» CT Humanities in the News

A roundup of the latest news from media outlets around Connecticut:

Featured Stories

July 30, 2023, Cheshire Herald – Museum Program Offers Summer Learning

“What all our counterparts across the country are recognizing is Connecticut’s role in exposing our youngest citizens to these cultural experiences and creating opportunities to re-engage with art,” said Dr. Jason Mancini, executive director of Connecticut Humanities. “Learning is a lifelong process, and Connecticut should be proud of its role in this process.” Read more …

July 12, 2023, CT Mirror – Connecticut Planning More Than a Parade on America’s 250th

State Historian and CT Humanities Board Member Andy Horowitz on the America 250 CT Commission, administered by CT Humanities; “What we’re trying to do on the commission, and it’s one of the things that I want to do in my new role as state historian, is to help people so they can get to engage in acts of collective autobiography, to try to write our own story.” Read more …

July 10, 2023, CT Public ‘Where We Live’ – Arts and Culture Check-in in Connecticut, plus a Preview of ‘America 250’

Virtually all Connecticut residents engage in the arts, culture and humanities, either formally or informally, a recent survey found. But attendance rates at many cultural organizations haven’t quite returned to pre-pandemic levels. This hour, we get the latest from Connecticut Humanities executive director Jason Mancini, and hear about a recent push for a “roadmap” that would better fund and link the arts, culture and tourism in the state. Listen …

July 2, 2023, WTIC – Connecticut Summer at the Museum Podcast

Scott Wands who is the Director of Grants and Programs at CT Humanities joins us to talk about the Connecticut Summer at the Museum – the popular state program that enables Connecticut children to receive free admission at dozens of museums across the state during the summer months – is returning for 2023 with more than 120 museums statewide participating. Listen …

March 24, 2023, Hartford Courant – We Love the Arts and Culture in CT, But Also Think State Should Invest More in Them, Survey Finds

The survey, CT Humanities said in a statement, was designed to “help us learn more about who in Connecticut engages with the arts, culture and humanities, what motivates them to do so, and the perceived impact and value Connecticut residents place on the arts, culture and humanities in our state.” Read more …

Story Archive

July 27, 2023, Cheshire Herald: Editorial: Support Museum Passes Program. Since 2021, the program, which runs through the Department of Economic Community Development’s Office of the Arts, in conjunction with CT Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Arts, has allowed children 18 years of age or under and one accompanying adult free access to participating museums.
July 21, 2023, Wethersfield Patch: Webb Deane Stevens Museum Awarded Connecticut Humanities Grant. “Admission fees can quickly become prohibitive when multiplied across an entire family,” said Brenton Grom, Executive Director of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum. “This program allows us to remove that barrier and help families from across the state plan a fulfilling summer.”
July 21, 2023, West Hartford News: ‘Summer at the Art Museum’ at USJ in West Hartford Gets CT Humanities Grant. “As children and students missed out on more than two years of group and school visits to our institutions as part of hands-on, interactive learning, the CT Summer at the Museum Program gives these children and students a chance to experience our institutions and benefit from our programs, activities, and exhibitions.”
July 20, 2023, Greenwich Sentinel: Greenwich Historical Society Announces Receipt of Major State Grant. “As a result of the preservation and environmental upgrades afforded by this grant, our community will have a stronger sense of place, gain a fuller appreciation of our shared past and be better equipped to embrace opportunities for a more informed and just society.”
July 19, 2023, Hamlet Hub: Don’t Forget! Free Admission this Summer at the Wilton Historical Society, Funding Provided by a Grant from CT Humanities. “This program is even more important in 2023 given that inflation has been adversely impacting attendance at our institutions, especially among lower-income families. A visit to a museum provides a special opportunity that can positively impact mental health, demonstrably improve learning outcomes among children and youth, and offer positive activities and outlets in many of the neighborhoods, towns, and cities that we serve.”
July 10, 2023, WPKN: Spotlight on Arts and Culture: “Good to Great” – Transforming Cultural Organizations. Our July “Spotlight” shined a light on 9 quite different organizations in our region who received the highly competitive “Good to Great” grant, jointly administered by the CT Office of the Arts and CT Humanities, designed to help transform the visitor experience at their institutions.
July 6, 2023, Norwalk Patch: Seaport Association Participates in Summer @ the Museum. “This grant program allows us to expand our reach and also helps us achieve our mission of education by introducing children from Connecticut to our historic lighthouse and its maritime history, which is such an important part of Connecticut’s cultural heritage.”
July 5, 2023, Hamlet Hub: Free Admission This Summer at The Aldrich Funded by a Grant from CT Humanities. “The Aldrich has always been a place where visitors of all ages are encouraged to be curious and explore, and this program helps to make the Museum even more accessible for the months ahead,” shared The Aldrich’s Executive Director Cybele Maylone.
July 3, 2023, Hamlet Hub: CT Humanities Grant Supports Ridgefield Historical Society Summer Exhibits. The program invites Connecticut children and their families to visit participating museums free of charge from July 1 through Sept. 4.
July 2023, Fairfield News: Fairfield University Art Museum Awarded Grant for Arthur Szyk Exhibition of WWII-Era Political Art. The Museum is “thrilled that this grant from Connecticut Humanities allows us to bring Arthur Szyk’s powerful artwork to the public, along with a wide array of complementary free programs that will offer further platforms for discussion and engagement around these issues.”
June 30, 2023, New Milford Patch: Free Admission this Summer at Institute for American Indian Studies. “This grant program allows us to expand our reach and also helps us achieve our mission of education by introducing children from Connecticut to the 12,000-year-old history of eastern woodland Native Americans.”
June 28, 2023, CT Mirror: On Balance: Summer Jobs. As with every industry sector, post-lockdown recovery for arts and culture institutions has required thinking differently about how they serve their patrons. I spoke this week with Scott Wands, deputy director for grants and programs at CT Humanities, and he made an interesting observation about this year’s Good to Great awardees. Much of the grant funding will be going toward expanding outdoor spaces, making facilities more accessible and taking on efforts like recording performances to make them available on demand.
June 23, 2023, Hartford Courant: Connecticut Museums will let Kids in for Free Again this Summer. The grants are administered by CT Humanities, the Middletown-based nonprofit arts organization that was founded nearly 50 years ago to manage arts grants from state, federal and other sources.
June 22, 2023, CT Insider: CT Summer at the Museum Initiative Returns with Free Visits for Kids. Connecticut Humanities is bringing back a summer program that will allow Connecticut children to visit museums in the state for free.
June 22, 2023: Danbury NewsTimes: 3 Danbury-area Art Centers to Upgrade Facilities with CT Grants. “We are grateful to Governor Lamont and the legislature for this funding and look forward to continuing this program in the future as we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026,” said CT Humanities Executive Director Jason Mancini.
March 24, 2023, WSHU Public Radio. Research Shows Connecticut Residents Appreciates the Arts. According to the study, 81% of Connecticut residents think cultural organizations contribute to the community’s economy and 89% think positively about elected officials taking legislative action to support cultural organizations in their community.
March 7, 2023, The Daily Campus. EPOCH and Connecticut Humanities Address the History of Housing Insecurity. Five exhibitions later, Vernal said she has much more experience with engagingly telling history. She said the Connecticut Humanities grant will allow Vernal and EPOCH to ensure that historians tell oral histories correctly and with the proper resources.

CT Humanities in the News