Fiscal Year FY18

Stonington Historical Society will create an exhibition of Stonington native and photographer Rollie McKenna’s portraits and streetscapes of Stonington. Issues of gender, sexuality, identity, place, and more are addressed in the project.

This project has two components: a World War I exhibition and a World War I Living History Day. The exhibit will discuss the Great War and its impact on the Torrington community. The Living History event, a collaboration with the Connecticut Civil War Round Table, will include a lecture, re-enactors, and period music.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art are co-organizing an exhibition entitled “Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s,” which focuses on the relationship between Surrealism and war in both Europe and America. The exhibit will be accompanied by educational and interpretive programming and a fully-illustrated catalogue, which will present new scholarship on the broader impact of the effects of war and Surrealist imagery in Europe and the United States.

Westport Country Playhouse will offer several education and community engagement activities in conjunction with their world premiere production of Matthew Greene’s Thousand Pines. The play deals with the disturbing trend of mass shootings by focusing on the lives of three intertwined families in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. In collaboration with a number of community partners, the Playhouse will offer several forums in which the audience can further explore the work on stage, its relationship to attendees’ own lives, and its impact on the larger world.

This as yet untitled exhibit explores the African American history of Westport. It includes an interactive main exhibit, with a replica slave quarters found in a local home built in 1729, the town dock and other locales. On view May 11, 2018 to spring 2019.

Considering the 1818 Connecticut Constitution as an evolving document, this exhibit will examine social parallels between 1818 and 2018, and which elements of the document helped or hindered rights-progress for residents from diverse backgrounds via a lecture series relating to the African American experience in Westport. The exhibit and programming will be produced in collaboration with TEAM Westport (Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism).

This project explores the decline and fall of the Connecticut textile industry (deindustrialization, 1880-2000) and the subsequent transition to a postindustrial economy (postindustrialization) now underway in the state’s former textile mill towns. The exhibit includes permanent display boards and video, so that it can be recreated later in other venues to stimulate public discussion.

Students in the Peabody Museum’s afterschool program will implement an exhibition on the history of women in science. Developed by New Haven and West Haven High School students, the exhibition (on view May 2018 to April 2019) will examine the barriers and obstacles these bright, determined, strong individuals overcame.

This multi-part project will welcome Hurricane Maria evacuees from Puerto to Waterbury. “FRÁGIL Maneje con Cuidado” is comprised of an art- and history-based exhibition and a series of educational programs. It explores the evacuee experience in Waterbury and presents that experience against the broader context of Puerto Rican life and culture before the disaster.

The Mattatuck Museum is in the beginning stages of reimagining and expanding their current building. In order to plan out these spaces in the most useful way, the Mattatuck wants to have reliable data to inform their decisions and guide their discussions moving forward and will conduct audience and market research in order to best achieve their goals for the next three years.

This year, the four selected performances will support the content of the four exhibits currently on display around the Gallery Quadrangle. Each program in the 2018 series will feature humanities-based discussions linking exhibit content with the performances. July and August 2018.

This exhibition places this controversial Vinland Map manuscript on U.S. public view for the first time in 50 years. Purported to be documentary evidence that the Vikings reached North America 500 years before Columbus, the map triggered a firestorm of public and scholarly debates among humanities scholars, scientists, and Italian Americans. This exhibition will examine the map’s mysterious origins; the reasons scholars initially believed it to be authentic; the world’s response to its unveiling; the challenges to that conclusion; and the science that finally turned the tide of scholarly opinion.

A new, permanent exhibit on Naugatuck’s industrial history for display in Naugatuck Historical Society’s new home, the 1881 Tuttle House. Bronson B. Tuttle was co-founder in 1858 with John H. Whittemore of Tuttle & Whittemore (now, the Eastern Company), one of the first malleable-iron manufacturers in the United States. These two industrial magnates, lifelong business partners and friends, played pivotal roles in Naugatuck’s ascent to manufacturing greatness.

The Festival’s 2018 Ideas Program centers around a series of lectures and panel discussions designed to illuminate some of today’s most exciting advancements and pressing concerns, demonstrating the vital role played by the humanities in civic life. Talks and panels feature thinkers and leaders from numerous disciplines including novelists, artists, poets, playwrights, historians, anthropologists, and politicians.

