Awarded Grants

SC Humanities funds numerous projects in South Carolina through Major Grants, Mini Grants, Planning Grants, and Fast Track Literary Grants.

Grants awarded in fiscal year 2024 (November 1, 2023 – October 31, 2024) are displayed below. Grants awarded in fiscal years 2007 – 2023 can be viewed by clicking on the links on this page. For previous records, please contact T.J. Wallace at 803-771-2477.

Major Grants

Sponsoring Organization: Chester County Historical Society
Project Title: Miss Ann Davidson’s Autograph Collection
Project Director: Bill Marion
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $33,520
The Chester County Historical Society has obtained a unique collection of autographs compiled in the late 1930s by a Chester family. The collection includes autographs from Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Babe Ruth, and many other notable names. One particularly rare piece is all of the 1939 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame on a first cover, one of only 7 that has been identified. The Chester County Museum will create an exhibit on display panels that will be installed at the Historical Society Museum, a digital guided tour of the collection, and they will offer a lecture series in October 2024 on “Sports Figures, Politics, and the Rich and Famous.” The Historical Society’s annual meeting on October 10, 2024 will feature an autograph expert and scholar Dr. Edward Lee.

Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina New Play Festival
Project Title: Josh White Presentation and Town Hall
Project Director: West Hyler
Awarded: $5,500; Cost-share: $41,590
The South Carolina New Play Festival will hold a special presentation and town hall event featuring Josh White, famous musician and Greenville native, as part of their 2024 festival, scheduled for August 8 – 11, 2024. The evening event will include the performance of a scene from a new play, song performances, and a panel discussion about the role that Greenville played in Josh White’s life and success. The playwright, Donetta Lavinia Grays, was asked by the Josh White Commission to create the play about his life. She has interviewed relatives and done other research. The town hall discussion will also include David Sims, director of the Greenville Music History Project, and Douglas Yeager, Manager of the Josh White Estate. The Josh White event will be free and open to the public and widely promoted as part of the festival’s 2024 schedule. It will also be recorded.

Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Philharmonic
Project Title: Arts Capacity Prison Program
Project Director: Susan Cafferty
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $15,000
The SC Philharmonic will administer an arts and humanities program for up to 200 inmates at the Camille Griffin Graham Women’s Correctional Institution in Columbia. The “Arts Capacity” program will include three sessions in which musicians perform for and lead discussions about music criticism, theory, and history with the inmates. The sessions will take place in September 2024, December 2024, and March 2025. The anticipated outcomes are improved mental health and behavior for inmates and decreased recidivism. The SC Philharmonic musicians and staff will be trained as facilitators by the Kansas-based nonprofit Arts Capacity, which has been doing this type of programming for nine years.

Sponsoring Organization: Georgetown County Library
Project Title: Georgetown County Library 225th Anniversary Celebration
Project Director: Trudy Bazemore
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $20,410
The Georgetown County Library will present a series of free public programs from April – fall 2024 to celebrate their 225th anniversary. The programs will look at both Georgetown County’s past and present and will include topics on ethnic diversity, religious traditions, foodways, civil rights, and more. Some of the confirmed programs include “Uncovering the History of the Long Black Freedom Struggle at Hobcaw Barony” on May 7, presented by Madison W. Cates; “Francis Marion and Georgetown County” on May 14, presented by Paige Sawyer; and “Game Changer: The Influence of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Julia Mood Peterkin” on June 4, presented by Ann-Chadwell Humphries. They expect to present approximately 20 programs in total. Many of the programs will also be recorded and uploaded to Georgetown County Library’s very active YouTube channel.

Sponsoring Organization: Lake Hartwell Country
Project Title: Cultivating Legacies: Unearthing African American Contributions in South Carolina’s Agricultural Tapestry
Project Director: Josh Johnson
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $15,000
The Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum in Pendleton, SC will create a new exhibit that will illuminate the significant role of African Americans in South Carolina’s agricultural history, from the time of slavery through the present day. They also plan to create a collateral art installation including visual art, multimedia displays, and artifacts. When the exhibit opens, they will host a lecture series and will present historical demonstrations of trades like indigo dyeing and blacksmithing. The exhibit is expected to open in early 2025, and the programming series would begin shortly thereafter.

