Our grant program supports the specific ideas and public projects that come from community needs and dreams!
Wisconsin Humanities grants to nonprofits amplify existing initiatives, cultivate partnerships, and facilitate meaningful dialogue to strengthen and support the civic and social fabric of Wisconsin.
We are very excited to announce the second round of grant awards in 2024. Six projects received a total of $59,993 in Major Grants awarded to organizations in Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Richland and Rock Counties! Scroll down to read about these outstanding public humanities projects!
NOTE: The next Major Grant deadline is August 15th. Opportunity Grant Applications are due on July 1st. Opportunity Grants are for up to $4,000 and open the door for smaller organizations that are building healthier communities one public program at a time. We have Q&A sessions coming up! Learn more in the grants section of our website.
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Discovering Hmong Roots Through Traditional Clothing: Reminiscing the Diaspora from Laos to the United States
$10,000 to Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association Inc.
A Major Grant will support an exhibit that spurs conversations between Hmong youth and elders, strengthens intergenerational connections, and provides opportunities for Hmong individuals to identify their roots. Through traditional clothing displays and descriptions of corresponding dialects and traditions associated with the article of clothing, participants will be encouraged to identify the clothing worn by their families and to consult with parents and elders for insight. With a map of Laos, attendees will be invited to mark their region and facilitate data regarding the geographical distribution of Hmong individuals in the Chippewa Valley. With the return of the Eau Claire Hmong New Year celebration after a pandemic-induced four-year hiatus, the project and exhibit provides a cultural educational opportunity for non-Hmong visitors to the long-awaited Hmong New Year celebration.
The Driftless Region’s Dia de Muertos Celebration (4th edition) A Mexican cultural and educational event to honor our loved ones who have passed away
$10,000 to Driftless Curiosity Inc.
A Major Grant will support a cultural and educational public event in a place where the organizers acknowledge that until now there has been little space for the Mexican (and Latino) community in Richland County to celebrate Día de Muertos. In a predominately Spanish-speaking environment, Mexican artists, altaristas, vendors, chefs, and producers will promote conversations and cultural understanding about the traditions that inform this day of remembrance, including workshops on embroidery and papel picado. A collective ofrenda will be created using papel picado, cempasúchil and celosia flowers, and Mexican foods. The altaristas will lead the placing of objects and photographs and give bilingual explanations of the process and themes. The result will be an empathetic space for memories, grief, and contemplation in addition to a non-commercialized understanding of Día de Muertos traditions.
Ursula Le Guin at Beloit: A Community Reading and Worldbuilding Project 50 Years after The Dispossessed
$9,993 to Beloit College
A Major Grant will support a community-wide read of Ursula Le Guin’s utopian novel, The Dispossessed, along with dynamic worldbuilding activities and a kickoff Q & A session with speakers versed on Daoism, Buddhism, planetary astronomy, and more. Using accessible community spaces and public-school spaces, student moderators will guide collaborative conversations with high school readers and senior readers that imagine fictional worlds and allow groups to think through social problems, potential solutions, and what concepts like justice and equality can look like. The project harnesses the wide appeal of science fiction to bring a politically and racially diverse community together. An oral history exhibit, video, and pop-up displays will show how Le Guin’s local residency in 1992, along with her fiction from ’74, can shape Beloit’s vision for 2024.
Tragedy to Triumph: A Lynching Victim Survives & Thrives
$10,000 to Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation
America’s Black Holocaust Museum received a Major Grant to create an immersive, role-playing exhibit that asks visitors to walk in the shoes of ABHM founder, Dr. James Cameron, to learn what his life teaches about the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Designed to attract tweens and teens, in addition to adults, visitors will embark on a transformative journey and face choices that propel the user through a powerful life narrative, spanning the years 1914-1930. Active participation in the exhibit will be complemented with historical video and still photographs, audio recordings, newly produced video and re-enacted audio, contemporary music, and colorful graphic novel-style illustrations. The exhibit will be piloted at the ABHM physical site, the virtual museum site online, and in school classrooms.
Call & Response: Asmaa Walton and the Black Art Library
$10,000 to Lynden Inc.
Lynden Sculpture Garden will use a Major Grant to highlight and celebrate Black art and artists while interrogating the continued gap of including their contributions in the mainstream narrative surrounding art history. Walton’s Black Art Library, a cultural archive of publications, exhibition catalogs, theoretical texts, and research materials about Black art and visual culture, will reside at Lynden in a participatory and interactive exhibit. Asmaa Walton will also work directly with K-12 educators and various community cohorts in residencies to develop specific curricula that teachers will implement in their classrooms in the 2024-2025 school year.
One Book, One Community: A Council of Dolls
$10,000 to Friends of The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
A Major Grant supports the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library’s community-wide reading initiative with Mona Susan Power’s book, A Council of Dolls. In addition to an author visit, programming for all ages will be presented by tribal leaders, culture bearers, Native storytellers, and chefs on the topics of Indian boarding schools, oral history, foraging, and Native American rights. The range of programming will reach both Native American audiences and non-Indigenous community members and create space for cultural exploration and education on historical and current-day experiences of Native American peoples in the Chippewa Valley.
