Idaho Humanities Council awards 25 grants at fall meeting

The Idaho Humanities Council, the nonprofit, state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, awarded $70,443 in grants to organizations and individuals at its recent board meeting in Boise.

The 25 awards include 10 grants for public humanities programs, four Research Fellowships, four Teacher Incentive Grants, and seven planning grants. The grants were supported in part by funding from the NEH and IHC's Endowment for Humanities Education.

The following local projects were funded:

Public Program Grants:

* Human Rights Education Institute (Coeur d'Alene) was awarded $4,500 to help support a series of Chautauqua presentations in November titled "Journey for Peace and Human Rights from 1850-Present." Nine performances featured portrayals of Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Mother Jones, Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coeur d'Alene Chief Ignace Hayden Garry, and a 19th century "Buffalo Soldier." The project director was Tony Stewart.

* Wallace District Mining Museum (Wallace) received $4,750 for the third year of their collection automation project designed to improve collections management, expand accessibility, and improve interpretation. The museum is digitizing its entire collection of artifacts, photographs, and historical paper ephemera related to the mining history of the Silver Valley. The project director is Jim McReynolds.

* Community Library Network (Hayden) was awarded $8,000 from NEH "We the People" funds for a regional reading program involving 15 area libraries. Participants will read The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, about Japanese-American internment during World War II. Several public presentations, including three readings and talks by Ford, a jazz concert exploring the role of music culturally and historically for Japanese Americans in Idaho, and lectures about Japanese-American internment will be held in February and March 2011. Ford will make three presentations March 15-16. The project director is Karen Yother.