Sponsoring Organization: Historic Columbia
Project Title: A Witness to Many Lives: Interpretive Changes at the Robert Mills Site
Project Director: Katharine Allen
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $18,569
Historic Columbia is in the process of reinterpreting the historic Robert Mills House as a series of experiential spaces that will highlight untold and overlooked stories. This application asks for support for the redesign of one room, the 1820s warming kitchen, with hands-on learning opportunities, audio narration, and other sensory elements. Once this room is completed, it will be intensively evaluated, and the data will be used to inform the reinterpretation of the rest of the house. The redesigned warming kitchen will be open to visitors in February 2025, and the evaluation process will take place in Spring 2025.

Sponsoring Organization: Lancaster County Council of the Arts
Project Title: Linking Lancaster: Connecting Communities with Humanities Public Programs
Project Director: Eric Grace
Awarded: $10,000; Cost-share: $15,775
The Lancaster County Council for the Arts will implement a multi-faceted series of programs that will connect the arts and humanities to public audiences in Lancaster County. Plans include the creation of a report about the history of public art in Lancaster County, which will be printed and freely distributed around the county; an exhibit of historic artworks by local residents displayed at the historic Springs House; the creation of a pop-up exhibit featuring works of Lancaster artists and profiles of inspirational locals that can travel to schools and municipal buildings; downtown window displays and guided walking tours; and a series of public lectures, including one with former Executive Directors of the Council and one with the humanities scholars. The majority of these programs will come to fruition in Spring 2025.

Sponsoring Organization: Bullets and Bandaids
Project Title: Bullets and Bandaids: A Living Veteran Anthology
Project Director: Robert LeHeup
Awarded: $10,000; Cost-share: $13,200
Bullets and Bandaids is a nonprofit organization that works with veterans through interviews, collaborative storytelling, and artwork. Veterans are paired with civilian writers and artists to create a unique combination of oral history, story, and art that is crafted into a traveling exhibit and accompanying book. Between April 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025, they will present 20 3-hour community dialogue events at four bars around the state: the Art Bar in Columbia (11 events), Bourbon in Columbia (4 events), RJ Rockers Brewing Company in Spartanburg (4 events), and The Isle of Palms Exchange Club in Charleston (1 event). Each bar will host an installation of the artwork during the program, which will include one of the featured artists speaking about their experiences in creating the art and one veteran speaking about their lived experience, followed by a lecture from the humanities scholar, Ann-Helene McBride.

Sponsoring Organization: Summerville Orchestra
Project Title: History and Music Combine: Celebrating Summerville Orchestra’s 20 Years
Project Director: D. Kathryn Pressman
Awarded: $7,500; Cost-share: $7,500
The Summerville Orchestra will commemorate their 20th anniversary by creating an exhibit and offering a series of public lectures. The exhibit will have two versions: a mini version will be installed at the Summers Corner Performing Art Center by May 18, 2024 for the orchestra’s last performance of the season and then installed at the Summerville Orchestra office over the summer. A larger version of the exhibit will be created for permanent display at the new Dorchester Heritage Center, which is slated to open in Fall 2024. Additionally, they will present an interactive summer lecture series in Summer 2024; dates and program details are to be confirmed. The “20 Years of Summerville Orchestra” exhibit will include three sections: “Humble Beginnings,” “One Small Step for Music,” and “The Sound of Summerville.”

Sponsoring Organization: AfroSouth Film Festival
Project Title: When Porgy Came Home – Documentary Film
Project Director: Lauren Waring Douglas
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $21,000
“When Porgy Came Home” will be a two-hour feature length documentary about the history of “Porgy and Bess” – from novel in 1925 to the opera’s first production for an integrated audience in 1970 in Charleston. In partnership with AfroSouth Film Festival, the filmmaker will produce a fifteen-minute sample video that will be used to raise money and apply for other grants. The documentary outline currently has received tentative interest from the executive producer of PBS’s American Masters. Funding would support four final interviews with humanities scholars and the expenses for an editor to create the 15-minute sample reel. The long-term timeline has the sample clip completed in Summer 2024 and the full documentary completed by early 2026.

