The South Carolina Humanities Board of Directors awarded more than $108,000 in Major Grants to 11 cultural organizations after a February 21, 2025 Board Meeting in Georgetown.
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 11 awarded projects totaled: $294,928.
A list of awarded grants is provided below:
Sponsoring Organization: Able South Carolina
Project Title: People, Not Patients. Stories from the SC State Hospital, Phase II
Project Director: David Laird
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $21,032
Able South Carolina, in partnership with Historic Columbia, will continue their project to document the history, particularly personal individual experiences, of the South Carolina State Hospital. The second phase will focus on researching and collecting stories from 1877 through the closing of the hospital at the end of the 20th century. They will continue to study hospital records and other archival materials; conduct 10 – 15 oral history interviews of former residents, their families, and staff members; update and expand the “People, Not Patients” website with new narratives and multimedia content; and, at the conclusion of this phase, host a public reception to share about the research. Ultimately, the goal is to create a South Carolina Disability Rights Museum that will integrate the research and oral histories.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina History Department
Project Title: The Muslim South, 1950 – Present: Oral History and Archival Repository Project
Project Director: Dr. Sarah Waheed
Awarded: $7,500; Cost-share: $15,000
“The Muslim South” is a long-term, multi-year project sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s Humanities Collaborative with the goal of building an oral history and archival repository on Muslims in the US South for the public. In 2025 – 2026, they plan to train 3-5 interviewers in oral history methodology; collect 20 oral history interviews with diverse Muslim groups in South Carolina; build a repository of oral histories and materials in the South Caroliniana Library; build an archive of Muslim American literature and publications produced in South Carolina and the Southern region; and start an annual “Ramadan Night Market” event at the Columbia Museum of Art.
Sponsoring Organization: Clemson University
Project Title: “Watcher of the Skies”: Transformative Incarceration Through Classic Literature
Project Director: Dr. Nancy Paxton-Wilson
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $15,000
Clemson University professor Dr. Nancy Paxton-Wilson will lead a weekly, year-long course in classic literature for 10-15 incarcerated men suffering from mental health challenges at the Greenville Detention Center. The goal is to introduce texts to the participants that provide unique perspectives on what it means to be human, with the intent of establishing feelings of belonging and camaraderie and decreasing loneliness. The participants will compose reflections and short essays at the end of the course. An exhibit about the project, including the course texts and the student projects, will be displayed for one month at Clemson University’s Cooper Library in Summer 2026.
Sponsoring Organization: Brookgreen Gardens
Project Title: Brookgreen Inspires – Anna Hyatt Huntington’s Influence
Project Director: Robin Salmon
Awarded: $13,000; Cost-share: $86,785
Brookgreen Gardens will host a series of programs to investigate the legacy and influence of Anna Hyatt Huntington, prominent early-twentieth-century sculptor and founder of Brookgreen Gardens. The series will launch with the Anna Hyatt Huntington Awards Luncheon on March 27, 2025, featuring keynote speaker Thayer Tolles. There will also be an 8-week exhibition of the sculpture exhibit “Brookgreen Inspires – Women Create,” which will open with a gallery talk and include an interpretive catalogue. Interpretive panels will be created depicting the history of Huntington’s career and accomplishments, which will be on display at all related events, and a monologue performance about Huntington’s life will be scripted, to be performed in the gallery during the exhibit. Finally, three public “Brookgreen 101” lectures will be scheduled while the exhibit is on display: “Brookgreen Inspires – A Panel Discussion of Artists,” “The Legacy of Anna Hyatt Huntington,” and “Two Horsy Women – Belle Baruch and Anna Hyatt Huntington.” Admission to Brookgreen Gardens is $22 for adults.
Sponsoring Organization: Mather Interpretive Center
Project Title: Expansion of Mather Walking Tour Project
Project Director: Mr. Rufus Pinckney
Awarded: $9,000; Cost-share: $14,000
The Mather Interpretive Center will create a 4-stop digital walking tour on their property, where four historic buildings will have scannable codes that lead to an informational video about the history of the building. History and communication studies students from USC Beaufort will assist with the process of historical and archival research, narrative writing and storyboarding the videos, collecting interviews from Matherites, production of the videos, and post-production. The walking tour will launch in early 2026.
Sponsoring Organization: Magnolia Plantation Corporation
Project Title: Juneteenth Celebration: Speaker and Performance Series
Project Director: Carrie G. Seiden
Awarded: $6,200; Cost-share: $6,200
Magnolia Plantation will host a three-day Juneteenth event from June 19 – 21, 2025. There will be three free evening events, including an opening keynote featuring Dr. Ashley Dennis of the College of Charleston; a literary event about the book “A Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth” by Margaret Seidler with a guided tour of five slave cabins; and a closing ceremony featuring Benjamin Seabrook performing Gullah spirituals. Additionally, there will be a family-friendly living history event with actors in period attire giving demonstrations of the cultural traditions of enslaved people and a gospel performance; that event is open to the general public with admission to the gardens.
