What does Wisconsin Humanities fund?

Métis Portage

$1,991 to Historic Indian Agency House Association, Inc.

Mixed Indigenous/European families comprised the majority of permanent non-military residents at the Fox-Wisconsin Portage in the 1830s, yet their lives and unique experiences have been obscured and tangential to historical interpretation at the site until now. Aligning with the America at 250 “Power of Place” theme, the project includes a museum exhibit rich with stories of how Métis families navigated the 19^th century, a scholarly lecture and a gathering of Métis descendants who may share their experiences learning about their personal Métis ancestry.

Upper Fox Community Knowledge Network

$4,000 to Foxhead Regenerative Agriculture Project

Rooted in the Upper Fox River watershed and surrounding agricultural communities, this project captures aging farmer knowledge, shares the voices of beginning and underrepresented farmers and connects neighbors eager for deeper relationships to their local food systems. Through facilitated interviews, on-farm conversations, and partner collaboration, eight high-quality text and video narratives that reflect themes of land stewardship heritage, farm transitions, and farm-to-community connections will be part of community discussions, workshops, and partner events.

The Longest Table: Sheboygan County

$2,500 to Sheboygan County Historical Society

Featuring one long table, 30 diverse table captains and 240 participants, this program will integrate conversations around heritage and the dishes people bring. along with table-top conversation starters featuring different concepts of “home,” community building and expressions of patriotism. Not only does this format tackle loneliness, but it provides a framework for people to discuss 250^th themes and interpretations of democracy and citizenship.

Happy Birthday USA! Land of Immigrants & Indigenous People

$1,525 to Marinette & Oconto Counties Literacy Council

Held at Equity Hall in Pound, WI, this volunteer-led community gathering will celebrate the American ideal of pluralism through ethnic food, dance, music, and heritage crafts. People of all ages will also play quiz games around voting rights history and language games. M&O Literacy Council matches volunteer tutors with ELL students in their communities. Together, the tutors and students work toward achieving the students’ specific goals.

Power of Place: Learning with First Nations of Greater Green Bay

$4,000 to Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education

This project leans into the 250^th theme of “Power of Place” to engage K-12 teachers statewide in implementing Act 31 in their classrooms through hands-on workshops and presentations by Native knowledge keepers. Each session will have its own style to take advantage of the place and cultural knowledge being shared, and when possible, will include an opportunity for participants to engage in service as an act of reciprocity for receiving the gift of knowledge.

Native Art Marketplace - A Celebration of Place

$4,000 to Little Eagle Arts Foundation

This creative convening of Native American artists and culture bearers at Taliesin Preservation along the lower Wisconsin River will build cultural bridges through interactive stations, presenters, culinary arts tastings and free, hands-on activities. The weekend event will allow visitors to explore the blending of indigenous creative practices with the creativity of an American icon.

Hmong History Education (HHE)

$4,000 to Hmoob Cultural and Community Agency

Focusing on 4^th grade students in the Coulee Region, this immersive learning experience will teach Hmong history, culture. and migration stories, fostering community bonds between students and the greater community. Taught by elders, learning stations will address the Secret War in Laos, traditional village life with a replica Hmong Village home and refugee experiences. Preparation activities include guest Hmong speakers, classroom presentations, and guided discussions. Teachers will also introduce mapping skills and key vocabulary related to migration, geography, and cultural traditions.

Make History Madison

$4,000 to Race and Place Coalition

Using an innovative digital story platform and a grassroots spirit of crowdsourcing, Make History Madison will ask (and train) people to contribute place-based stories with text, photographs. and recordings to their Map250 City Archive. The project aims to inspire community members, especially from marginalized neighborhoods and across cultural divides, to participate in the fabric of Madison's civic life through place-based storytelling. The project offers layered local histories of what is now Madison, connecting its land in the 1770s to life on the same land at varying moments throughout the 250 years that followed.

Voices of Our Community: Connection Through Conversation

$4,000 to City of Spooner

The Spooner Memorial Library will embark on a year long series of conversations aimed at building empathy, reducing stigma and strengthening support around community members affected by addiction and recovery, dementia and caregiving, and trauma and disability. Through literature, film and personal testimony, the project explores how stories can reduce stigma and what steps can be taken to build a trauma-informed, dementia-friendly and inclusive community.

Disagree Better: Building Connection Across Difference

$3,969 to Village of Mt. Horeb

With the Disagree Better series, The Mt. Horeb Public Library aims to grow the practice of Deliberative Dialogue, so their community can work through complex issues and find common ground on difficult choices. Using Deliberation Dinners, trained moderators will use an Issue Guide to hold discussions around two topics, one being mental health. Deliberative dialogue invites participants to weigh trade-offs, consider competing values, and grapple with complex public issues that have no single “right” answer. This structure encourages deeper understanding, reflection, and collaborative problem-solving. Following the dinners, notes from the discussions will be compiled into a report and shared with the community and key stakeholders for further action and discussions.

Ebony Vision's Play, Read, Belong 2026

$4,000 to Ebony Vision

Ebony Vision will implement a literacy and play-based weekly summer outreach program for the children of Maplewood Commons. Organized around weekly themes and visiting community groups, a range of interdisciplinary activities will highlight black and BIPOC authors and artists while fostering a love of literacy and nurturing cultural pride and belonging. As an example, a poet will bring “The People Could Fly” tale to life and children will try out Adinkra printing.

