CT Humanities Grant Awards

This project will plan a new interpretation for the Gov. Jonathan Trumbull House that will reinvigorate and expand the museum’s visitor experience as well as provide direction for the interior restoration of the house to support this new interpretation of the Trumbull family home. The completed project will include a professionally informed understanding of the history and evolution of the house with recommendations for new visitor experiences critical for the re-opening of the museum.

This project was funded through a Planning Grant in December 2022.

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center continues a major reinterpretation, reexamining the stories we tell at our site and prioritizing previously marginalized and/or underrepresented voices and experiences. This project includes research, development, and prototyping for two new tours: “American Dream” explores the promise and myth of that “dream” through the lens of our 20th-century residents; “In Service” shares stories of those who provided and sought services at our site across centuries.

This project was funded through a Planning Grant in June 2023.

CTExplored will create Spirit of Revolution: The Connecticut Line Explored, a non-competitive online multiplayer digital simulation. It will immerse players in the world of the Revolutionary War to imagine themselves as part of the Continental Army’s Connecticut Line from 1775-1781. Players choose an identity from a mix of diverse characters, making decisions that put the fate of the revolution in their hands. The educational game includes age-appropriate curricula to enhance the experience.

This project was funded through a Planning Grant in June 2023.

The 1824 Project involves developing an educational and informational website to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1824 tour of a Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de Lafayette. It coincides with the 50th anniversary of the American Revolution, with a focus on his time in CT. Lafayette played a critical role in securing victory over the British and cemented himself as a hero of both America and France. The project will honor Lafayette’s legacy by partnering with the towns he visited in CT.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in February 2023.

The New England Civil War Museum is proud to re-imagine its tour experience, creating a more inclusive narrative that interweaves the perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals from the American Civil War era. In collaboration with historians, descendants, and researchers in the field of BIPOC genealogy and research, the museum will introduce a sustainably inclusive tour framework to the public at the museum’s annual Living History Day, September 28, 2024.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in February 2024.

The Stony Creek Museum is producing a video of the 150 year history of the Stony Creek Quarry and the thousands of immigrant laborers who provided granite for hundreds of iconic buildings and landmarks around the country including the Statue of Liberty , the Brooklyn Bridge etc. The video uses the expertise of a local historians, a Yale geologist, and local oral history of life in the quarry. Completion planned in 2024 with broad distribution to schools, libraries, and social media.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in February 2024.

Webb Deane Stevens Museum’s Tools for Coming Together programming uses Wethersfield’s colonial history to help people see & empathize with one another as we approach America 250, and features distinguished talent from CT and beyond. Symposia, lectures, performances, & film screening explore the relationship between individuals & community, elevating resonance & dissonance between CT’s complex past & current concerns over issues like political speech, “cancel culture,” & legislative dysfunction.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in May 2024.

The Museum of Connecticut History (MCH) at the Connecticut State Library (CSL) seeks funding to support planning for a new CT250 exhibition highlighting items from CSL’s collection and key objects from other institutions statewide. With the help of consultants and a steering team, MCH/CSL staff will interpret the state’s role in the American Revolution and the founding of the nation and develop an Exhibit Plan that will direct the installation of a CT250 exhibit at the MCH in the future.

This project was funded through a Planning Grant in May 2024.

This exhibition at the Connecticut Museum will feature the stories of the Wide Awakes, a nationwide political campaign organization founded by young adults in Hartford who supported Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 presidential election. Open from September 2024 to March 2025, we hope the exhibition will stimulate conversation and reflection about what it means to be politically active in the United States – both past and present – particularly among young adults.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in May 2024.

The project combines an exhibit, demonstrations, material culture, and videos to examine the role played by women in northeast Connecticut and the rest of southern New England in the non-importation movement that presaged the American Revolution. It specifically focuses on women’s production of domestic textiles and the ways the Revolution changed that role and empowered women. Its goal is to make recent scholarship available to the general public in a local context.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in May 2024.

