NAVIGATING CURRENTS of CHANGE
In November, Rhode Island Humanities hosted a record-breaking National Humanities Conference in Providence. The gathering brought together nearly 900 attendees from all over the country to share their work and to experience the public humanities in Rhode Island.
Hosted in a different location each year, the National Humanities Conference (NHC) is organized by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the National Humanities Alliance, in partnership with the humanities council of their host location. This year’s unique theme—Making Waves, Navigating Currents of Change—spoke to the connection between water and human communities, behavior, and decisions over millennia.
OVER 50 LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS participated, ensuring that the NHC will have a lasting impact here in the Ocean State. Attendees included staff and board members of the 56 HUMANITIES COUNCILS (state and jurisdictional); faculty members, graduate students, and academic leaders from colleges and universities; professionals from museums, libraries, and academic associations; and leaders and staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution. Representatives from local and national cultural organizations and educational initiatives also attended.
7,990 MILES
distance
The Conference included FOUR KEY PROGRAMS— the Opening Plenary, Capps Lecture, Address by the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Closing Plenary—that each highlighted complex stories and showcased local public humanities work within a national context.
IN SPENDING FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMY $1M
More than 100 CONCURRENT SESSIONS over the multi-day conference brought together humanities leaders working on issues related to Indigenous culture, slavery and justice, incarceration, environmental humanities, veterans, literacy, filmmaking, data and evaluation, and advocating for humanities funding in both public and higher education sectors galvanized by the conference theme.
The NHC also included 13 OFFSITE SESSIONS/ TOURS that engaged 15 local partner organizations— four of which were curated and led by RI Humanities staff—ensuring that attendees from across the nation experienced Rhode Island’s unique humanities ecosystem in the communities where this work is already occurring on a daily basis.
RI Humanities is deeply grateful to our dedicated board, 25 CONFERENCE VOLUNTEERS, and invaluable community partners for helping us host this recordbreaking event.
“
This isn’t a time to live in fear, to close ourselves off to the world. This is a time to be brave. To ask questions and seek answers and build the world you want, the world you’ve always wanted.”
shelly c . lowe , neh chair 2024 NHC Address
The longest
traveled by colleagues from Guahan (Guam).
GRANTMAKING
$260,389 AWARDED
From November 2023 to October 2024, we awarded 48 grants in support of public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement. At the core of our mission, grantmaking ensures organizations and practitioners across the state have financial support, resources to strengthen their work, and connections to Rhode Island’s vibrant cultural sector.
PUBLIC PROJECT GRANTS
MAJOR GRANT AWARDS
DIRT PALACE PUBLIC PROJECTS
$12,000 to Pied Type: Letterpress Printing in Providence, 1762-Today
LITTLE COMPTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, $12,000 to The Sakonnet Mishoon Project
NEWPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
$12,000 to “A Name, A Voice, A Life: The Black Newporters of the 17th-19th Centuries” Exhibition
PRESERVE RHODE ISLAND, $8,845 to Lippitt House Museum Civics Program for Adult English Language Learners
PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY
$12,000 to Washed
QUEER.ARCHIVE.WORK., $12,000 to Queer/Trans Zinefest (QTZ) 2024
SCHOOL ONE, $10,150 to Write Rhode Island – READ THINK WRITE
WANDERGROUND LESBIAN ARCHIVE/LIBRARY, $7,800 to Exploring the Archives: Sharing Stories/ Building Connections
MINI GRANT AWARDS
RYAN BROWN, $1,901 to Cultural Resilience through Silenced History
More on our grant supported projects at: rihumanities.org/ grants/recent-grants
GAIL BURTON, $2,000 to Story Circles: Confronting the Historical Grief of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
FARM FRESH RHODE ISLAND, $1,793 to Cultivating Conversations: Bridging the Past and Present in Agriculture and Sustainability
FIRSTWORKS, $2,000 to Raise Your Voice: In Conversation with Artivists
