SUMMER, 1997

GRANTS TO COMMUNITY PROJECTS. Ten public humanities projects to explore ethnic culture, celebrate historic figures and places, and document literary and cultural traditions have received Council support under its spring grant deadline. A total of $77,428 in direct funds and $22,000 in matching funds for the projects was approved by the Council under the Collaborative Projects in Communities category of its 1997-98 program, "Creating Vision for the New Century: The Humanities and the Strengthening of Michigan's Communities."

• The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services of Dearborn received $24,000 in direct and matching funds to support a traveling photography exhibit and supplemental humanities programming on "Arab Americans in Greater Detroit: A Community Between Two Worlds."
  

• On the west side of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Historical Commission will use a $12,000 grant to document the story of the region's Vietnamese immigrant population in print and on videotape and to celebrate their role in west Michigan through a variety of activities in the year 2000.
  

• During the 1997-98 academic year, Lawrence Technological University in Southfield will use a $10,786 grant to produce a series of lectures, performances and exhibits on the heritage of ethnic and religious communities in the area as part of "Diversity in the New Urban Landscape: Culture and Community."
  

• An award of $12,000 in direct funds to the Michigan Historical Center Foundation will support development of programming around its museum exhibit, "Lansing 1897" to give visitors a look at the past, present and future of Michigan's capital city, Lansing, through an interactive computer software program and public events during October and November.
  

• Four communities served by the United Arts Council of Calhoun County in Battle Creek will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of abolitionist-feminist Sojourner Truth this fall at tent Chautauqua programs funded with a $7,000 grant.
  

• Planning for an exhibit, "Steeples and Storefronts: The History of a Copper Mining Community," at the Keweenaw Heritage Center at St. Anne's in the Upper Peninsula was supported by a $2,772 grant awarded to the Township of Calumet in Houghton County.
  

• Educational experiences in culture, land, history, literature and horticulture for students of a Grand Rapids inner city school and their families will take place with a grant of $6,000 to the Franciscan Life Center Network of Lowell.
  

• An interactive weekend event, "Dimensions of Africa," in the Flint Cultural Center Sept. 20-21 received $10,000 in matching funds for creating an authentic African structure and hands-on demonstrations of traditional African folklife activities.

• Finally, a grant of $5,000 will support packaging of 12 radio plays in the "Scribbling Women" series based on works by American women short story writers and production of resource guides for users by the Public Media Foundation.
  

GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP. A special Grant Writing Workshop has been scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 5, in Lansing in advance of the Sept. 1 deadline for "Collaborative Projects in Communities" grant applications. The workshop will be from 1-4 p.m. in the Rare Book Room of the Michigan Library and Historical Center. To reserve as spot at the workshop, call the Council office at 800/837-4532 or 517/372-0027 or send an e-mail message to mihum@voyager.net

FORUMS CONTINUE. Responses gathered from the cultural community at three spring arts and humanities forums in Holland, Dearborn and Sault Ste. Marie are being prepared for reports and further discussion at a Sept. 12 wrap-up session in Lansing at the Lansing Center. Forum participants had the opportunity to enjoy cultural programs by three different presenters as part of the sessions -- Anne and Rob Burns (Renaissance music), Malini Srirama (dance traditions of India) and Mark Mitchell (ballads of Michigan's woods and waters).

Comments and suggestions gathered as part of "The Arts and Humanities: Partners at the Threshold of the 21st Century" ranged from ways that collaboration currently occurs between local cultural organizations and barriers to their cooperative initiatives to future activities which the Michigan Humanities Council and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs may undertake to make collaboration beneficial for cultural interests statewide. Information on the September session will be available from the councils' offices later this summer. Persons who were not able to attend the first three forums but would like to participate in the wrap-up session may contact the Michigan Humanities Council office at 800/837-4532 or 517/372-7770 or by e-mail at mihum@voyager.net to be included on the mailing list for registration mailings.

PRODUCE FOR VICTORY. Escanaba will be the first of six Michigan communities to host the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) exhibit, "Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-45," beginning Sept. 7 and running through Oct. 26. The exhibit showcases the colorful production incentive posters of the Second World War that served as a visual call to arms for citizens on America's home front to step up production in support of the war effort. As part of the exhibit's first stop, community programs have been coordinated by the host institution, the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center, ranging from an intergenerational sharing of World War II home front memories and a lecture and displays about contributions of Upper Peninsula's communities and industries to the war effort to youth involvement in summer victory garden plantings and the recreation of a USO dance to a war-era fashion show and film showing of "Rosie the Riveter."

Workers at the Lloyd furniture factory in Menominee found their operations converted for war production during World War II. In addition to finishing 75 mm and three-inch bombshell castings like these for use in tanks and bombers during the war, the Upper Peninsula plant manufactured the canopy for the B-24 Liberator Bomber which was produced at the Ford production site at Willow Run. Photos like this are included in a local collection being shown at the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center in Escanaba during its Sept. 7-Oct. 26 exhibition of "Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-45" from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council.