Sponsoring Organization: PURE Theatre
Project Title: Septima Clark Chautauqua Event Piccolo Spoleto
Project Director: Sharon Graci
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $15,000
PURE Theatre will present a two-evening series about Civil Rights heroine Septima Clark in June 2024 as part of Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival. The programs will include a moderated discussion featuring four participants: Dr. Patricia Dockery, scholar of black history and author of the play Septima; Sharon Graci, artistic director of PURE Theatre; Donna Factor, Director of the Charleston Chapter of the League of Women Voters; and a representative of the Progressive Club of Johns Island. The moderator Zania Cummings will portray Septima Clark Chautauqua-style, in costume and in character. Each member of the audience will receive an annotated copy of the script of Septima that will include photos and historical information. The annotated script will also be available digitally, and the presentations will be recorded to accompany future performances of Septima. Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for students.

Mini and Planning Grants

Sponsoring Organization: Ballet Spartanburg
Project Title: Ballet Spartanburg’s African Dance Community Outreach Class
Project Director: Susan Woodham
Awarded: $3,950; Cost-share: $4,000
Ballet Spartanburg will present a free weekly African Dance class to the community from January 3 to May 23, 2024. West African dance instructor Angela Alderson will instruct the one-hour course, accompanied by a West African drumming group led by Page Rogers. The class will include information about West African culture, history, and storytelling as the group learns the origins of each dance. Students who participate in the class may have the opportunity to participate in a spring dance demonstration.

Sponsoring Organization: Lander University
Project Title: Lander University Film Festival
Project Director: Dr. Robert Stevenson
Awarded: $4,955; Cost-share: $5,000
Lander University will host their 14th annual Lander Film Festival on March 30, 2024. The Festival includes both a short film competition open to high school, college, and other filmmakers, as well as a series of scholar and filmmaker-led sessions on topics like the history of a classic film, the work of the Greenwood Film Society, the ties between film and theater, and a screening and discussion of the documentary S. Lander: His Life and Legacy. The festival is free and will be widely promoted in the Lakelands region.

Sponsoring Organization: Goodwill Cultural Center Planning Project
Project Title: Goodwill Cultural Center Planning Project
Project Director: Johnnie Monroe
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $5,000
The Goodwill Educational and Historical Society supports the history, culture, and heritage of the Salem-Black River Community of Sumter County, SC and in particular the history of the Goodwill School, a parochial school for African American children located near Mayesville that opened in 1870. They are requesting support for a planning retreat and strategic planning process to review their mission and vision and to establish short and long-range goals that will help with sustainability of their organization. The strategic planning process will be led by Dr. Karen Chandler, formerly of the College of Charleston, and will take place in January and February 2024. They will then search for an Executive Director and plan an open house in September 2024 to engage the community and build excitement about future programming opportunities.

Sponsoring Organization: Richland Library
Project Title: Conversation with Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein
Project Director: Clo Cammarata
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $7,500
Richland Library will present a moderated conversation with authors Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein about their new book Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law. The book investigates how concerned citizens and community leaders can work together to address issues of segregation and inequality. The program will take place on Thursday, January 25, 2024 at the main branch of Richland Library. Tameika Isaac Devine will be the moderator. Richland Library expects 150 people to attend this event, which is a follow-up to their “Color of Law” series in 2021.

Sponsoring Organization: Senior Resources, Inc.
Project Title: The Lourie Lectures Winter 2024
Project Director: Mekia Burgess
Awarded: $3,500; Cost-share: $7,200
Senior Resources will host five courses in February 2024 at the Lourie Center as part of their bi-annual “Lourie Lectures” program. Each themed course includes four hour-long classes and costs $30. The proposed courses for February are: “Media Literacy in the Age of the Internet” led by Frank Baker (confirmed), “Beginning Genealogy” led by Sue Eleazer (confirmed), “Ethnobotany: Conversations about plants and People, Past and Present” led by Dr. Gail Wagner (confirmed), “The History of Columbia Neighborhoods” (unconfirmed), and “Urban Farms and Breweries” (unconfirmed). The programs are primarily intended for retired adults who are members of the Lourie Center but they are open to the community.