Using photographs, oral histories and appraisal forms, this program on September 15th will explore the effects of urban renewal on residents of a neighborhood razed as part of the Winthrop Cove Redevelopment Project, as well as the 20th century policies which made this neighborhood vulnerable to demolition. New London Landmarks will offer a guided walking tour and digital tour, including audio clips, and will produce a program booklet printed and available for download free of charge.

The 2018 exhibition will focus on the life and award-winning photography of Marie Hartig Kendall (1854-1943). Her keen eye for nature and affinity for her craft have left us a unique archive of photographs and glass-plate negatives, which have just been digitized.

The exhibition will explore the stories of Norwalk from the end of the Ice Age through the rebuilding of the town after the battle and burning of Norwalk during the Revolutionary War. The exhibition will be the first long-term exhibition, other than the exterior interpretative signs, on the Mill Hill campus, and is part of a projected series of exhibitions, programs and events planned.

From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, Norwalk was an important center for the manufacturing of pottery. The merger of the collections of the Norwalk Historical Society, the Village Green Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the City of Norwalk/Lockwood Collection has given the Norwalk Historical Society the opportunity to look at this important product, conduct a collections assessment, and share this story with the public through a new exhibition.

The Museum will plan for the re-installation and re-interpretation of its diverse collection of Asian art. Objects in the collection range in date from the 5th century to the 20th century and include paintings, prints, ceramics, lacquers, and textiles.The Asian gallery will be re-installed with a focus on objects that demonstrate the cross-cultural exchange that fueled artistic and cultural developments in East Asia.

The Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum will formulate a new exhibition and orientation program for their new Education and Visitor Center. Funding will be used to develop an exhibition showcasing some of their archaeology finds, an expanded new interpretive panel of the Webb Family and property, a transformation of the Executive Director’s office into a permanent American Revolution gallery, and a short video about the histories of the WDS Museum and the NSCDA-CT.

A talk and group dialogue with renowned international humanities scholar, conflict mediator, and speaker Ashok Panikkar on the values and culture of Democracy in our modern-day context. Participants will engage in dialogue and deliberation to revisit the role of the “citizen” in a modern-day democracy centered around the role of humanities education in preserving open and free societies.

This year’s community read is Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein and activities consist of book discussions and related programming at the twenty-one-member libraries in Connecticut’s northeast corner. The project concludes with Benedict delivering a presentation and book signing at the Mansion at Bald Hill in Woodstock on June 20, 2018.

Riverfront Recapture will work with the Connecticut River Museum to bring the Onrust, a replica of a ship sailed up the Connecticut River by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in 1614, to Hartford’s Mortensen Riverfront Plaza from June 21 to June 24, 2018. The Onrust will serve as a dockside floating museum, and Riverfront Recapture will offer land-based activities and tours of the vessel while it is docked during the day and public cruises on the Connecticut River in the afternoon and evening.

A series of programs highlighting the rich history of African Americans including a musical performance by the Harlem Quartet, film showings and discussions for Whose Streets? and Veterans of Color, and a book discussion of American Street by Ibi Zoboi.

Six international films will be hosted by three collaborating partners–Russell Library, Wesleyan University and Middlesex Community College–with each film reinforcing the fact that, as people, we’re more alike than we’re different, despite any apparent variations in skin color, language, political affiliation or religious preference. An experienced, well-vetted facilitator will introduce each film and lead a discussion afterward, allowing viewers to benefit from one another’s shared insights (October 2nd – November 6th, 2018).

CTH funding will support two lectures and a film screening and discussion of five mini-documentaries produced by Connecticut high school students: an exploration of contemporary dance by Pamela Tatge of Jacob’s Pillow; a discussion about American political history by PBS journalist and Amherst College Professor Ray Suarez; and documentaries on the Civic Life Project.

Emancipation” is a cultural exchange summer camp program aimed to invigorate and educate youth about their lineage and the use of traditional artistic methods as a means of emancipation. Youth will learn about various Caribbean islands and their perceptions of freedom, as compared to liberation of people of color in the United States. Attendees will participate in a four-week program, panel discussion and final presentation to showcase their knowledge of each construct learned. July 20, 2018 to August 20, 2018.

This inter-generational project within Waterbury engages participants of all ages through collection of oral histories and adapting them into public presentations by casts comprised of area youth. The performances take place across the city to highlight Waterbury’s varied communities, promote dialogue, and to further the development of the history of the people and cultures of the Greater Waterbury area.