New Haven Museum, (NHM), will premiere the documentary, “Champion for Freedom: The Reverend Alexander Heritage Newton Story,” by preservationist Dolly Marshall with remarks by independent scholar John Mills and a discussion and Q & A moderated by Andre Keitt at CT’s Old State House on Saturday, June 15, 2024, at 1 pm. The free Juneteenth event is part of NH250.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in May 2024.

The Connecticut River Museum received funding to support the work of a Lead Project Scholar who will work to rediscover stories of those African, African American, Indigenous, and other non-European people who were part of the substantial maritime trade industry beginning in the 17th century and continuing through the steamboat era. This under-researched focus will be the basis for a 2026 exhibit and will broaden scholarly knowledge of maritime trades in the River Valley.

This project was funded through a Planning Grant in May 2024.

In its recent history, the Ancient Burying Ground Association (ABGA) has successfully reached organizational goals and priorities to present more programs, build its online presence, and increase participation. The ABGA is now prepared to revisit its mission and vision to create a three-year strategic plan with the assistance of consultant Kathy Craughwell Varda. The plan will set goals and develop an action plan to insure the sustainability and growth of the organization for a better future.

This project was funded through a Capacity Grant in May 2024.

The Portland Historical Society, the town Committee on Solidarity, and the Portland Public Library will produce an Oral History series focused on the stories of Black Americans living and working in Portland, CT. The series will include 4 podcast episodes recorded in fall 2024, and spring 2025, and a live panel presentation in February 2025 for Black History month which will include a “memory recording booth” where all attendees will be invited to share memories inspired by the presentation.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

“Diasporican: From Dispersion to Integration” is a comprehensive exhibition that will delve into the diverse Puerto Rican identities within the diaspora and document diasporic experiences related to Puerto Rico. Featuring the works of four Puerto Rican artists, the exhibition aims to initiate a dialogue about the ever-changing Puerto Rican community and its ongoing presence in the contemporary United States. The exhibition will run from 10/24/2024 to 02/13/2025, at ECSU Art Gallery.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

The CCSU Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Center in collaboration with community partners in New Britain, Meriden, and Wallingford, is hosting a Community Reads project around the Library of America’s new Latino poetry anthology, “Places We Call Home,” from October 2024 to April 2025. Participants will have the opportunity to read and discuss their ideas about the poems with two contributors to the anthology during public programs in October 2024 and April 2025.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

“Building an American Voice” will present an illustrated timeline of important moments in Connecticut’s, and the nation’s, historic struggle to have everyone’s voice heard in the political arena. The exhibition will include objects and original documents that highlight how the history of freedom of assembly, speech, petition, and voting has helped achieve key victories in civil rights, voting, and other freedoms. The Fairfield Museum exhibition will be on view from Sept 13 – Feb 28, 2025.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

The Hartford History Lecture Series returns to CT’s Old State House in fall 2024 for its 7th consecutive season with the theme of “New Histories of Hartford.” The aim is to bring before the public a variety of Hartford histories neglected or forgotten and uncovered by new scholarship.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

On November 14, 2024 The Connecticut Forum presents a public discussion, “Reflections on a Complex Connecticut,” featuring Dr. Andrew Horowitz, CT State Historian; Christopher Newell, Tribal Community Member-in-Residence, UConn & Director of Education, Akomawt Educational Initiative; Dr. Fiona Vernal, Associate Professor of History, UConn, and Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Senior Curator, Mystic Seaport Museum . 7:30 pm at Hartford Public Library Main Branch. Free.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

Everyday Democracy and the Westport Museum for History and Culture will host an immersive event for Westport-area youth in January 2025. Students will learn from food and cultural experts about Afro-Indigenous foodways and explore connections between regional food culture, historical harms, and U.S. democracy today.
This event is part of Arts, Culture & Democracy, which uses art, culture, and dialogue to engage communities on democratic themes, strengthen social ties, and inspire civic action.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in August 2024.

