Humanities Iowa Awards $119,282 in Major Grants

Humanities Iowa, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, awarded $119,282 to 11 cultural organizations following a June 13-14 meeting of the board of directors in Arnolds park. Grants went to 10 organizations located in Iowa and one in Moline, Ill. The awards were selected through a competitive application and review process and are made possible through Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The grants awarded are:

Dallas County Conservation Board
Project Title: Prairie Awakening -- A Journey into Indigenous Learning Workshop
Grant: $5,100
Project Description: The prairie played a huge role in the history and culture of many Native American tribes. This project aims to foster an understanding of the connection between indigenous peoples and their landscape by bringing native voices together with the current residents of prairie communities. Participants will be challenged to explore and experience indigenous learning styles through workshops led by Jerome Kills Small -- a linguistics professor at South Dakota State University; Dallas Chief Eagle -- a champion hoop dancer and storyteller; and Bryan Akipa -- a flute maker and school teacher. "Prairie Awakening" is scheduled for Sept. 6 from 1-9 p.m. at the Kuehn Conservation Area north of Earlham.

Drake University, Anderson Gallery
Project Title: Building a Modern Campus -- Eliel and Eero Saarinen at Drake University
Grant: $15,000
Project Description: Internationally renowned Finnish architects Eliel and Eero Saarinen transformed the Drake University campus and its surrounding neighborhood between 1945 and 1957. In all, the Saarinens designed nine buildings for the campus including Fitch Hall, Harvey Ingham Hall, Hubbell Dining Hall, Medbury Hall, Scott Chapel, and the Quad Residence Halls. This project, which is sponsored by Drake University and the Anderson Gallery, will include an exhibition catalogue, a Saturday morning symposium, and an online tour of Drake's Saarinen buildings.

Iowa State University Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities
Project Title: Sustaining the Earth: Public Scholarship in the Arts and Humanities
Grant: $13,063
Project Description: This project intends to create a conversation about sustainability in Iowa, the U.S. and the world through a series of public lectures and faculty seminars. Included in the project are discussions about sustainability in relation to the environment, economics, and community. Also included is a photography exhibit, "Imaging a Shattered Earth." The second part of the event -- the humanities faculty seminar series -- is meant to train Iowa State faculty in developing their own humanities-based public scholarship projects. "Sustaining the Earth" begins in September 2008 and runs through November.

Fourth Wall Films/Kansas Public Telecommunications Services, Inc.
Project Title: Country School: One Room -- One Nation
Grant: $15,000
Project Description: Iowa had more operating one-room schools than any other state in the Union. The history of those schools, as well as others across the Midwest, will be explored in this historical documentary to be produced by Fourth Wall Films. The film will look at the schools' role in educating pioneers and immigrants as well as their work in imprinting democratic and patriotic values on the minds of their students. This is the third collaboration between Fourth Wall Films and HI. Previous efforts included "Villisca: Living with a Mystery" and "Lost Nation: The Ioway."

Loras College Department of Communication Arts
Project Title: Man of Deeds: Mathias Loras and the Iowa Frontier
Grant: $15,000
Project Description: Mathias Loras, the first bishop of Dubuque, had a tremendous influence on the Upper Mississippi Valley following his arrival in the area in 1839. That story is now to be the subject of a documentary film produced by the Loras College department of communication arts. According to the school, the Frenchman bridged ethnic divisions between Irish and German immigrants and built relationships with area Native American tribes. He also traveled extensively throughout much of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana. The 50 minute film will premiere in May 2010 at a free screening at Mainframe Theatre in Dubuque.

National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library
Project Title: Iowa's Czech Immigrant Experience: Documenting and Disseminating the Stories
Grant: $3,815
Project Description: The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids will preserve a piece of Czech immigrant history by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating 75 oral histories as well as numerous photographs from the descendants of Iowa's Czech immigrant population. The materials will come from eight different communities around Iowa and will include video recordings of oral history interviews and original photographs to be transferred to DVDs.

The Sparks Fly Upward Foundation
Project Title: The Sparks Fly Upward
Grant: $15,000
Project Description: "The Sparks Fly Upward" is a musical drama by Drake University law professor Cathy L. Mansfield that tells the story of three German families living in Berlin -- two Jewish and one Christian -- from 1938 through the Holocaust. Mansfield said the underlying theme for the story is the Book of Job and its response to the question of human suffering. In fact, Mansfield took the title from Job 5:7 -- "Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." The story is scheduled for Nov. 8, the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. HI's contribution to the project will focus on an historical display of images from Berlin, from the Holocaust, and from other modern genocides to be exhibited in the lobby. There also will be lectures about the Holocaust to be delivered to various companies, civic groups, retirement communities, and schools.

Town and Country Arts
Project Title: From the Archives of Harrison County: Uncle Tom's Cabin
Grant: $8,293
Project Description: Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel exposed the brutality and evil of slavery in a way that shocked many Americans. Her novel also inspired a popular play that toured the country between 1890 and 1930. The troupe of actors that performed that play wintered in Little Sioux, Iowa in Harrison County. Town and Country Arts wants to bring back the play with a recreation of the show. The event will feature the play as well as an exhibit of artifacts from the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" troupe, a promotional parade on each performance day, and audience discussions about intolerance and racial prejudice. Each performance also will be prefaced by a talk by a humanities scholar that will provide a historical context for the play and the times when it was produced.

Trees Forever
Project Title: 20 Stories
Grant: $14,795
Project Description: Iowa's natural beauty includes a rich variety of trees. The significance of that heritage is to be explored in this project by Trees Forever. The group will gather, preserve and share the stories of Iowans and their communities that document their connection to tree planting over the past two decades. The collection, which is being done in honor of Trees Forever's 20th anniversary, will gather 20 of the essays into a commemorative book. The authors also will read their stories at five events around the state in 2009. The call for submissions will be promoted during HI's annual celebration of Iowa writers, Voices from the Prairie.

University of Iowa School of Art and Art History
Project Title: Introducing the Stumptown Shooters
Grant: $7,500
Project Description: No Iowa small town Fourth of July display is complete without a fireworks display. This documentary film by the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History tells the story of one of the groups that makes those displays possible. The Stumptown Shooters, based in River Junction, Iowa -- aka "Stumptown" -- evolved from an informal club of friends and neighbors to an official organization that puts on major public fireworks displays and runs a fireworks safety certification program. In addition to being a history of one organization, this film intends to document the growth and popularity of amateur fireworks in Iowa. It also will explore the cultural history of fireworks in the state.

Waterloo Center for the Arts
Project Title: Inception, Intersection, Connection, Directions: Examining Haitian and Afro-Caribbean Art
Grant: $10,965
Project Description: The Waterloo Center for the Arts has the largest collection of Haitian art in North America. This project, which includes a three-day conference and symposium on Haitian and Afro-Caribbean art, is an attempt to call attention to that collection. Accompanying the conference will be a comprehensive catalogue with scholarly essays interpreting the center's Haitian collection. The symposium will be videotaped, with an edited version being used as interpretation for the collection and school programs. The emphases of interpretation will be historical context, culture, religion, and ties to the African Diaspora.