After leaving the Upper Peninsula, the exhibit will be in Grand Haven at the Tri Cities Historical Museum (Nov. 6-Dec. 27); in Alpena at the Alpena County Library (January, 1998) and in Gaylord at the Otsego County Library (February, 1998); in Three Rivers at the Carnegie Center Council for the Arts (March 9-April 25), and finally in Port Huron at the Port Huron Museum (May 2-June 28). At each site, programs and public activities will be oriented to the community's experience during the war years and its response to the war effort. For details or to get involved in local communities, contact these cultural organizations directly.

HUMANITIES ON PUBLIC RADIO. Funding from the Council under its Statewide and Regional Projects grantline is furthering a Michigan Radio Arts and Humanities Project to bring radio features about the arts and humanities to listeners statewide through the Michigan Public Radio Network.

Arts and Humanities Reporter Tamar Charney of Michigan Radio reports the project has covered a wide range of topics -- from a look at how computers are changing the way artists create to a visit to a Biblical papryrus vault to profiles of the state's leading artists and thinkers to lighter, sometimes funny features about composing music for the Weather Channel or mummifying Barbie dolls as part of a history lesson.

On Family Day at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archeology, children learn about the cultural practices and art of ancient Egypt, including activities that relate the mummification process using a doll, a shoebox, film canisters and assorted candy and nuts to represent internal organs. Curators have found that fun, even somewhat gruesome activities are the best way to teach children about archeology.

For Holocaust Memorial Day, Michigan Radio sent a recent college graduate with a retired schoolteacher who was a teenager during World War II to the exhibit "Darkness into Light: Re-emergence of Jewish Culture in Germany" equipped with tape recorders. Producer Charney wanted to see how the photographs would be viewed by someone who grew up Protestant during WWII and someone who grew up Jewish almost three generations later. The result was a moving audio diary of their reflections and remembrances that was aired not only on stations across the state but use used as part of a lesson on the Holocaust in an 8th grade social studies class at Clague Middle School in Ann Arbor.

Upcoming reports will look at the debt American artists owe to the automobile and possibly take listeners on an archaeological dig with the Michigan Archeological Society. Contact Charney at 313/764-9210 for more about the project. Michigan Radio is a listener-supported service of the University of Michigan, airing on WUOM in Ann Arbor, WFUM-FM in Flint and WVGR in Grand Rapids.

NEW COUNCIL OFFICERS. New officers elected by the Council to direct its program for the next two years are chair Sheila R. Cannatti of Battle Creek, vice chair Stephen R. Williams of Marysville and secretary- treasurer Gloria J. Coles of Flint. Outgoing chair Milt Ford of Jenison, an English professor at Grand Valley State University, will continue on the Council through June, 1998.

Mrs. Cannatti, who also serves as president of the board of directors of the Art Center of Battle Creek, previously served as Council vice chair; Williams, who directs the Port Huron Museum, was previously secretary- treasurer. Ms. Coles is director of the Flint Public Library and is in her first term on the Council.

FROM THE RESOURCE CENTER. Thank you to volunteer reviewers of resources from Council-funded projects who have been assisting the staff in evaluating these materials for cataloguing and distribution. They include Carol Smallwood of Cheboygan and Cynthia E. Patton of Detroit as well as past Council members Susan Bandes of East Lansing, Rose Bauman of Saginaw, Ken Bratt of Grand Rapids, Murray Jackson of Detroit, Suzanne Kaplan of Oak Park, Aleya Rouchdy of Bloomfield Hills, Larry Teal of Milford, Anthony Travis of East Grand Rapids, Kathleen Smith of Kalamazoo and Jane Vieth of East Lansing.

Others interested in assisting with this ongoing project may contact LuAnn Kern in the Lansing office to be notified when materials are available to be evaluated; the work can be done at home and to fit your schedule.

New materials in the Resource Center include copies of a video, "Herbert H. Dow - Pioneer in Creative Chemistry," donated by its producer, Bill Jamerson of Traverse City; a two-part video resource from the Public Broadcasting Service's American Experience Series, "TR, The Story of Theodore Roosevelt," which comes with a teacher's guide; copies of another NEH- funded film, "Talk to Me: Americans in Conversation" which examines what it means to be an American at the end of the 20th century; a video and accompanying teacher's guide, "The American Promise," which explores nine challenges that face democracy through grassroots citizenship, and a video produced by the Humanities Council of West Central Michigan, "A History of the Oil and Gas Industry in Mecosta and Osceola Counties." Reserve any of these materials by contacting Suzi Kyes in the Lansing office.

For a listing of humanities events happening July-October see the Summer Newsletter Calendar [an error occurred while processing this directive]