Oregon Humanities Grants support public programs designed to explore the humanities in participatory and dynamic ways. We encourage applications from a broad range of nonprofit organizations in Oregon, including those that may not define their work as being based in the humanities. We especially welcome inquiries for projects that will attract diverse audiences, engage minds, and stimulate meaningful community dialogue.
Apply Now for 2012 Public Program Grants
Oregon Humanities is pleased to announce the guidelines for 2012 Public Program Grants. We are particularly interested in proposals for programs that bring together diverse groups of Oregonians and reflect collaboration between organizations within a community, as well as proposals from a broad range of nonprofit organizations in Oregon, including those that may not traditionally define their work as being based exclusively in the humanities. Letters of interest are due October 31, 2011, for programs beginning after April 1, 2012.
For more information and to download the complete guidelines, visit the grants page.
08 August 2011 | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)
2011 Public Program Grants Awarded
Twenty-three nonprofit organizations throughout the state will receive $80,000 in grants from Oregon Humanities for public programs that reflect the power of new ideas to create conversation about some of Oregon’s most divisive issues, including immigration, climate change, and public health.
22 February 2011 | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)
2012 Grant Guidelines Available
In 2011, Oregon Humanities Public Program Grants funded conversations between different faith communities about social justice, brought together three generations of women to talk about a century of voting, and invited Oregonians at large to reflect on Islam in America. Public Program Grants also supported community arts and culture festivals, lecture series, Everybody Reads library programs. post-performance theater talks, and guided walking tours in rural Oregon.
In the last year, Responsive Program Grant recipients led public programs about cultural diversity in Portland, political conflict in North Korea, shifting downtown development challenges, and the effect of a decade of war on American soldiers’ families and homes. Grant-funded programs ranged from community conversations to educational conferences to classes open to the general public.
Grantees include libraries, community colleges, historical societies, civic groups, and other nonprofits working not only in humanities fields like history, philosophy, or literature, but also in the areas of the arts, public policy, and natural resources. While the formats and topics of the public programs we fund may vary, all share a goal of connect Oregonians to ideas and providing them with opportunities to learn about and discuss historical, cultural, and political issues.
Oregon Humanities is pleased to announce the guidelines for 2012 Public Program Grants and Responsive Program Grants. We are particularly interested in proposals for programs that bring together diverse groups of Oregonians and reflect collaboration between organizations within a community, as well as proposals from a broad range of nonprofit organizations in Oregon, including those that may not traditionally define their work as being based exclusively in the humanities.
Public Program Grants
Once a year, Oregon Humanities awards Public Program Grants between $1,000 and $10,000 to nonprofit organizations in Oregon to support programs that are timely, relevant, accessible, and interactive. Oregon Humanities welcomes proposals for programs that use the humanities in the public sphere to meet our core mission of connecting Oregonians to ideas that change lives and transform communities. Programs must begin after April 1, 2012. Letters of Interest must be postmarked by October 31, 2011. Please do not include the 2012 Public Program Grants Cover Sheet with your letter of interest; the cover sheet is only required when submitting a full proposal. Sample successful proposals are available for download below.
*Join Oregon Humanities grants staff on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. for a webinar about Oregon Humanities Public Program Grants. Register for the webinar here.
Responsive Program Grants
Oregon Humanities awards Responsive Program Grants up to $1,000 on a rolling basis to nonprofit organizations in Oregon. Responsive Program Grants fund programs that are not part of an organization’s regular programming. Instead, these grants support programs created in response to pressing current issues or events that the applicant is uniquely qualified to help the public explore. 2012 Responsive Program Grant activities must begin after November 1, 2011. Sample successful proposals are available for download below.
Please download and review Oregon Humanities Grants Guidelines for more information. These documents also include applications. If you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer, you may fill out and submit them electronically via e-mail.
If you have questions, please contact Director of Programs Jennifer Allen at (503) 241-0543 or (800) 735-0543, ext. 118, or by e-mail..