In 1825, William Grimes published an account of his enslavement, his escape to Connecticut, and the purchase of his freedom at “the sacrifice of all he had earned.” In 2025, the Litchfield Historical Society will organize public programs commemorating and elevating Grimes’s life and his seminal narrative. On May 3, 2025, we will present a dramatic reading of excerpts from “Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave,” accompanied by a panel discussion led by Grimes’s descendant, Regina Mason.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in November 2024.

New Haven Museum, with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and the Amistad Committee, will host Dr. Marcus Rediker on Thursday, April 3, 2025 for a Meet & Greet with New Haven partners and representatives from Amistad sites at 4:30 pm, and a public program at 6:00 pm. Participants are invited to NHM’s updated “Amistad: Retold” exhibition to view original artistic works and artifacts as they reflect on Rediker’s interpretation of the Amistad.

This project was funded through a Quick Grant in November 2024.

We’re hearing visitors share their own personal stories as they experience the aircraft and exhibits, and we want to build a recording studio to save these memories for future generations. Our recently open exhibits provide emotional impacts to our visitors with their interactive displays proving a link with the visitor. In addition, a large number of veterans who come to the museum and many have flown the aircraft on display we want to encourage them to share their own personal stories.

The Phase 2 Restoration of the Hurlbut-Dunham House will complete repairs on structural and exterior woodwork, repair windows, provide interior storm windows, repair brownstone sills, and headers, provide a new energy-efficient HVAC system, in addition to plaster repair and painting on the interior of the house. This project will provide a stable building, a healthy climate-controlled environment for visitors, and allow one of the servants’ rooms to be interpreted and opened to the public.

The Bush-Holley House Preservation and Environmental Upgrade project will provide critical and timely environmental upgrades to protect this 18th-century National Historic Landmark and its collections that include historic artifacts and artwork original to the house and used in its dual interpretation of the Bush and Holley eras. The completion of this project improves the visitor experience and paves the way for the future restoration and interpretation of the back kitchen and slave quarter.

Connecticut Landmarks will implement improvements to its visitor centers at 5 historic house museums to better connect with visitors and other arts and culture resources in our communities. Additionally, signage and marketing collateral will cohere to the organization’s identity as a trusted source for heritage tourism experiences across the state.

The Norwich Historical Society and our partner, the Society of the Founders of Norwich, plan to create a campus where the c. 1675 Leffingwell House Museum will be the museum space and the Greenleaf house will be the handicapped accessible multipurpose event space. We plan to build off of our 2019 Good to Great grant by implementing site improvements at both properties which includes handicapped accessible parking and access, constructing outdoor event space, and other landscape enhancements.

Recognizing the connectivity between Native history and culture with CT’s emphasis on tourism and visitor experience, the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (EPTN) is eager to (1) promote our proud heritage and culture (2) develop public programs that value our ancestry, traditions, and way of life, and we will capitalize on the walking tours on our reservation that bring alive our insights and concerns that surely will preserve and foster the well-being for our next seven generations.

Implementation of state-of-the-art access control will be utilized to secure the museum rooms and the administrative space–formerly the 1901-1946 working part of the residence.
Secure accessibility will allow for expanded behind-the-scenes interpretation of the other family of individuals, the servants, who called Hill-Stead home in the rooms that were once theirs, and also interweave these voices into the existing tour narrative more deeply and consciously throughout tours of the museum.

EHS seeks to create a “Culture Campus” at Pratt House, expanding our capacity to host collaborative events, such as America’s 250th in 2026. We seek to increase the underused site’s public relevance by physically connecting it to the town park, adjacent to the Town Hall and Essex Library, by a wooded walk or ‘campus connector’, natural amphitheater for programs, converting a reproduction barn into a Welcome Center and installing handicap ramps into the house.