MOVING FORWARD. At its September meeting, the Council approved a plan to reorganize its program in anticipation of Congressional action funding humanities programs through the National Endowment for the Humanities. Now that 1997 funding is reality, this new approach is being implemented, stressing a collaborative strategy for developing and funding programs that serve Michigan communities into the 21st century. The details of this revised program will be available in print in early November, in time for 1997 applications for statewide, regional and community projects. The application process for Humanities Resource Grants is being continued in its present form. In addition to grants, the Council plan stresses a number of new services to the field through its Resource Center and an Internet web site. Contact the Central office in Lansing (517/372-7770 or 1-800-837-4532 or by E-mail at mihum@voyager.net for more information and to receive the new program announcement.
COUNCIL ADDITIONS, GOODBYES. Two new members have joined the 25-member Michigan Humanities Council this fall, and a new Secretary-Treasurer has been elected. Four-year terms of the two new members, William M. Anderson of Ludington and Maureen N. Eke of East Lansing, began with the Council's meeting in Grand Rapids Sept. 26-27. At that meeting, Stephen R. Williams of Marysville was elected Secretary-Treasurer to complete the term of former officer Jean T. Curtis of Detroit, who left the state this summer. Williams is director of the Port Huron Museum of Art and History.
William Anderson, president of West Shore Community College in Scottville since 1983, is the immediate past president of the Historical Society of Michigan. Prior to joining West Shore, he served Carl Sandburg College of Galesburg, Ill., as president and vice president of instruction; was dean of instructional services at John A. Logan College in Cartersville, Ill.; held administrative and faculty positions at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac, and taught public high school in Jackson. He has a Ph.D. degree in higher education administration from Southern Illinois University and history degrees from Central Michigan University (M.A.) and Michigan State University (B.A.). His research and writing has focused on the Civil War and American baseball.
Prior to joining the English faculty of Central Michigan University in 1995, Maureen Eke had been associate coordinator of outreach for the African Studies Center at Michigan State University and coordinator/editor of the African Media Program there since 1986; previously she had served in an outreach capacity for the African studies program at Indiana University. A regular contributor to development of the Michigan Humanities Council's ROADS teacher education program and resources, she has extensive experience as a researcher, writer, lecturer and consultant on African women's literature for numerous African and world studies programs and institutes. She has Ph.D. and master's degrees in comparative literature from Indiana University, with specialization in African, African-American and Caribbean literature. She received a B.A. degree in English and a graduate certificate in education from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.
The Council thanks seven departing members for their service on behalf of public humanities programs in Michigan: Linda Susan Beard of Vestaburg, Susan Cooper of Bloomfield Hills, De Witt Dykes, Jr., of Detroit, Steven Hamp of Ann Arbor, Wilma Henry of Clare, Gordon Olson of Grand Rapids and Judi Stillion of Alpena.
WEB WATCH: The Council is working with the directors and staff of Michigan State University's H-NET Humanities OnLine network to develop its own Web Page, expected to debut in early 1997 with a wide range of information about Council programs and services. The H-NET operation (address: http://h-net.msu.edu) is an electronic network of scholars whose focus is on advancing teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences. The Council's intent is to use its web page to electronically link Michigan citizens and organizations interested and involved in public humanities programs with each other and with their counterparts elsewhere. Any educational or cultural organization with a web site devoted to humanities topics which would like to be linked to the Council's page, may contact Suzi Kyes in the Central Office or at our e-mail address, mihum@voyager.net, to make arrangements. Watch for our web site address in the next newsletter.
Internet users with interest in materials on humanities topics might like to check out the following World Wide Web sites: The Native Voices Workshop site at Montana Public Television http://www.kusm.montana.edu/NativeVoices. The University of Michigan Museum of Art offers a virtual version of its current exhibition on its homepage: access "Venice Online" at http://www.umich.edu/~umma/. The Library of Michigan's new web page offers a wealth of resource materials and services available at the Lansing center as well as links to other library collections and materials. You'll find it at http://www.libofmich.lib.mi.us. The Michigan Oral History Association offers information on oral history resources on the Internet at its new web site: http://at146.atl.msu.edu/moha.html.
Send your suggestions of interesting humanities-related sites on the Web to our E-mail address: mihum@voyager.net (indicate "Newsletter Editor" on Subject line) so that we an share them with our readers (and check them out ourselves!)
TEACHER RESOURCES. Elementary and secondary school teachers will be able to utilize ROADS Culture Kit manuals available this fall for curriculum development around the Council's popular classroom resource units on African-American heritage and African, Middle Eastern and Hispanic cultures. The manuals -- each more than 100 pages of lesson plans and listings of resources from the kits -- cost $20 apiece or $150 for the eight-book series covering all grade levels and cultural subject areas. The multi-media, interdisciplinary Culture Kits are loaned by the Council's Resource Center on a monthly basis. For more information about the kits or manuals, contact LuAnn Kern in the Central Office at 1-800-837-4532 or 517/372-7770.
