The South Carolina Humanities Board of Directors awarded more than $60,000 in Major Grants to 10 cultural organizations after a September 21, 2018 Board Meeting in Columbia.
The awards were selected through a competitive application and review process and are made possible by SC Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Matching community support for the 10 awarded projects totaled: $133,459.
A list of awarded grants is provided below:
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Research Foundation (USC Sumter)
Project Title: Swan Con: The Sumter Comic Arts Festival
Project Director: Andrew J. Kunka
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $10,612
The University of South Carolina Sumter in partnership with the Sumter County Cultural Commission will present “Swan Con: The Sumter Comic Arts Festival” on March 22 – 23, 2019. The “town and gown” partnership will take place at cultural venues around Sumter and will be free and open to the public. Approximately nine comic book artists from around the country are expected to be featured; confirmed participants include: Damian Duffy, Carl Antonowicz, Sophie Goldstein, Noah Van Scriver, and Max Miller Dowder. There will also be exhibits, a cosplay contest, and a comics-creating workshop for K-12 students.
Sponsoring Organization: Midlands Technical College Foundation
Project Title: Fine Line Documentary Featured at Get Psyched with MTC 2019! Conference
Project Director: Lloyd Pilkington and Eileen R. Price
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $19,250
Midlands Technical College will host an exhibit titled “Fine Line: Mental Health/Mental Illness” which has 46 photographic and audio essay documentaries of individuals struggling with mental health issues. The opening of the exhibit will also kick-off a two week conference that will include workshops, panel discussions, and short courses that will examine the impact of art, ethics, global perspectives, race, gender, and history on society’s perception of mental health today.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina
Project Title: Submerged: South Carolina Underwater Archaeology
Project Director: Ryan Bradley
Awarded: $4,000; Cost-share: $4,000
The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina will offer programs to 8th grade students around the state about underwater archaeology. The program offered to schools will last for 40 minutes to one hour and will include 1) an introduction to underwater archaeology, 2) methods, tools, and technology of underwater archaeology, 3) hands-on interaction activities, and 4) classroom discussion. An open application process will be offered to South Carolina schools via a school mailing list and website and social media promotion. Twenty schools from around the state will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis: 5 from the Upstate, 5 from the Midlands, 5 from the Lowcountry, and 5 from the Pee Dee.
Sponsoring Organization: Lander University
Project Title: Achieving the Promise: Democracy and the Informed Citizen
Project Director: Dr. Ashley Woodiwiss
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $5,000
Lander University will host a series of events from November 2018 – April 2019 on the topic of “Achieving the Promise: Democracy and the Informed Citizen” that will bring together scholars, journalists, civic leaders, students, and citizens into an extended conversation on cultivating an informed citizenry.
Sponsoring Organization: Lander University
Project Title: Time of Tradition and Transition: A Symposium on the South and World War I
Project Director: Dr. Lucas McMillan
Awarded: $6,335; Cost-share: $6,335
Lander University will host “Time of Tradition: A Symposium on the South and World War I” on March 14 – 15, 2019, the centennial year of the war’s conclusion. The program was partially inspired by a local debate over a war memorial, and Greenwood citizens involved in the debate will have a role in the symposium, bringing a community aspect to the scholarly program. Two evening symposiums on the topics of “Local Stories: WWI, Greenwood, and the SC Upstate” and “Stories from across the South: How WWI Affects Our Region” are planned, as well as afternoon panels each day, class visits, and undergraduate presentations. The program is free and open to the public.
Sponsoring Organization: Southern Documentary Fund
Project Title: The Lowcountry
Project Director: Vicki Callahan
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $20,000
The Lowcountry is a proposed feature-length documentary about the racial landscape of the Charleston area, especially the struggle towards reconciliation between the city’s black and white residents after the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott and the massacre at Emanuel AME Church. The primary theme is “history as an agent of reconciliation,” with secondary themes of “tourism as a site of competing histories and ideologies,” “power and the representation of history,” and “appropriation versus the appreciation of culture.” The documentary is still in the research, scripting, and filming phase, with an anticipated completion date of late 2020.
Sponsoring Organization: Drayton Hall Preservation Trust
Project Title: Drayton Hall Preservation Trust 2018 – 2019 Speaker Series
Project Director: Joseph Rizzo
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $12,700
Drayton Hall Preservation Trust will present their annual “Distinguished Speaker Series” from November 2018 – May 2019. The series is designed to augment the first exhibit in their new gallery, An Agreeable Prospect: The Creation of a Colonial South Carolina Palace and Garden, and will investigate the cultural, political, and social environment at the time that the home was built in 1742. Lecture topics include: “Whiskey in America – Archaeology Lecture,” “Denmark Vesey’s Garden,” “Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution,” and “Shaping the Body Politic: Art and Political Formation in Early America.”
Sponsoring Organization: Center for Civil Rights History and Research, University of South Carolina
Project Title: Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement
Project Director: Bobby Donaldson
Awarded: $7,230; Cost-share: $14,496
The Center of Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina will create a major exhibit to be installed in the Hollings Special Collections Library at Thomas Cooper from February – July 2019. Titled “Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement,” the exhibit will use materials from the collections of the McKissick Museum, the University of South Carolina Libraries, the South Carolina State Museum, the USC Office of Oral History, and the Moving Image Research Collection to tell the story of South Carolina’s fundamental role in the national Civil Rights Movement.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina
Project Title: Backdoor Neighbors: The Impact of “College Town” Culture on African American Community Life in South Carolina
Project Director: Toby Jenkins-Henry
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $8,000
“Backdoor Neighbors” is an oral history and digital humanities project that will document the cultural life of three African-American communities that border Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia.
Sponsoring Organization: College of Charleston
Project Title: Global Foodways
Project Director: Lauren Ravalico
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $33,066
The College of Charleston will host “Global Foodways” from September 2018 – April 2019. “Global Foodways” is a year-long interdisciplinary series of courses and public events promoting the message of global humanities. Three main themes will be addressed through the programming: Community of the Table, Sustainable Eating Practices, and Historical and Political Perspectives on Food. A wide variety of events will take place, including public lectures, the production of a one-woman show called Oh My Sweet Land: A Love Story from Syria with talk-back events, a tour of religious spaces in downtown Charleston with a discussion of food and faith, and a film screening and discussion.
For more information about any of these grant-supported projects, please contact T.J. Wallace at 803-771-2477.
