections of early Black radio’s impact on the community as individuals, entrepreneurs and movement activists. - University of Alabama Honors College (Tuscaloosa)
Chuck Morgan and the Angelic Troublemakers: The University of Alabama Honors College will create a website to produce and post films about Chuck Morgan and others in Alabama who fought for social justice and civil rights. In addition to the films being free and available to the general public and educational institutions, the website will also feature a training program that will empower students to find someone from their own community who fought for justice and make a film about that person that can also be posted on the website.
In the mini-grant category, the following grant was awarded:
- Restore Mobile Inc. (Mobile)
Virtual Preservation Lecture Series: Restore Mobile will produce six virtual lectures on diverse cultural, preservation and architectural history topics pertaining to Mobile and the immediate region. From the first Native American settlers to the European and African-Americans who followed, Restore Mobile will explore their impacts through the geography, heritage sites and the architectural landscape that makes Mobile what it is today. The organization will air the series via Facebook Live monthly from July through December.
AHF awards all grants on a quarterly basis. Applicants are required to create an account through AHF’s Online Grant Management System and must submit a Letter of Intent online at least four weeks before the submission deadline. Once AHF approves the Letter of Intent, applicants will receive access to the full grant application. Application deadlines are: March 15, June 15, Sept. 15 and Dec. 15.
