Vermont Humanities Grant Funds Lecture Series Featuring Teen Scholars

The Vermont Humanities Council has awarded the Clemmons Family Farm in Charlotte a $2,850 grant to support its 2018 Humanities Speakers’ Series, “To Sing of Common Things: The Voices of Young People in 2018.” The project is one of fourteen that were awarded grants during VHC’s Spring 2018 grant cycle.

“To Sing of Common Things” will feature ten teenage scholars who will share their process in developing creative works and discuss the meaning of their work. Their presentations began June 16 and run through October 31. Visit clemmonsfamilyfarm.org for details.

The Clemmons Family Farm celebrates African-American heritage and fosters the appreciation of cultural history across ethnic, religious, and other backgrounds. The 148-acre farm with its six historic buildings is part of Vermont’s African-American Heritage Trail, and has been owned by Jack and Lydia Clemmons since 1962.

In June, the farm also hosted “Justice—and Poetry—for All,” a celebration of African-American poetry. VHC granted Sundog Poetry Center $1,500 for the program.

VHC’s Grants program supports nonprofit organizations that conduct humanities-related projects; in 2017 VHC awarded a total of $40,000 to these organizations for twenty projects.

Other projects receiving awards in VHC’s Spring 2018 grant cycle are as follows:

• And Justice for All Exhibit and We the People Lectures, a lecture and an exhibit commemorating the sesquicentennial of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, Strafford (Friends of the Morrill Homestead, $1,000)
• The 2018 Burlington Book Festival, Burlington ($2,000)
• Vermont Music History Exhibit at the Vermont History Museum, Montpelier (Big Heavy World, $1,000)
• “The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur,” two presentations with author Scott S. Greenberger, Plymouth and Fairfield (Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, $1,500)
• 2018 Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brattleboro, $2,000
• 2018 Bookstock Literary Festival, Woodstock, $2,000
• History Camp 2018, a free annual summer camp for kids ages 6-12 focused on world history and archeology, Swanton (Swanton Public Library, $1,500)
• Traveling Exhibits for InterLibrary Loans on the cultural heritage of Vermont, Middlebury (Vermont Folklife Center, $1,500)
• The Vermont International Festival Abenaki culture lectures and demonstration, Essex Junction (Vermont Performing Arts League, $1,000)
• PlayTalks 2018: Women’s Voices, discussions accompanying Dorset Theatre’s 2018 season, Dorset (Dorset Theatre Festival, $1,000)
• Time Travelers Camp 2018, an annual history camp for youth ages 8-12, Brownington (Orleans County Historical Society, $2,000)
• Stage 33 Live Presentations, a humanities-based TV, radio, and web series, Bellows Falls (Stage 33 Live LTD, $500)

Twice a year, through a competitive grant process, VHC makes awards to museums and libraries, film, music and literary festivals, local historical societies, and other nonprofit organizations to support public humanities programs that contribute to the achievement of its mission. VHC makes awards of up to $5,000. Organizations wishing to apply should visit vermonthumanities.org or call 802.262.1355. For the Fall 2018 application round, VHC will accept letters of intent from July 23 to August 24 and proposals from September 3 to October 5. Award decisions will be made by December 12.

For more information about the VHC Grants program, email community@vermonthumanities.org, call (802) 262-1355, or visit vermonthumanities.org/humanities-grants.