The exhibition will bring together for the first time a selection of folklore and social history from the River Valley by utilizing three overarching humanities-based themes: Extraordinary People and Events, Powers of Darkness, and Supernatural Wonders. Using dramatic silhouettes, interactives, and historic artifacts, visitors will journey through four centuries of Connecticut River myths and legends. The exhibition will open at the CRM in May 2019 and be on view through October 2019 before traveling to Vermont Historical Society from November 2019 through April 2020 and then the Springfield Museums (MA) from May through November 2020.

Participants at this years program will be given the opportunity to hear, work with, and learn from an ethnically and stylistically diverse group of top-notch professional storytellers. The festival takes place April 27th and 28th and includes performances, hands-on intensive workshops, and story sharing circles.

Funding will enable the Freeman Houses in Bridgeport to increase security and intellectual control over documents, plans, studies, research, and collections that currently reside in a variety of formats, on the devices of individuals: volunteer staff, private contractors, consultants, and board members. The grant will also produce an actionable strategic plan for the organization.

July 10, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Connecticut State Farm for Women, now known as York Correctional Institution (Connecticut’s only state prison for women). Through a series of events including book discussions, a lecture, a performance and a photography exhibition, the East Lyme Public Library will explore the history of this institution.

Funding supports three preview showcases of “We the People,” a new fifty-minute educational puppet show about David Bushnell, Ezra Lee, and America’s first attack submarine, The Turtle. Showcases are designed to introduce educators, museum directors, historians, representatives from local submarine-related entities, and the public to the story and a unique technique for conveying it to youth and family audiences.

This series of graphic novel-style panels designed by Kirk Manley will tell the dramatic story of the spy ring that operated between New York City, Long Island, and Fairfield during the Revolutionary War. The exhibition (on view May 17-October 1, 2018) will explore the motivations and interactions of members of the spy ring, bringing to life the risks that they took to secure and transmit intelligence.

This exhibit (on view August 16, 2018-February 10, 2019) examines the history and social impact of early 20th century fashion and its relationship to the women’s movement in the 1920s. Programs, such as lectures and workshops, will also be held in the evenings.

A symposium that brings together regional scholars, authors, museums, historical societies and community members to discuss the importance of the coastline and seas to our understanding of the region’s history, culture, ecology, and identity. Long Island Sound and regional maritime zones are the primary focus, but given the global nature of the sea, oceanic connections to other regions will also be considered. Held at Mystic Seaport and Enders Island in Mystic, September 14-16, 2018.

A humanities-rich teaching poster to equip and encourage educators of history and Social Studies to use the Florence Griswold Museum’s new history-based online learning exhibition, SEE/change, to lead engaging class discussions of state history. Featuring an iconic Connecticut scene by George Durrie (c. 1853), the poster has been designed to spark discussions on such topics as Connecticut’s historic architecture, agriculture, slavery, geology, clothing, food practices, class, and global events.

The Florence Griswold Museum’s new exhibition (on view May 11-September 16, 2018) looks at the agricultural heritage of Florence Griswold’s family estate, the Lyme region, and beyond to examine the complex history and character of New England’s farms. The project includes an exhibition and educational programs for adults and families to help visitors explore the exhibition themes from various angles, while also creating discussion of current social issues of the New England farm.

This year’s symposium will connect Prudence Crandall with the origins of the New England and American Anti-Slavery movements, in addition to the emerging 19th century women’s rights movement.

Witness Stones is a collaboration between students, teachers, local scholars, and the community to reveal the history of Connecticut’s enslaved.This second phase of the project will expand to West Hartford and Middletown with teachers researching enslaved in the summer and creating lesson plans to be used at their schools. Teachers will share this information with their classes in the fall, resulting in student research projects and culminating in public dedication ceremonies in November.

Best-selling author Russell Shorto will discuss his new book, Revolution Song, which weaves the stories of six historic figures during the American Revolutionary War, including local legend and freed slave, Venture Smith. The book addresses the significance of individual freedom and rights and how they were the inspiration and catalyst for powerful change and a new nation.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center received support for a robust marketing project to introduce the new Stowe House tour experience to the public, grow and diversify the house tour audience, and drive visibility and participation. The Stowe House reinterpretation has resulted in an engaging, compelling, and thought-provoking new experience for the public, replacing a traditional guided tour of period rooms. The tour uses conversation, immerses the visitor in Stowe’s world, connects the issues of her day with today, and illustrates Stowe’s impact.