Sponsoring Organization: Clemson University
Project Title: Professional Advancement Through History: Clemson University Historic Properties Teacher Institute
Project Director: Naomi Gerakios
Awarded: $10,000; Cost-share: $14,615
Clemson University will host a Professional Advancement Through History Summer Teaching Institute on the university’s historic properties from July 6 – 10, 2025. Twelve K-12 teachers will participate, receiving professional development in standards alignment, field trip preparation, inclusive strategies, and research using Clemson’s archives. Along with the Institute leaders, the teachers will work collaboratively to create standards-based lesson plans for pre, onsite, and post-field trip activities connected to Clemson Historic Properties, such as the Fort Hill National Landmark. The resulting lesson plans will be published online for the public in late 2025 or early 2026, and thousands of South Carolina students will benefit from them.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina – Lancaster Native American Studies Center
Project Title: Navigating Indigenous Identity in South Carolina: A Cultural Documentation Project and Exhibit
Project Director: Dr. Stephen Criswell
Awarded: $10,000; Cost-share: $15,000
The Native American Studies Center at the University of South Carolina-Lancaster will create an exhibit about the state-recognized Native American tribes in South Carolina, examining both their history and culture and their contemporary experiences. Project staff will conduct interviews and on-site fieldwork with tribal leaders, artisans, and tradition bearers for the Edisto Natchez Kusso (Dorchester and Colleton counties), the Wassamasaw of Varnertown (Monck’s Corner), the Waccamaw (Aynor), the Beaver Creek (Salley), the Santee of Holly Hill, the Pee Dee Indian Tribe (Carolina Piedmont), the Sumter Tribe of Cheraw Indians (Sumter), the Piedmont American Indian Association (Upstate). An exhibit will be developed based on these materials that will be displayed at the Native American Studies Center and made available to travel to the participating tribal communities. The exhibit is planned to debut in spring 2026.
Sponsoring Organization: One Columbia for Arts and Culture
Project Title: Soda City Poetry Festival 2025 – One River, One Boat: Celebrating South Carolina’s Poets
Project Director: Jennifer Bartell Boykin
Awarded: $7,000; Cost-share: $12,400
The 2025 Soda City Poetry Festival will take place on June 27 – 28 at Richland Library in downtown Columbia and will have the theme “One River, One Boat: Celebrating South Carolina Poets.” Former SC Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth will be the keynote speaker; other events will include regional poetry panels (Upstate, Pee Dee, Midlands, Lowcountry), poetic conversations, poetry workshops for adults, poetry classes for teens and children, an open mic, and more. The event will be free and open to the public.
Sponsoring Organization: Better World Studios
Project Title: Better World Studio Literary, History, and Art Free Community Classes
Project Director: Dr. Kayla Hostetler
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $15,000
From April – December 2025, Better World Studios in Graniteville, SC will offer a series of free monthly workshops/events in four categories: “Storytelling Saturdays,” “Fiber Arts Fridays,” “History Lectures,” and “Oral History Workshops.” Storytelling Saturdays will include learning about creative writing and storytelling techniques, and Fiber Arts Fridays will focus on fiber arts like quilting, weaving, and knitting and their cultural context. The history lectures will be given by members of the local historical society and professors from USC Aiken, and they will include topics such as “The Rise of Graniteville’s Textile Mills” and “Social Changes in Graniteville.” The oral history workshops will include training in oral history techniques and the collection of oral histories from community members to be included in a digital collection. Other planned products include a community literary magazine and a fiber arts exhibit. The free events will take place in the historic Hickman Hall.
Sponsoring Organization: Berkeley County Museum
Project Title: Interactive Digital Exhibit
Project Director: Chelsy Proper
Awarded: $10,000; Cost-share: $64,896
Berkeley County Museum is creating an interactive digital exhibit about Berkeley County’s Revolutionary War history. The digital exhibit will include an 86” map wall that will share about the people, places, and events important to Revolutionary history in the area. The content for the exhibit came from the American Battleground Trust and SC Battleground Preservation Trust and was vetted by scholars like the late Doug Bostick and Rick Wise. The set-up includes the map wall monitor, speakers, framing cabinetry, and fabricated exhibit components. The digital exhibit will allow Berkeley County Museum to share this important history in their limited space. The exbibit is expected to open in Fall 2025.
For more information about any of these grant-supported projects, please contact T.J. Wallace at 803-771-2477.
