Organization City New London

One Book One Region will return to southeastern Connecticut in 2021 for another season of reading a shared book and learning more about the book’s themes. As in the past, One Book One Region will begin in June with a kickoff event, featuring a keynote speaker, and will end in the fall with a talk to the community. In the interim, regional libraries and other organizations will present programs relating to the book. For 2021, the chosen book is “Interior Chinatown” by Charles Yu.

Post COVID-19, for safety reasons, we need to rework how visitors experience the Custom House Maritime Museum.
Rather than providing intense docent-led tours as we have in the past, we need to allow visitors to see the museum independently.
By incorporating a visitor-orientation video, additional object labels, and gallery information sheets, we believe we can accomplish this transformation within four short months!

CT Humanities and the Connecticut Office of the Arts partnered to offer relief funding to cultural organizations that continued to provide arts and humanities programs and services while facing financial hardship resulting from COVID-19. These organizations demonstrated their commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work in their mission and operations, and commitment to the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. These grants were funded by a grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA).

CT Humanities and the Connecticut Office of the Arts partnered to offer relief funding to cultural organizations that continued to provide arts and humanities programs and services while facing financial hardship resulting from COVID-19. These organizations demonstrated their commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work in their mission and operations, and commitment to the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. These grants were funded by a grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA).

Ubuntu Storytellers will give a performance and two workshops for adults, open to the public and free of charge. The performance will include stories that provide a window into the lives of the tellers, all people of color. The workshops will facilitate self-understanding and build bridges between people. The program takes place in December 2020.

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 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 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.

The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic exhibition will present the work of sisters Mary Way (1769–1833) and Elizabeth Way Champlain (1771–1825), pioneering women artists who helped expand both their artform and gender roles in the early days of the new republic. This exhibition will be on view from February 13 to May 2, 2021.

Partnership funding will allow Connecticut Storytelling Center (CSC) to expand programming to older students and present programs that focus on the Colonial / Revolutionary War and Civil War periods through storytelling bringing to light many interesting and diverse people and events that are often left out of school curricula. Piloting the program with 6 storytellers, CSC will bring stories that celebrate CT’s history to schools, libraries and historical societies and encourage discussion about our history and how it impacts the present. If the interest is strong, the goal is to grow the program’s reach with additional storytellers with material related to Connecticut history. Partnership period is November 2019 through June 2020.

Funding will help Connecticut College partner with One Book One Region of Eastern Connecticut to bring a book to Eastern Connecticut that will spark discussions and related programming. The 2019 selection is “Hey, Kiddo” by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, an autobiographical graphic novel which explores themes of opioid abuse and fitting in. It will be the subject of public programs throughout the community between June and September. The capstone event, the author talk, will be held on September 17, 2019.

Funding will be used for a program with Connecticut resident Richard Lenzi, author of “Facing the Dawn: the Italian Anarchists of New London” published by SUNY press in February 2019. He will discuss the Italian anarchist community which lived in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood from the 1890’s through the 1960’s. Following his talk, Connecticut College history professor Fred Paxton–former co-chair of the Coalition to Save the Fort Trumbull Neighborhood–will moderate a discussion between audience members and Lenzi. The program is September 26, 2019.

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.

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.

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.