FRIENDS OF THE POKANOKET
TRIBE, $2,000 to Pokanoket Heritage Day Support
THE MANTON AVENUE PROJECT, $2,000 to The “Solito” Partnership
NEWPORT RESTORATION
FOUNDATION, $1,900 to Naming the Houses: A Telling Stories Project
PROVIDENCE INNER CITY ARTS, $2,000 to Meet Me at the Court –Feature Length Documentary Film
PVD WORLD MUSIC, $2,000 to A Bridge Between Worlds – A Dialogue on Contemporary African Arts, Life and Culture
STAGES OF FREEDOM, $2,000 to Rudolph Fisher: Rhode Island’s Gift to the Harlem Renaissance
VIRGINIA THOMAS, $2,000 to Trans Women of Color Oral History Workshop with Queer StoRIes Project and Weber Renew
TOWARDS AN ANTI-RACIST NORTH KINGSTOWN, $2,000 to We Are ALL Readers
WEST BROADWAY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, $2,000 to West End Historical Marker
DOCUMENTARY FILM & MEDIA GRANTS
MAJOR GRANT AWARDS
ARMENIAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OF RHODE ISLAND, $12,000 to Armenian Chronicles: A Living History
FRACTURED ATLAS, $12,000 to Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza
TIKKUN OLAM PRODUCTIONS, $12,000 to Breakin’ Away
WEST BROADWAY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, $12,000 to Superman: A Building and Its City
RESEARCH GRANTS
MINI GRANT AWARDS
ANTHONY “AM.” ANDRADE, $2,000 to Queer Femme Afro-Diasporic Ethnomusicology
REZA C. CLIFTON, $2,000 to Wild Bill: Stories about a Father, a Family, and Black Jurists in Rhode Island
TRACY JONSSON-LABOY, $2,000 to Practice Based Research: For Flax Sake
DELIA RODRIGUEZ-MASJOAN, $2,000 to History of Latina Elected Officials in Rhode Island
JULIE ADAMS STRANDBERG, $2,000 to Collecting, Transcribing, Documenting, and Sharing Authentic Voices of Elders
THRIVE GRANTS
In FY24, RI Humanities launched THRIVE, a state-funded general operating support grant program, awarding $90,000 through 18 grants to small cultural heritage organizations and local historical and preservation societies in 15 cities and towns. Each organization received $5,000. THRIVE is supported by an allocation from the State of Rhode Island.
Blackstone River Watershed Council
Centro Cultural Andino
Cultural Society
East Providence Historical Society
Foster Preservation Society
Friends of the Pokanoket Tribe
Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse
India Association of Rhode Island
Jamestown Historical Society
Museum of Newport Irish History
Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project
Rhode Tour
Newport Pride
Puerto Rican Institute for Arts & Advocacy
Rhode Island Black Film Festival
Rhode Island Kung Fu & Lion Dance Club
South County Museum
Sowams Heritage Area Project
Wanderground Lesbian Archive/Library
As part of the NEH’s nationwide “United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture” initiative, in 2024 RI Humanities worked with Community Content Partners to create two new tours. “LGBTQIA+ Histories in Rhode Island” and “Creating Home in Rhode Island” focus on the ways diverse communities have found refuge, created home, and built legacies that span generations in the Ocean State. These tours deepen public understanding of complex community, state, and national histories and introduce users to myriad ways that historically and currently marginalized communities demonstrate resilience—and indeed, joy—in the face of hate. In the process, these communities have helped to disarm misunderstanding through the preservation of cultural practices and the insistence on creating safe spaces in often unique ways.
Find the tours at: rhodetour.org
Development of the 2024 Rhode Tours was supported by “United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture” a nationwide initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
PHILANTHROPY THAT SUPPORTS
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS & PROMOTES CIVIC HEALTH
We are grateful for the generous support of our donors, funders, and sponsors. Thank you for making this work possible.
INDIVIDUALS & ORGANIZATIONS
$100 & over
Anonymous
Anonymous (3)
Joan & Richard Abrams*
Candy Adriance
Dominique Alfandre & Thomas Palmer
Onésimo Almeida & Leonor Simas-Almeida
Nancy Anderson
Cherry Arnold*
Mary-Kim Arnold & Matthew Derby
Amy Barlow & Peter Kammerer
Reenie & Bob Barrow
The Berkelhammer Family Fund
Jim Betres
Christina Bevilacqua
Barry & Jessica Blake
Debbie Block & Bill Harley
Roger Blumberg & Cristina Mitchel
Vincent Bohlinger & Todd Borgerding
Tiffini Bowers
Elizabeth G. Brito
Marisa Angell Brown
