Humanities Tennessee

General Grant Award Recipients Announced

This August, Humanities Tennessee awarded 13 general grants totaling $99,531 to cultural organizations in all three Grand Divisions of Tennessee. Individually and collectively, these projects expand the stories of our state by exploring indigenous voices, racial history and reconciliation efforts, and place-based musical heritage. They include neurodivergent perspectives and histories that reflect the impact of children and their experiences. From exhibits to panel discussions, media presentations to workshops, and more, this group of grantee projects finds creative ways to expand the narratives that comprise our state’s history while engaging audiences in building a stronger future for Tennesseans and our communities.

“We are so pleased and impressed by the critical thought behind each of these projects,” said Tim Henderson, HT’s executive director. “These projects and the teams planning the work are endeavoring to create impact that fosters community and civility and illuminates histories in ways that increase compassion and empathy. These value outcomes are essential to all public humanities programming we fund or conduct ourselves as an organization.”

This month, we’ll spotlight one grant project from each Grand Division to provide a sense of the depth and scope of funded projects. Below you’ll find a complete list of funded organizations, projects, and amounts. Scroll past the chart for the full list of organizations by Grand Division with links so you can explore more.

In future blog posts and newsletter, we look forward to sharing more detail about each grant award, community events, and activities. We also invite you to engage with the work of these organizations, whether that may be as a local volunteer or by amplifying their work on social media.

West TN – The Memphis 13 Foundation: “Teaching the Memphis 13: Bringing the Civil Rights Movement to Life In our Classrooms and Community” aims to educate teachers, students, and community members about local desegregation history, focusing on the Memphis 13’s experiences. It will offer 3 workshops to integrate this history into social studies and English classes, encouraging reflection, analysis, and the development of lessons that center on children’s perspectives on history.

 

Middle TN – ASMT, Inc.: The “Exploring Autistic Life and Culture Project,” will engage Autistic people and their support networks in panel discussions around topics relevant to the Autistic community. With a series of eight panel discussions, the project will invite Tennesseans to shift their perspectives. This project will share how Autistic people belong to a vibrant community with their own social and cultural identity, complete with unique norms, values, and qualities.

 

East TN – Roan Mountain State Park: This project will create exhibits in the Visitor Center, the park’s central gathering place and information hub. This set of interpretive panels and displays will share the unique human history and cultures of Roan Mountain and be part of a larger exhibit that also includes natural history topics examining the flora, fauna, and unique ecology of Roan Mountain. The displays will explore Cherokee use of the land, the American Revolution, subsistence farming, misconceptions about local participation in slavery and the Civil War, Appalachian industrialization, and how these histories have influenced the modern local culture and Appalachia.

 

We hope you may take a moment to learn more about the organizations funded this year. We congratulate these outstanding projects and the organizations, teams, and volunteers doing essential humanities programming for their communities, in person and virtually.

West TN

 

Middle TN

 

East TN