The 26th season of the “Sunken Garden Poetry Festival includes a five-part series of poetry readings and musical performances. Along with a performance by U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, the SGPF will feature four themed performances: Irish Poetry & Music, Disability Awareness, Poetry of Our World celebrating multiculturalism, and CT Young Poets Day with Andrea Gibson.

This exhibit (on display April 2018 through October 2018) will tell the story of the Civil War from the perspective of the Irish. Drawings, some never on display before, and newspaper articles will explore the differences between what is published versus what actually occurred.

JHSGH is bringing the National Museum of American Jewish History’s traveling exhibit, “The Power of Protest: The Movement to Free Soviet Jews” to West Hartford (on view June to August 2018). The opening will include a presentation by Dr. Sheldon Benjamin, who worked closely with the movement’s founders, and two additional programs about former Russian immigrants and community leaders that assisted with the resettlement in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.

This exhibition celebrates the 225th anniversary of Sarah Pierce’s Litchfield Female Academy, an important institution for female education that numbered over 3,000 graduates. On display in 2018 and 2019, the project covers all aspects of the school’s history, with specific focus on Pierce’s educational philosophy and the ways in which she helped to shape new opportunities and roles for women.

The exhibit will look at the origins of an industry that contemporary America accepts as an institution, but which was new, controversial, and volatile in the nineteenth century: Wall Street finance.

Exhibit of large works focused on ten global cities ravaged by war. This is a collaboration of city artists, archaeologists, poets, writers, historians, cultural leaders, preservationists, city officials and others drawing attention to strife in their city and resilience of citizens to celebrate the “soul” of their city. The project includes a panel discussion with renowned experts elucidating exhibit themes including the power of creativity, of art to preserve cultural heritage and support peace-building, and the triumph of hope over darkness.

This exhibition (on display April 2018 – December 2018) will highlight tales from the dark side of the clock and watch Industries. The stories will clockmaking’s crimes, criminals, and ethical lapses – told from the vantage point of the timepieces on display.

The project uses the work of contemporary potter Roberto Lugo (born in 1981 in Philadelphia to Puerto Rican immigrant parents) as a focal point for showing how clay can be a medium for discovering lesser-known cultural histories; for advancing scholarship at the intersection of craft, design, and environmentalism; and for examining societal divides across class, race, and religion. Artspace will develop exhibition support, youth curriculum, and symposium panel themes.

Avon Free Public Library and Avon Historical Society partner to offer a series of five programs in the summer, June 2018 to August 2018. The series uses Original Discontents, a compilation of primary documents by Dr. Richard Buel, as assigned text for patrons.

Using the Jodi Picoult novel Small Great Things as the anchor for a One Town, One Book, Bethany Library Association will engage the town in community discussions and programs geared to increasing the community’s awareness of racism’s many forms, including institutional and cultural. Programming will focus on creating a public dialogue for discussion and reflection on race, power, and privilege. September and October 2018.

This project combines exhibition with public programming and hands-on instruction to tell the story of the Art Center, and the community it served from 1970 – 1986. By the time of its on-record closing of 1986, the Art Center had offered thousands of hours of art, photography, music and culinary instruction to city youth, adults, and senior citizens. The Art Center history is endangered in that there is no book, documentary, library archive or any other discrete medium in which its rich existence is recorded in full.

A two-part community event series featuring a film screening and panel discussion of the film Dolores, featuring farm worker and activist Dolores Huerta, and a Global Farm-to-Table dinner hosted by Sanctuary Kitchen chefs from Sudan, Afghanistan, and Syria, with storytelling & discussion.

Two teachers will develop lesson plans on the Constitution of 1818 for elementary, middle, and high school teachers. The curriculum will be available to the public online through the Civics First website. The project dovetails with the Connecticut Explored project and will provide a valuable teaching tool in conjunction with a fold-out poster of the Constitution of 1818.

