SC Humanities Board of Directors awarded $51,150 in Major Grants to 8 cultural organizations after a February 22, 2013 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: $100,487.
A list of awarded grants is provided below:
Sponsoring Organization: Converse College
Project Title: Mandalas and Monks: The Ritual Practices of Tibetan Buddhism
Project Director: Dr. Katherine Janiec Jones
Awarded: $8,000; cost-share: $30,350
Converse College will partner with Wofford University and the Chapman Cultural Center to bring a group of Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery for a four-day residency in Spartanburg, SC that will include the creation of a traditional sand mandala, a series of public lectures, and a concert of sacred music and dance. The events will take place from September 30 – October 5, 2013.
Sponsoring Organization: College of Charleston
Project Title: Nuovo Cinema Italiano Festival
Project Director: Giovanna De Luca
Awarded: $8,000;cost-share: $17,478
College of Charleston will present their 7th Annual Nuovo Cinema Italiano Film Festival (NCIFF) on November 7 – 10, 2013. The four-day event will feature 17 films as well as several special events, including a Humanities Seminar which will offer a scholar-led discussion of the film Cesare deve Morire (Caesar Must Die) investigating topics of history, literature, philosophy, and film criticism.
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism
Project Title: Hampton Plantation Community Archaeology Project
Project Director: David Jones
Awarded: $7,500; cost-share: $14,940
The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism will continue archeological excavations at Hampton Plantation in McClellanville, particularly of a smaller structure on the plantation that was originally inhabited by slaves. The results of the excavation will be presented through three public programs, a wayside sign, and in an interpretive exhibit on display at the retail center of the park.
Sponsoring Organization: The Citadel
Project Title: Las Voces Del Lowcountry
Project Director: Kerry Taylor
Awarded: $5,000; cost-share: $6,600
The Citadel requests grant funds to support an oral history project that will collect twenty-five oral histories of Latinos in the Charleston-area, including Mexican and Central American migrants on Johns Island and Argentinian members of the Circulo Hispanoamericano de Charleston. The interview transcriptions and audio recordings will be deposited in The Citadel’s Archives and Museum and integrated into an online exhibit for the Lowcountry Digital Library at College of Charleston that will be available by Spring 2014. Additionally, the oral histories will be used as the basis of two public programs that will bring together project personnel, interviewees, community leaders, and scholars to discuss the findings. The public programs are planned to take place in October 2013 and April 2014.
Sponsoring Organization: Abbeville County Library System
Project Title: Western Art Collection at Abbeville County Library
Project Director: Edward E. Poliakoff
Awarded: $6,250; cost-share: $6,250
The Abbeville County Public Library will use grant funds to support the creation of an electronic catalogue and website for the Dr. Samuel R. Poliakoff Collection of Western Art which was bequeathed to the library in 1990. The collection consists of 136 art objects of contemporary Western Native Americans, including ceramics, bronzes, weavings, and paintings. These objects will be identified and placed into context by the humanities scholar, and a website will be designed to showcase images of each piece, the descriptions, and several interpretive essays.
Sponsoring Organization: Historic Rock Hill
Project Title: Ann Hutchison White and Her Home
Project Director: Annemarie Beebe
Awarded: $8,000; cost-share: $16,668
Historic Rock Hill requests funds to educate the public about historic figure Ann Hutchison White and her importance in the history and the development of Rock Hill and York County. They will present a series of public programs throughout 2013, including three lectures, a mock debate, and a birthday celebration commemorating her birth date in January 2014. Permanent exhibit panels about Ann Hutchison White will also be installed in the historic White Home.
Sponsoring Organization: The Nickelodeon Theatre
Project Title: Faith on Film
Project Director: Andy Smith
Awarded: $5,000; cost-share: $5,000
The Nickelodeon Theatre will present a Community Film Forum series on the theme of “Faith on Film.” The six-month series will start in July 2013 and end in December 2013 and will feature six documentary or narrative films that will provide a context to discuss contemporary issues of religion and faith. The films will be paired with talkbacks and panel discussions with scholars.
Sponsoring Organization: Columbia Museum of Art
Project Title: Found in Translation Humanities Lecture Series
Project Director: Leslie Pierce
Awarded: $3,400; cost-share: $6,800
Columbia Museum of Art will preent a 4-part lecture series to complement the exhibit Found in Translation: The Geometric Abstraction of Steven Naifeh. The exhibit will display Naifeh’s contemporary artwork of geometric abstraction that is steeped in the rich tradition of Arab and Islamic art. The lectures will include topics of art history, cultural understanding, and comparative religion, and the first lecture will feature the artist, Steven Naifeh, who is also a Pulitzer-Prize winning author of the biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga.