Downloads
03 September 2009 | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)
Public Program Grants
2011 Summer Fishtrap Gathering: Migrations and Passages
Fishtrap, Enterprise
$5,000
The 2011 Summer Fishtrap Gathering, Migrations and Passages, will present a weekend of public readings and conversations at Wallowa Lake led by humanities experts addressing topics as wide-ranging as the immigrant experience, immigration policy and reform, the recent reintroduction of wolves in Wallowa County, and the migration of butterflies.
Century of Action: Lives of Women Citizens Program
Oregon Women's History Consortium, Portland
$2,357
Lives of Women Citizens introduces participants and audience members to the history of women and citizenship in Oregon and brings young women into public conversation with veteran women politicians to discuss questions about what difference it has made for women to be involved in politics and what particular role women politicians have today and in the future.
The Nature of Words
The Nature of Words, Bend
$3,000
The Nature of Words Annual Literary Festival brings acclaimed authors to Bend for five days of readings, workshops, lectures, and author dinners. The festival increases regional awareness of the literary arts and the organization’s year-round creative writing programs for youth in central Oregon’s mainstream and alternative schools.
Jewish Theatre Collaborative, Portland
$3,000
Performance/town halls and talk backs will bring recognition to Lillian Wald and her profound civic contributions and will serve to energize the conversation around public health. Town halls will bring together diverse community representation: policy makers, public health workers, and impacted communities to reflect on the question, What is public health?
Divided We Fall: How Ideology and Identity Shape Community
The Bus Project, Portland
$2,000
The Bus Project will host public conversations about questions of belonging and identity that shape and inform — and are shaped and informed by — our democratic process, including the roles of identity, partisanship, and participation in connecting and dividing communities.
Resilience: Bouncing Back 2011 Arts and Culture Festival
Blue Mountain Community College, Pendleton
$4,000
Blue Mountain Community College’s Arts and Culture Festival is an annual public event. Through speakers and presentations addressing the theme of “Resilience: Bouncing Back,” the 2011 festival will examine the human experience and spirit, exploring how individual and collective effort can overcome adversity manifested in diverse situations and cultures.
Open Conversations: Reflections on Islam in America
Muslim Educational Trust, Portland
$6,893
The Muslim Educational Trust’s Open Conversations series will include five lectures, with a reception to welcome the speaker and an open forum following each lecture. Speakers will address a wide variety of subjects related to Islam and its impact on American social, cultural, political, and religious life. Each keynote speaker will be paired with local humanities proponents versed in relevant subject matter.
Community Engagement Program
Portland Playhouse, Portland
$2,200
Following each Sunday matinee performance of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Portland Playhouse will facilitate audience talk back sessions lead by African American community leaders, artists, and cultural experts. These sessions will provide a diverse audience the opportunity to share a deeper connection with each other and their community.
I'm Just Like You Only Different: The Human Face of Change
Rogue Community College, Grants Pass
$3,300
This Rogue Community College conference focuses on home foreclosure, returning veterans, displaced workers, and the Latino experience. It includes presentations, personal stories, discussion, and facilitated writing. Participants will gain factual information, personal insight, and the ability to engage in reasoned discourse.
Doty and Coyote: Storytelling Workshop
Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook
$1,250
The museum will host a nationally recognized Native American storyteller, offering a storytelling workshop to adult participants in two venues in Tillamook County, to encourage storytelling interest and promote preservation of oral histories.
Kip Fulback: Part Asian, 100% Hapa
Oregon Nikkei Endowment, Portland
$4,500
Six public programs, panel presentations, and community conversations by humanities scholars will accompany the Oregon Nikkei Endowment’s six-month traveling exhibition of eighty photographic portraits by artist/curator Kip Fulbeck, helping the audience explore issues of race and identity.
Columbia Gorge Community College, The Dalles
$3,000
The 2011 Spring Humanities Series: Truth in Media is an exploration of how news and information acquisition is evolving in a changing media landscape. In four public lectures, speakers and panelists from print, television, and social media will engage the community in discussions about the pursuit of truth and accuracy.
Teen Reed and Hispanic Heritage Month
The Library Foundation, Portland
$4,100
Matt de la Pena grew up an immigrant kid in a tough neighborhood. Today, he’s an award-winning author. The library will bring him to Portland for Hispanic Heritage and Teen Read month. A lecture and twelve free library programs will celebrate Hispanic culture and explore themes developed in de la Pena’s books.
