2002 EARLY RESPONSE GRANTS

• $1000 to Global Rhode Island for "Rhode Island Capitol Forum on America’s Future"
The Capitol Forum is a year long civics education program that offers a unique opportunity for high school social studies teachers and their students to engage in discussion of our nation’s future in the changing international environment.

• $2000 to Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University for "Conference on the Archaeology of Qumran." Bringing together scholars from across the country and around the globe, this conference is the first international conference devoted entirely to the archaeology of Qumran. More than 50 years have passed since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the excavation of the adjacent site of Qumran. Though many conferences have been dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls, few have addressed scholarship on Qumran. Lectures at the conference address historical, anthropological, and theological issues regarding Qumran, in addition to the archeological ones.

• $960 to Rhode Island School of Design Museum for "Lectures and presentation on museum display as interpretation of classical sculpture" Dr. Mette Moltesen, Curator of Greek and Roman Sculpture at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Denmark, will present slide lectures about the history of collecting and the changing approaches to exhibiting ancient sculpture.

• $1,000 to Rhode Island Historical Society for "The Life of William Brown Project"
This research project prepares for the republication of the memoirs of William J. Brown, adding an introduction contextualizing the memoirs, editorial comments, and an index.

• $1200 to Southern Rhode Island Islamic Society and its affiliate Muslim Heritage Council
for "Conference on Israel and Palestine: Working Toward Justice and Peace"
Bringing together speakers from across the country and around the globe, two panel discussions supported by RICH are a part of this one-day conference that examines issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first panel analyzes the history of the conflict and the history of attempts at peace, and the other describes current voices and prospects for peace. The conference hopes to be an educational forum that will bring an understanding of these complex issues to the general public and provide an opportunity for public discussion.

• $1,000 to Providence College for "The Spirit of Cambodia: A Tribute."
Exhibitions, public lectures, and performance are all a part of this unique series that looks at contemporary Cambodian art. This series brings together both the contemporary arts of Cambodia and that of the Cambodian diaspora, inspiring education, exploration, and reflection on the major themes of these works, how these artists deal with the history of conflict in Cambodia and the spirit of Cambodia’s renewal.

• $1000 to Westerly Public Library for "Hemingway’s Ghost: A Literary Chautauqua"
Scholar Betty Jean Steinshouer has toured RI libraries several times from her home base in Florida, bringing her popular Chautauqua characters to life. In this year’s Halloween tour, Seinshouer literally changes hats as she carries on a conversation among Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings about Ernest Hemingway.

• $2000 to Cambodian Society of Rhode Island for "Rithy Pahn Film Festival"
This festival features films by Cambodia’s celebrated film director, Rithy Pahn. His films chronicle life as it was before the rise of the Khmer Rouge and during the four-year holocaust that killed up to 1.7 million people. His films also examine life in the refugee camps and the breakdown of social mores in the early years of Cambodia’s fragile reconstruction. Director Pahn attends the screenings and discusses his work with the audience.

• $750 to Rhode Island Supreme Court for "Diversity and the Courts."
Research, interviews, and writing culminate in an original one act play exploring the intersections between cultural diversity and the judicial system that will be performed first for the RI Judiciary during the Fall Judicial Conference, and then for various school and community groups. The play will be followed by facilitated discussion.

• $800 to John Russell Bartlett Society for "Small Press and Fine Printing Book Fair."
Books and other works on paper from an eclectic group of 20 small presses and book artists from all over New England and New York will be exhibited in Brown University’s Alumnae Hall. Speaker Ann Kalmbach of the Women’s Studio Workshop will lecture on "Trends and Threads: Publishing Artists’ Books Since 1979 at The Women’s Studio Workshop.

2002 INDEPENDENT RESEARCH GRANTS AWARDED

RICH established the Independent Research Grant category three years ago in
hope of encouraging individuals, particularly those without institutional
affiliation, to conduct original research in the humanities.

Since then RICH, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, has received more than 50 innovative proposals and made the
independent grant category a permanent one.

Four Independent Research Grants were awarded this year. Three projects
proposed by Louis Cirillo, Rose Weaver, and Edward and Linda Wood received
$2,000 each. Gregory Ricci received a grant of $500.

Cirillo, a freelance writer and amateur historian, plans to provide history,
geography, biography, walking tours and projects to help Bristol third graders
experience and appreciate the accomplishments of their community.

Ricci, who holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design with a major in
Painting, will canvass the state's public murals. People from diverse ethnic
groups' including Latin American, Portuguese-American, and African-American
artists' have created murals in Rhode Island. Many of these large murals
occupy highly visible public spaces around the state. Ricci will identify,
explore and study local trompe l'oeil, a detailed style of painting that gives
the illusion of photographic reality.

Weaver, a noted Rhode Island singer and actress, investigates how menopause is
looked at, if mothers talk about it with their daughters and family, and the
cultural differences in the experience. She created her Menopause Mama, a solo
performance about midlife changes in women, before, during and after
menopause, from the humorous and poignant stories of women who have navigated
"the change of life".

As a reporter for the Providence Journal, Edward Wood wrote about the plans to
move the Providence railroad tracks. Later as head of the state Department of
Transportation, he played a key role in the completion of the
moving-of-the-rivers project.

Now he and his wife, Linda, an oral historian with more than a quarter century
of experience as a school media specialist, will interview at least a dozen
people instrumental in the project that helped change Providence into the
bustling city it is today.

HUMANITIES GRANTS AWARDED SUMMER 2002

The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities has awarded grants totaling $38,491.40 in support of 5 humanities projects. Funded projects include a lecture series and exhibition investigating the ethical issues surrounding the use of genetic technology, symposia, workshops and exhibition spotlighting Mali’s contemporary mudcloth, a film and discussion series exploring the experiences and contributions of new immigrant communities, a lecture series showcasing the major contributions of African-American literature to American literature, and a scholar-in-residence program designed to enhance the humanities component of programming at a local theatre company.

Brief descriptions of the funded projects follow.

• $2,680 to the William S. Hopkins Historical Society of the Congdon Street Baptist Church, Providence, for "Connections: The Deborah McCrea Memorial Lecture Series." This five-part lecture series investigates the intellectual and artistic contributions of African-Americans throughout history.

• $4,000 to Perishable Theatre, Providence, for "Humanities Integrated," a scholar-in-residence program designed to enhance the humanities programming in the 2002-2003 season.

• $6,992 to Progreso Latino, Central Falls, in partnership with Slater Mill Historic Site for the "Immigrant Heritage Film Series." This series comprises Spanish-language films with panel discussions that focus on the immigrant experience in the United States and highlights the contributions of Latino immigrants in a labor and community context.

• $11,524 to the International Gallery for Heritage and Culture, Providence, for "Intersections," a symposia series and exhibition spotlighting Mali’s contemporary mudcloth. The eight-part symposia series will address mudcloth as an evolving tradition and explore critical approaches to cross-cultural representation in the 21st century.

• $13,295.40 to the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, for the "URI Honors Colloquium: Genetic Technology and Public Policy in the New Millennium." The colloquium will focus on the ethical, social and legal implications of the Human Genome Project through a series of lectures, performance, and exhibition.

Copies of RICH funded proposals are archived and available for public reference at the RICH office. If you would like to read funded proposals for these and other projects that have received RICH funding, please call the RICH office at 401/273-2250 to make an appointment.