The Connecticut Historical Society will help create an exhibition about the history of Auerfarm. Photographs and artifacts from the CHS collection, along with archival material from Auerfarm, tell the story of how Beatrice Fox Auerbach transformed the land into a model farm, where she entertained and sought respite from her corporate and philanthropic life.

This multipart series will explore a variety of stories related to Connecticut aviation: 23 Years and Counting…The Restoration of the K28 Blimp Car; The History of Pratt & Whitney; and Maiden Flight – The Role of Katherine Wright.

Connecticut College is a partner of One Book, One Region of Eastern Connecticut, which is based on the idea of expanding a small book club to that of an entire community. This is the third year that the College has been a partner, and they will host a community event with the author of this year’s selection Exit West, Mohsin Hamid, on September 26, 2018.

In partnership with the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society, Connecticut Explored will produce a two-sided poster that reprints the complete text of the Constitution of 1818 and includes annotations written by members of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society. The posters will be distributed to Connecticut Explored readers inside the Fall 2018 issue and to high school civics teachers for display in their classrooms.

Connecticut Humanities is pleased to co-publish Connecticut Explored magazine.  Established in 2002 as the Hog River Journal, the magazine is the only publication dedicated to exploring the state’s heritage through well-researched articles of broad public interest.  Supporting the magazine is a natural fit for our work that focuses on exploring historical perspectives, and the publication helps promote the organizations that receive CTH grants.  The partnership also facilitates broader distribution of Connecticut Explored content through the publication of selected articles on our ConnecticutHistory.org website.

This three-part lecture series will explore the creation of the constitution of 1818 from different legal and historical perspectives. Speakers will discuss such topics as the transition from the 1662 Charter to the 1818 Constitution, the debates surrounding the Constitution of 1818 and their relevance to modern Connecticut politics, and the rise of religious toleration in the state.

An exhibition about the experiences of Connecticut residents during World War I. Photographs and artifacts from the CHS collection help tell a story about how the Great War affected and changed people’s lives in the state. On view May 22, 2018 – December 8, 2018.

This exhibition will look at different methods of mental health diagnosis and treatment in Connecticut from the 1600s to the present day. It places the topic within the context of larger national trends to show how and why mental health care issues have been, and continue to be, at the center of political, economic, ethical, and social debates. CHS intends to show how this is not a linear story and will highlight the different methods of diagnosis and treatment that have been available at different points in time, against the backdrop of larger national trends and illustrated by smaller individual experiences.

Connecticut Humanities’ work with the Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO) dates back many years and aligns with our goal of helping the state’s cultural institutions connect effectively with the communities they serve.  CLHO is a membership organization that creates connections among those who preserve and share the stories and objects of our past.  We partner with CLHO to offer professional development programs like STEPS-CT as well as workshops for the staff, board members and volunteers of the state’s heritage organizations. We also work together developing educational materials to promote visitation to local heritage museums and sites. CLHO and Connecticut Humanities are strong advocacy partners and work together to promote the vital role the humanities and heritage fields play in our communities and schools.

The Connecticut Public Affairs Network will conduct a six-part lecture series with Connecticut Explored on the Constitution of 1818 that provides contextual information, explores the document’s impact on religious freedom and voting rights, and fosters discussion on its lasting impact on citizens of today. The free noontime programs will be held at Connecticut’s Old State House (OSH) with themed tours of the OSH, the site of the constitutional convention and a building impacted by the Constitution.

Connecticut Humanities’ support for Connecticut History Day helps nurture the next generation of young historians and introduces them to the resources of the state’s museums, libraries and historical societies. History Day is a national program designed to engage middle and high school students in historic research and presentation. Coordinated in our state by Connecticut’s Old State House, the academic competition encourages students to explore local, state, national and world history. After selecting a historical topic that relates to an annual theme, students conduct extensive research using libraries, archives, museums and oral history interviews, and create final projects to present their work.

From colonial settlement to present day, alcohol’s importation, production, and consumption has played a significant social, economic, and political role in the Connecticut River Valle. The exhibit (on view June 7, 2018 and will run through October 8, 2018) will explore this complex history that is as dark as it is spirituous, and as historic as it is relevant to today.

As Connecticut River Museum completes the final year of their current strategic plan, the organization’s leadership recognizes the need to develop a road map for the future. There is a growing need to review past accomplishments, assess current needs and environmental conditions, and reaffirm (or define) the next vision and set of priorities.