History: Made By You
Southern Oregon Historical Society, Jacksonville
$5,250
Two community forums will engage the public in discussions about current events as framed by local history, leading to community-created traveling exhibits.
Digital Dialogue: Exploring the World of Documentary Art and Storytelling in a Digital Age
NW Documentary, Portland
$1,500
NW Documentary’s Digital Dialogue, a free public lecture series led by local documentary leaders, aims to engage our community in conversation about the rapidly changing role of documentary in our society. The audio-visual presentations and discussions will focus on humanities themes and moderators will facilitate dialogue to connect ideas to community relevancy.
The Eye of the Storm: Reimagining Ethics for a Changing Planet
Oregon State University, Corvallis
$5,500
The Eye of the Storm: Reimagining Ethics for a Changing Planet will gather humanities experts and citizens for a full-day workshop and discussion at Oregon State University to re-imagine what the changing world will ask of us as moral beings and to affirm what it means to live a virtuous life in a world undergoing radical climate disruption.
Into the Wallowa Summer Outings
Wallow Land Trust, Joseph
$3,750
The Into the Wallowa Summer Outings program consists of free, guided trips to introduce participants to Wallowa County’s significant lands, highlighting rural culture, farming and ranching, and Nez Perce history. Evening lectures emphasizing the complex relationships between people and land supplement the outings.
Recreation of a Historical Kalapuya Shovelnose Canoe
Willamette Heritage Center, Salem
$4,500
This Willamette Heritage Center project is being offered in conjunction with the exhibition The Grand Ronde Canoe Journey. There will be an active workshop, open to the public, where members of the Grand Ronde community re-create a Kalapuya shovelnose canoe.
Historic Preservation 101
Historic Preservation League of Oregon , Portland
$3,400
Historic Preservation 101 will be a five-part workshops series occurring in Crook, Deschutes, Douglas, Klamath, and Umatilla counties. The half-day programs will introduce community members to the academic, financial, legal, and celebratory tools available for protecting and preserving the historic places that make Oregon’s small towns and rural landscapes significant.
Bridging the Divide: Interfaith Conversations
Marylhurst University, Marylhurst
$5,000
Marylhurst University will hold a series of ten interfaith panels where leaders of four different faith communities will gather to discuss the urgent justice issues of our time, including water, human trafficking, care of the Earth, international debt, economic justice, and globalization.
Newport Reads: Down in My Heart
Newport Public Library Foundation, Newport
$1,000
The Newport Library Foundation will host a series of conversations developed around William Stafford’s first book, Down in My Heart: Peace Witness in Wartime. The events will emphasize Stafford’s commitment to pacifism and how it informed his writing.
Title Wave 2011
North Bend Public Library, North Bend
$2,500
Title Wave 2011 is the community reads program of the Coos County Library Service District. The North Bend Public Library encourages teen and adult readers to read Jim Lynch’s novel The Highest Tide. The author will give free public talks in libraries in April.
The Inquisition of Lazarillo: Raising the Question
Miracle Theatre Group, Portland
$3,000
The Miracle Theatre Group will host the conversation series The Inquisition of Lazarillo: Raising the Question to accompany the play, Lazarillo, consisting of three discussions: The Trials of Adaption, Cloaking Dissent, and the Livelihoods of Lazarillo. Our conversations will emphasize the conditions in which Lazarillo, the character, and the text existed.
Responsive Program Grants
The Power of an Illusion/"The House We Live In"
Take III Outreach, Portland
$1,000
Take III Outreach invites the community to take part in a three-part screening of The House We Live In. Post-screening discussions will focus on the history of racism in Portland, awareness of this history and present day racism, and the challenges of providing social and educational services to a diverse community.
North Korea: Politics, Policy, and People
Mercy Corps Action Center, Portland
$1,000
Mercy Corps Action Center will host a four-part series about the pressing political and humanitarian situation in North Korea. The goal of the series is to deepen public understanding of the politics, society, and economy of this volatile country. The four-part series will be led by Portland State University Professor Mel Gurtov, and the final event will feature the director of Mercy Corps’ team in North Korea. Mercy Corps is one of the few international relief and development agencies permitted to operate in North Korea.