Hidden Voices of the Holocaust-Explore and Connect with Personal Expressions of Survivors and Victims

$4,000 to Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project Inc

Traveling exhibits on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Children of the Holocaust will be brought to rural Wisconsin communities in this project that includes education days for 2,000 students and public presentations by Holocaust scholars. Midwestern Holocaust scholars and local teachers together will develop curriculum exploring themes such as indifference, moral responsibility and the consequences of hate and prejudice.

Connecting Community Voices

$3,315 to Milwaukee County Historical Society

Creating a dialogue between all who call Milwaukee home, this year long series of discussion panels is led by Milwaukeeans from multiple ethnic and immigrant groups and moderated by community leaders from each respective community. The panel discussions complement MCHS’ new exhibit, We the People: Milwaukee Stories of Immigration, Citizenship, and Community. Discussion topics will cover each community’s local history and contemporary issues such as the impact of immigration policy, education, belonging, and societal expectations.

Celebrating 20 Years of the Return the Sturgeon: Healthy Water Across One Watershed

$4,000 to Riveredge Nature Center

Since 2006, Riveredge has helped rear and release more than 22,000 sturgeon into the Milwaukee River watershed. Today, the gradual return of sturgeon offers a powerful story of ecological restoration and collective community stewardship. Riveredge will host four facilitated community conversations along the Milwaukee River corridor from Milwaukee to Saukville, bringing together residents, Indigenous leaders, anglers, conservationists and restoration organizations. Participants will discuss the importance of clean water for all by exploring the cultural significance of lake sturgeon, the historical and policy decisions that have shaped the Milwaukee River watershed, and our shared civic responsibility to protect it.

2026 Community Conversation: AI Data Centers and the Environment

$1,925 to Waukesha County Green Team, Inc

With growing plans for the development of data centers in Wisconsin communities, this community conversation brings people together for active listening and sharing in small groups led by facilitators. The project addresses resident concerns which include data center energy consumption, electricity rates, water usage, overall environmental impacts, transparency and prospects for long-term job creation. A final public report will be generated using the anonymous notes taken by facilitators and survey data.

Asian American in the Midwest Storytelling

$4,000 to Wisconsin Asian American Voices for Empowerment Inc.

Public understanding of Asian American life in Wisconsin is often limited, shaped by stereotypes or simply absent. Furthermore, there are few spaces where Asian Americans can share stories, connect across communities, and feel seen. Through workshops, practice circles, a public showcase, and an educational media campaign, the project uses storytelling to bring people together across Wisconsin’s diverse Asian American Pacific Islander communities and explore identity, belonging, migration, memory, and civic life.

Oaxacan Roots, Wisconsin Soil

$4,000 to Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters

Conducted in both Spanish and English and led by HOLA (Healthy Opportunities for Latin Americans) facilitators in Wausau, this intergenerational program invites participants to explore how traditional crafts serve as vessels for memory and cultural preservation. By using native Wisconsin fibers in these traditional processes, these informal pláticas will foster cross cultural conversations about migration, identity, and what it means to grow roots in a new landscape.

Immigration Learning Circles

$4,000 to Winnebago Area Literacy Council

Through facilitated discussions combining research and lived experience, participants in these learning circles gain a nuanced understanding of immigration realities, challenge unfounded assumptions, and build empathy and community cohesion while learning how policies and history shape immigrant lives locally and nationally. By prioritizing dialogue rather than lecture alone, the learning circle model helps participants engage more deeply with the subject matter, build empathy, and develop a more nuanced understanding of immigration issues affecting their community.

Finding Common Ground: Citizens’ Assemblies for Civic Dialogue on Housing in Wisconsin

$3,825 to Leadership Wisconsin, Inc.

Leadership Wisconsin’s Community Leadership 2.0 program will train a cohort of leaders to convene citizens’ assemblies focused on housing—a pressing issue affecting communities across the state. Participants will examine the historical development of housing policy, zoning practices, and community growth patterns with scholars from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The program culminates in public citizens’ assemblies where community members engage in structured, facilitated dialogue about housing in their region, fostering deeper public understanding of the civic and historical forces shaping housing in Wisconsin. The project includes a deliberate strategy to ensure varied participation and voices not typically present in policy conversations.

Stories Where the Store Once Stood

$4,000 to Metcalfe Park Community Bridges

This pressing digital storytelling project from filmmaker Nateya Taylor documents food apartheid and grocery store closures in predominantly Black neighborhoods. The initiative focuses on three locations - Metcalfe Park Pick N Save, Sentry Foods, and ALDI parking lots - where filmed conversations with residents and humanities experts explore the community impact of store closures. The project aims to amplify resident narratives, challenge neighborhood misconceptions, and promote dialogue about food access inequities, targeting Milwaukee residents, policymakers, educators, and the broader Wisconsin public.

WH Grants Awarded

Click on past years to see the breadth and expansive reach of Wisconsin Humanities' grant program!

YEAR:

Wisconsin and America at 250 Grants: Spring 2026