The ROADS Culture Kits and other program materials from the Council's Resource Center will be featured in October on Detroit radio station WDTR's "Teacher Talk" program. Watch for it on Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. An audiocassette of the program is available for loan from the Council office in Lansing.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED. If you have a little extra time on your hands, the Council's Resource Center could benefit from several hours of donated service provided from the comfort of your home or office. Help evaluate materials in its large collection of videotapes and other resources from the many project which the Council has funded. Your assessment of the quality and content of these resources will be used to update the Council's Resource Catalogue. For a listing of resources scheduled for review or to arrange for shipment of videotapes and other materials for review (with return postage provided), contact the Central Office. Your assistance will be a valuable contribution to public humanities programs in Michigan!
APPLY NOW FOR TRAVELING EXHIBIT. From May, 1997, through April, 1998, in five select Michigan communities, the Council will be touring a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institutions Traveling Exhibits Services (SITES), "Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-45." This free-standing exhibit examines the history and effect of production incentive posters designed to inspire patriotism and increase industrial output during World War II. Openings are still available for two-month slots in host museums or libraries that serve populations of less than 50,000 in communities without a four-year college or university. The Council will provide the exhibit free of charge and will make available small grants of $2,500 for community programming in conjunction with the exhibit's visit. Contact LuAnn Kern in the Central Office for more information.
CELEBRATE HUMANITIES/ARTS MONTH. It's fitting that Congress has put the finishing touches on the Omnibus Appropriations Bill to start this month -- declared Arts and Humanities Month by President Clinton -- and the 1997 fiscal year with $110 million designated for the work of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the state humanities councils. After last year's series of Continuing Resolutions and an extended period of uncertainty, this is certainly something to celebrate for all who have advocated on behalf of the work of the Michigan Humanities Council and NEH. The Council is grateful for the assistance of its friends and for the support of members of the Michigan Congressional Delegation. This action secures for another year the important work of the humanities and arts among our citizens, which President Clinton's declaration called "our legacy, defining us as individuals, as families, as communities and as a nation."
Equally worth celebrating is the continuing and expanding partnership of the Council with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. This fall, MCACA approved partnership funding of approximately $31,000 for 1996-97 to develop a joint resource center for the arts and humanities and for a series of meetings to explore avenues of collaboration involving the state's arts and humanities organizations and institutions. The work will be directed by an Arts and Humanities Steering Committee.
PROJECT UPDATES. An Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing has been presented to "The Orphan Trains," a Council-funded documentary which aired on Public Television stations last fall in The American Experience series. The film details the experiences of youngsters shipped into rural America from the urban Northeast between 1854 and 1929 in this country's first large-scale foster care program. The work of the directors and editors at Edward Gray Films Inc. of New York City was also recognized with Emmy nominations.
Last year's Council-supported exhibit at the Lee Hall Gallery at Northern Michigan University, "The People, Culture and Architecture of West Africa", moved across state lines this fall for a showing at Nicolet College in Rhinelander, WI. The project, which featured photographs, craft work and interpretive panels, was produced using materials gathered in major cities and more than 50 rural villages during Fulbright Foreign Scholarship studies in 1992-93 by project director Raymond White.
Two new publications resulting from Council-funded projects are now available: Fiesta, Fe, y Cultura: Celebrations of Faith and Culture in Detroit's Colonia Mexicana and Beaver Island House Party. Both are the work of folk life specialist Laurie Kay Sommers, who served as director for the two projects while on the staff of the Michigan State University Museum. She collaborated with Casa de Unidad Cultural Arts and Media Center to produce the first, a bilingual examination of three religious fiestas. The Beaver Island publication and an accompanying CD explore the unique musical traditions of the Lake Michigan island community. Both publications are available through the MSU Museum (telephone 517/432-3354 for more information).
REGIONAL COUNCIL ACTIVITIES. In East Grand Rapids, a three-session Life Journey with Books seminar begins Oct. 24, sponsored by the Grand Rapids Area Council for the Humanities. Books featured as part of its "All in the Family" theme will be Tracks by Louise Erdrich (Oct. 24), Family by J. California Cooper (Nov. 7) and Map of the World by Jane Hamilton (Nov. 21). Grand Valley State University English professor Helen Westra will lead the sessions, which take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the East Grand Rapids Recreation Department, 750 Lakeside Drive SE. For more information, contact the Grand Rapids regional council at 616/774-1776.
The Humanities Council of West Central Michigan resumed its "Authors in the Classroom" program this fall in the Big Rapids area and is exploring interest in extending it into the Osceola County schools. It will sponsor a Dec. 5 program on Beatrix Potter by resource center speaker Rose Anne Shansky at the Fremont Public Library and is working with civic leaders in Big Rapids toward community-wide sponsorship of its popular Civil War encampment in 1997. For information on programs of the regional council, call 616/796-9365. [an error occurred while processing this directive]