Oregon African American Museum: Sustaining African American History & Legacy Conference
Oregon African American Musuem, Salem
$1,000
Oregon African American Museum’s “Sustaining Oregon’s African American History & Legacy Conference” aims to educate the general public on how preserving Oregon’s African American history and legacy sustains community, encourages diverse perspectives, and recognizes African American contributions to the state. A secondary goal is to encourage community support for establishing an African American museum in Salem. The conference is February 14, 2011, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Ave., Portland.
Discussion of The Hillsboro Story
Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, Enterprise
$1,000
In The Hillsboro Story, which premiered at Artists Repertory Theater in Portland, playwright and director Susan Banyas uses spoken word, images, movement, and monologues based on historical research on a schoolhouse burned to the ground in Hillsboro, Ohio 1954 amid controversy over integration. Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center is hosting this program now because, while very few of African American families live in the Northeast part of Oregon, new ethnic groups are moving in who are unaware of the history of multiculturalism in these parts and who are facing many of the same race-related challenges faced by minorities historically. The Center will host a post-performance discussion at the OK Theatre, 208 W. Main Street, at 6:30 p.m., about civil rights hardships across cultures, lasting impacts of generational and social stigma, and exploring solutions through awareness and education.
Pub Talk: Should Books Be Banned?
The Dalles-Wasco County Library Foundation, The Dalles, Clock Tower Ales Pub
$309
The Dalles-Wasco County Library Foundation’s “Pub Talk: Should Books Be Banned?” will be a discussion forum held at a local pub led by an authority on intellectual freedom, Candace Morgan. Ms. Morgan is an ACLU of Oregon Board Member and retired as Associate Director of Fort Vancouver Regional Library. She Chaired the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and was President of the Board of the Freedom to Read Foundation. This is a timely topic in the community as a book challenge at the local high school created a recent controversy.
Building Modern Eugene
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House (SMJH), Eugene
$1,000
The goal of the “Building Modern Eugene” lecture series is to supply critical historical context around modern development and land use decisions in Eugene. The series responds to current local government efforts to develop a new long-term municipal growth plan as part of the “Envision Eugene” process launched in April 2010. The program will explore questions such as, “How do we reconcile projected growth with our region’s environmental ideals?” and “Can the historic character of our neighborhoods be preserved – and how do we decide what the character of a neighborhood is?” For more information, visit the Shelton McMurphey Johnson House website.
Homefront 911: Military Family Monologues
The Sanctuary for Veterans and Families, Medford
$1,000
Homefront 911: Military Family Monologues is a presentation by military families of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans about how war affects the families left behind, followed by a scholar-facilitated community discussion, led by Karen Spears Zacharias, exploring the past decade of war as historically unique, how culture shapes the experience of military families, and how—or if—communities can help.
Oregon Experience: The Modoc War
Klamath County Museum, Klamath Falls
$1,000
“Oregon Experience: The Modoc War” is the premiere screening and post-screening panel discussion of this OPB-produced film scheduled for October 27, 2011, at 7 p.m. at the Ross Ragland Theater (218 N 7th St., Klamath Falls). Admission is free for both the film and panel discussion.
The 99%: A Teach-in on Occupy Portland
Dill Pickle Club, Portland
$1,000
The 99%: A Teach-in on Occupy Portland is a panel discussion and Q&A on the economic, political, and social factors that have led to the Occupy Wall Street movements throughout the country and the movement’s impact locally. The teach-in is scheduled for November 14, 6-8 p.m., at the Portland Building Auditorium, 1120 SW 5th Avenue.
Wallowa County in Transition: New Stories from the Old West
Wallowa Land Trust and Wallowa Resources, Joseph
$1,000
Wallowa Land Trust and Wallowa Resources will co-host a five-part lecture series aimed at engaging the public on the theme of how people in rural areas adapt to changing economies, social structures, political landscapes, and ecosystems. Fishtrap is also co-sponsoring the series. The series was conceived in part in response to a community effort to save the M. Crow store in Lostine, which has been open for 100 years and which may now close. The series consists of five lectures/readings and three panel discussions on related topics.
