Organization City Litchfield

CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants were designed to help the state’s museums, cultural, humanities, and arts organizations maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public, connect K-12 teachers and students to strong humanities and arts content, and improve their information technology and digital infrastructure.

CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants were designed to help the state’s museums, cultural, humanities, and arts organizations maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public, connect K-12 teachers and students to strong humanities and arts content, and improve their information technology and digital infrastructure.

CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants were designed to help the state’s museums, cultural, humanities, and arts organizations maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public, connect K-12 teachers and students to strong humanities and arts content, and improve their information technology and digital infrastructure.

The Society will hire a project archivist to create new and enhance existing archival description in ArchivesSpace, our online finding aid database. The Society’s photograph collection, several collections of uncataloged ephemera, a collection documenting an immigrant family (Blakeslee Foy Families Papers), and two minimally described collections of family papers (Seymour & Beckwith) will be made more accessible. This project will also prepare these collections for future digitization projects.

COVID Relief Fund for Museums grants are OPERATING SUPPORT grants for larger museums and other 501c3 nonprofit organizations that provide humanities-based projects and activities for the general public (i.e., museums, historic houses, historical societies, cultural centers, and other types of non-profit organizations that offer activities like interpretive exhibitions, discussion-based public programs, or walking tours to the general public). This funding was made available to larger organizations with full-time staff and annual operating budgets of at least $450,000, with priority given to those with annual operating budgets of $500,000 or more. *These grants are administered by CT Humanities, with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) with funding allocated to the State of Connecticut through the CARES Act.

Funding for Connecticut nonprofit humanities and cultural organizations facing financial hardship resulting from COVID-19, funded by the CARES Act via the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Funding is used to present “By the Force of its Own Merits” a one-day symposium on November 15, 2019 that will round out a two-year celebration of the Litchfield Female Academy, a progressive educational institution that instructed over 3,000 young women between 1792 and 1833. A diverse slate of presenters will discuss the structure and curriculum of the Academy, illuminate its role in the development of educational and social opportunities for women, and speak to the school’s legacy and relevancy within current scholarship.

Sold, Made, & Grown in Litchfield showcases the history of commerce, industry, and agriculture in the town of Litchfield. As part of the town’s 300th Anniversary celebration, Sold, Made, & Grown will examine the continued connection between Litchfield businesses and the formation of community space, identity, and memory. Interpretive displays and interactive components will encourage visitors to share their memories and reflect on the relationship between commerce and community.

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.