SC Humanities Board of Directors awarded over $40,000 in Major Grants to 8 cultural organizations after a September 18, 2015 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 8 awarded projects totaled: $293,613.
A list of awarded grants is provided below:
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Historical Society
Project Title: Voices of the Santee Delta
Project Director: Selden Hill
Awarded: $4,321; Cost-share: $9,105
The South Carolina Historical Society in partnership with The Village Museum in McClellanville will conduct an oral history project designed to increase knowledge of the Santee Delta region of South Carolina. Approximately 12 interviews will be collected, transcribed, and made available on the Lowcountry Digital Library website. Additionally, three public forums to discuss the results of the oral history project are planned for May, June, and July of 2016 in Charleston, Georgetown, and the Santee Delta.
Sponsoring Organiszation: Chester County Historical Society
Project Title: Dialog with the Past – Collecting and Preserving Chester County’s Black History
Project Director: Bill Marion
Awarded: $4,000; Cost-share: $18,344
The Chester County Historical Society will conduct a history harvest and oral history project focused on black residents of Chester County. Between November 2015 and April 2016, six monthly history harvests will be held in different communities in Chester County, allowing black residents to share and digitize their historic photos, objects, records, and stories of life in Chester County. Collected materials will be professionally preserved by the historical society and uploaded to the South Carolina Digital Library and the National Digital Public Library as well as being shared locally through written reports and programs.
Sponsoring Organization: Foundation for New Media
Project Title: War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator
Project Director: Robert Clem
Awarded: $7,500; Cost-share: $28,500
The Foundation for New Media will expand and re-release the film War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator, which traces the life of South Carolina businessman and World War I flying ace, Elliott White Springs. The revised 87-minute version will premiere in 2017, coinciding with the Centennial of America’s entry into World War I.
Sponsoring Organization: Art Goes There
Project Title: Sewee to Santee – A Distinct Artistic and Cultural History of African American Artists
Project Director: Lisa Estes
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $24,293
Art Goes There is a cultural organization that connects artists and teachers to children who will benefit from arts education programming. They will coordinate an oral history project in which students will interview and work with folk artists in the Lowcountry to record their stories, document their art form, and create a collaborative piece of art in the medium of the artist.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina – McKissick Museum
Project Title: Sound, Silence, and South Carolina
Project Director: Saddler Taylor
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $8,042
The McKissick Museum will present a free two-day conference about South Carolina music titled “Sound, Silence, and South Carolina.” The conference will include panels and paper presentations, a keynote speech by Dr. Mellonee Burnim, and a performance workshop featuring Aunt Pearlie Sue and the Gullah Kinfolk. The conference will take place February 26 – 27, 2016 as one of the public programs associated with the McKissick Museum’s 2015 – 2016 exhibit Heard at Every Turn: Traditional Music in South Carolina.
Sponsoring Organization: Historic Columbia Foundation
Project Title: The Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative Project
Project Director: Robin Waites
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $84,700
The Historic Columbia Foundation will coordinate the “Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative Project” which will document, provide access to, and raise awareness of local Jewish history. Activities include interviews of Holocaust survivors living in Columbia; a series of at least five group discussions inviting members of the community to share stories, photographs, and other ephemera about Jewish history; a panel presentation and guided walking tour of the history of downtown Columbia Jewish merchants on November 7, 2015; the creation of guided and self-guided walking and driving tours of Columbia Jewish history to be available in May 2016; and the incorporation of some of these newly identified Jewish stories into Historic Columbia Foundation’s existing Traveling Trunk program for schools.
Sponsoring Organization: Santa Elena Foundation
Project Title: Program Series at the Santa Elena History Center
Project Director: Dr. Andy Beall
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $87,000
The Santa Elena Foundation will present an ongoing series of public programs in 2015 – 2016, including their grand opening in November 2015 and programming surrounding the 450th anniversary of the founding of Santa Elena in 2016.
Sponsoring Organization: Beaufort County Library
Project Title: Storyboard America
Project Director: Jan O’Rourke
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $33,619
The Beaufort County Library is the sponsoring organization for a pilot effort of Storyboard America, a project which engages the public in capturing moments of their personal life through written and audio expressions. The Beaufort County Library and the Dorchester County Library will be the venues for a two-year pilot program, hosting free monthly workshops and quarterly community sharing nights.
For more information about any of these grant-supported projects, please contact T.J. Wallace at 803-771-2477.