Sponsoring Organization: Black Women Legacies
Project Title: Black Women Legacies Digital Humanities Design & South Carolina Memorial Survey Planning
Project Director: Dr. Alexandria Russell
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $15,800
Black Women Legacies is developing a digital platform that will educate and inform about monuments around the country that highlight black women. This grant will support a collaborative weekend of planning that will include working on a South Carolina Memorial survey, to identify monuments and buildings in South Carolina to include, as well as working with their chosen provider, Trivium Interactive, to plan the design and functionality of the website. This planning weekend will take place February 23 – 25 and will include attendance on Saturday, February 24 at the “History Makers: South Carolina Women Who Persevered” conference at the SC Department of Archives and History.

Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina/Anne Frank Center
Project Title: Anne Frank and the Art of Storytelling Leadership Camp
Project Director: Amy Austermiller and Kevin Durden
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $5,300
The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina will offer summer camp programs in 2024 for students ages 12 – 16. One week of the “Anne Frank and the Art of Storytelling” camp will be dedicated to serving refugee students, and the other week is intended for underserved traditional South Carolina students identified through schools that have previously partnered with the Center. In 2024, they are also planning a new two-day “leadership camp” for alumni of the traditional camp weeks. The leadership camp will provide these alumni students with the opportunity to continue to develop the skills to mentor their peers in the future. The leadership camp activities follow the “See One, Do One, Teach One” methodology and include choosing excerpts from Anne’s diary that are accessible to ELL and non-ELL students, crafting and leading a tour of the permanent exhibit for a diverse group of students, guiding students through the process of choosing a creative project, evaluating student projects, and more. The Leadership Camp will take place in Fall 2024.

Sponsoring Organization: The Rice Museum
Project Title: Living With Water
Project Director: Jim Fitch
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $5,000
The Rice Museum in Georgetown will host a multi-disciplinary symposium on April 18 -19, 2024 in partnership with the Georgetown County Library and Coastal Carolina University. The “Living With Water” symposium will investigate the historical, ecological, cultural, and social aspects of living along the coast and other waterways. Featured speakers will include Dr. Kevin Dawson, a Professor of History from the University of California; Michael F. Piehler, Director of the North Carolina Institute for the Environment; Zenobia Harper, Director of the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University; and Don Quattlebaum, a rice planter. The goal of the program is to help coastal communities understand both the history of water culture and how water is currently impacting them through storms and water events. The symposium will be recorded and made available to all branches of the Georgetown County Library as well as placed on their active YouTube page.

Sponsoring Organization: Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society
Project Title: Discovering Our Roots: Historic Lincolnville’s Genealogy Symposium
Project Director: Dr. Pernessa Seele
Awarded: $3,800; Cost-share: $3,800
The Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society will present “Discovering Our Roots: African American Genealogy Symposium” on Saturday, April 6, 2024 at the Lincolnville Town Hall. The event will celebrate African American ancestry and explore cultural heritage. Interactive presentations and workshops will include “Genealogy 101,” “Finding Your Ancestors in the Freedmen’s Records,” and “Discovering your Roots in Land Records.” Noted Gullah scholar Victoria Smalls will present about the importance of genealogy research. The symposium will be free and open to the public.

Sponsoring Organization: York County Library
Project Title: York County Library 2024 YA Library Con
Project Director: Luanne James
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $16,000
York County Library will present their 2024 YA Library Con on Saturday, May 18, 2024 at the main branch in Rock Hill. The event features author presentations and panels, book signings, cosplaying, games and more. Featured authors include Sanford Greene and Brendan Reichs. The event is free and open to the public and targets young adults, teens, and children.

Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Academy of Authors
Project Title: South Carolina Academy of Authors Induction Weekend
Project Director: Jonathan Haupt
Awarded: $3,000; Cost-share: $18,500
The South Carolina Academy of Authors will host their 2024 Induction Weekend on May 3 – 5 in Beaufort in partnership with the Pat Conroy Literary Center. The 2024 inductees are poet Marcus Amaker, poet and novelist William P. Baldwin, writer and historian Harlan Greene, and a posthumous award to fiction writer Ann Head. There will be a variety of free events over the weekend, including tours of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and readings/presentations by the inductees and the SC Academy of Authors fellowship award winners. There will also be the ticketed induction ceremony and dinner on Saturday, March 4. They anticipate approximately 500 attendees over the weekend events.

Sponsoring Organization: Friends of South Carolina Libraries
Project Title: 2024 Friends of South Carolina Libraries Annual Conference
Project Director: Helen Ann Rawlinson
Awarded: $650; Cost-share: $2,500
The Friends of South Carolina Libraries will host their Annual Conference on Saturday, March 23, 2024 at Richland Library – Main. The one-day conference will include an update from the SC State Library, presentations on meeting best practices and maintaining nonprofit status, an open forum on membership, a presentation of their annual awards, and a presentation by an author or panel of authors. The conference is promoted to all libraries and library friend groups around the state, and the expected attendance is 60 people. There is a fee of $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers.

Sponsoring Organization: Business and Professional Women, Breakfast Chapter (Spartanburg Chapter)
Project Title: Discovering a Century of Business and Professional Women of South Carolina
Project Director: Tracy A. Regan
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $9,800
Business and Professional Women’s Spartanburg Chapter is planning a 30-minute documentary about the history of the 100-year-old organization, exploring its impact and how the role of women in the workforce has changed over the last century. The requested planning grant funds would support pre-production activities for the documentary, including research at Winthrop University’s Louise Pettus Archives and interviews with legacy members of the organization. They anticipate completing the documentary by September 2024 and hosting a public premiere in Spartanburg with a panel discussion, as well as subsequent screenings at regional chapter communities. They also plan to approach SCETV with the documentary and make it available to all state libraries.

Sponsoring Organization: Olympia Granby Historical Foundation
Project Title: Forge & Legacy: Celebrating Craftmanship and Heritage
Project Director: Dr. Sherry Jaco
Awarded: $4,250; Cost-share: $4,250
The Olympia Mill Village Museum & Community Place will present an artisan and heritage event featuring blacksmithing and its history on Saturday, April 20, 2024. They will feature three blacksmiths with three forges demonstrating the art of blacksmithing from three eras: 1850s, 1920s, and 2020s. Volunteer interpreters will share about the historical significance of the craft, and a brochure will be created as a takeaway for attendees. There will also be guided tours of the museum. The event will be free and open to the public.

Sponsoring Organization: Arthur Rose Foundation
Project Title: Development of the Arthur Rose Foundation
Project Director: Arthur Rose, Jr.
Awarded: $2,500; Cost-share: $7,700
The Arthur Rose Foundation is a new arts-based cultural organization located in Orangeburg County. The Foundation honors Arthur Rose Sr., a beloved and important art history professor at Claflin University who is remembered as the “Dean of Black Artists of South Carolina.” The Arthur Rose Foundation will eventually offer visual arts and humanities (art history, art theory, and art criticism) programs to the public with an emphasis on students. They are currently in the initial phase of starting the foundation and will use Planning Grant funds to support to assist with the costs of designing a website.

Fast Track Literary Grants 

Sponsoring Organization: Lancaster County Council of the Arts
Project Title: Inaugural Lancaster County Literary Festival 2024
Project Director: Eric Grace
Awarded: $3,000; Cost-share: $5,000
The Lancaster County Council of the Arts will present their first Lancaster County Literary Festival from April 12 – 14, 2024. The programming will include a community read featuring the book Lowcountry Boil by Susan Boyer for adults and P is for Palmetto by Carol Crane for children. Susan Boyer will be featured in a public program on April 13th. Additionally, there will be a poetry and open mic event on April 14, and a “StoryWalk” (displays of pages from a children’s book along a guided walking path) will be installed downtown.

For more information about the Grants Program or any of SC Humanities’ funded projects, please contact Theresa (T.J.) Wallace, the Assistant Director, at 803-771-2477.