CT Humanities is grateful and excited about this month’s latest of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has provided grants to three organizations/projects in Connecticut totaling $145,000.

Ball and Socket Arts of Cheshire was awarded $25,000 through NEH funding for public impact projects at smaller organizations to aid in strategic planning for historical interpretation. These funds will be used for creation of an interpretive plan for the Ball & Socket Arts complex, which was a working factory for almost 150 years, from 1850 until 1992. The Ball & Socket Arts team is in the process of transforming the former industrial space into an environment of discovery, learning, and community engagement. When all five buildings are completed, Ball & Socket Arts will present curated art exhibits with a focus on contemporary art, foster arts-related community organizations and provide a venue for music, theater and the humanities. Ball & Socket Arts has received CT Humanities funding through a Quick Grant, Operating Support grants, and a Good to Great 2.0 State of Connecticut grant.

NEH has also provided fellowship funding to two CT individuals and their humanities projects:

• Karen Roffman with Yale University was awarded $60,000 for “The Story of Next Week: A Biography of Poet John Ashbery.” The grant will fund the research and writing of a biography chronicling the life of Ashbery, a New School American poet (1927-2017).
• Peter Lavelle with the University of Connecticut was awarded $60,000 his project, “Ecology and the Culture of Knowledge in Chinese Agriculture, 1842-1937. This will cover research and writing leading to a book on the history of modern agriculture in China, focusing on the influence of environmental factors such as weather-related disasters and local ecological conditions.

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov. CT Humanities is an independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.