Brown University, with support from the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, Office of Community Engagement and the President’s Office
Winifred Brownell, PhD, in honor of Elizabeth Francis
Bryant University
Thomas & Antonia Bryson
Vincent Buonanno
Len & Judy Cabral
Campus Fine Wines
Elizabeth Cazden
Lisa Smolski & Tom Chandler
Alex Chiulli
Citrin Cooperman and Company, LLP
City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
Edward & Audrey Clifton
Linda & Steve Cohen
Harold J. Cook
Melanie & Stephen Coon
Denise Dangremond
Jaffa & David Davies
Betsey Delaney
Elizabeth Delude-Dix*
Linda Eisenmann
Mary-Beth Fafard, PhD
Elaine & Barry Fain*
Maia Farish
Michael Fein & Marjorie Feld
Cheryl Foster, in honor of Elizabeth Francis
Elizabeth Francis*
Wallace & Leslie Gernt
Touba Ghadessi & John Richard*
Gayle L. Gifford & Jonathan W. Howard
Karen Gray Harkins Wealth Management
Logan Hinderliter & Hannah Parzen
Mary & Bill Hollinshead
Polly Hutcheson & George Rice
Johnson & Wales University
Richard & Laura Kowal
Paula M. Krebs & Claire Buck
Jane L. Lancaster, PhD
Joanne Leary
Francis J. Leazes, Jr. PhD
Steven Lubar, in honor of the alumni of the Brown University Public Humanities Program
Carolyn Mark & Bill Stone*
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew
Emily McHugh
Gero Meyersiek
Eugene Mihaly
Chas A. Miller III
E. Pierre & Sarah Morenon
Elizabeth K. Morse
John Nazarian, PhD
Kenneth Newman*
Antonia Noori Farzan
Julie Nora
Reverend Clare Novak
Ken Orenstein
John & Regina Partridge
Jean & Mark Patiky
Cynthia B. Patterson*
Christopher H. Pell
Taylor M. Polites
Douglas Popovich & Bradley Wester*
Barry Press & Anne Scurria
Providence College
Scott Raker & Abby Berkelhammer
Thiel B. Ramsbey
Elaine P. Reynolds, in memory of Eugene P. Soles
Rhode Island College
Rhode Island PBS/ The Public’s Radio
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Sarah & Craig Richardson*
Rebecca Riley & David Carden*
Jeannette E. Riley & Kathleen M. Torrens*
James P. Riley
Tom Roberts
Roger Williams University
Bettina Rounds & Bob Bonadies
Deborah Ruggiero
Rich & Jane Schweinsburg
Deming & Jane Sherman
Rebecca A. Silliman
John Simmonds*
Gretchen Dow Simpson
Susan Smulyan
Renee Soto
Pamela S. Stanton & Jack O’Donnell
Josh Stenger & Shannon Dolan
Marjorie L. Sundlun*
Eric Sung
Marilyn Thomas University of Rhode Island
Christopher Joseph Westgate, PhD
Fox Wetle, to recognize the leadership of Elizabeth Francis
Wheaton College
Liz & John White and Taco/The White
Family Foundation*
Don & Kitty Wineberg*
Robert Woolard*
Karin Wulf GRANTS
Rhode Island Humanities
gratefully acknowledges the major support of:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Office of the RI Secretary of State
Providence Tourism Council
Rhode Island Foundation
State of Rhode Island allocation
INDIVIDUALS
under $100
Anonymous (3)
Peter & Susan Allen
Kamila Barzykowski
Judith H. Bell
Edward Bishop
Nancy Carignan in honor of Marjory O’Toole
Nancy & Ralf Carriuolo
Charities Aid Foundation America
Deborah B. Coons
Robert E. Craven, Jr.
Benjamin Cray
Carol DeBoer-Langworthy
Russell DeSimone
Shauna Duffy
John Eng-Wong
Holly Ewald
Ellen & Allan Fingeret
James A. Hopkins
Carol Terry & James Janecek
OUR PEOPLE
2024 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Doug Popovich Chair
Tiffini Bowers, PhD Vice Chair
Chrystal Mars Baker
Secretary
Eugene B. Mihaly, PhD
Interim Treasurer
Cherry Arnold
Stephanie Basile
Robert Craven, Esq
Jaffa Davies, MS
Antonia Noori Farzan
Carolyn Mark
Emily McHugh
Jeannette E. Riley, PhD
Renee Soto, MFA
Josh Stenger, PhD
Eric E. Sung
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
Christopher Joseph Westgate, PhD
Robert Woolard, MD
HONORARY CHAIRS
Senator Jack Reed
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
2024 STAFF
Julia Aguiar, MA Grants & Humanities Initiatives Coordinator
Rachael Jeffers
Margaret Kaufer
Ellen A. Kellner
Nancy & Charlie Kellner in honor of Doug Popovich
Daniel Kertzner
Beverly Klyberg
Leonard & Linda Levin
Sophia Mackenzie
Patrick Malone, PhD
Elizabeth McNab
Mev Miller
Francis Parra & Gonzalo Cuervo
Judith Queen
Bonnie Reisman
Julia Renaud & Peter Campbell
David T. Riedel
Karen T. Romer
Marcia T. Rosenzweig in honor of Rabbi Wayne Franklin
Catherine Saunders
Elizabeth Francis, PhD Executive Director
Rachael Jeffers, MA Associate Director of Engagement
Sophia Mackenzie, MA Associate Director of Development
Scott Raker, MFA Associate Director of Operations
Julia Renaud, MA
Associate Director of Grants & Humanities Initiatives
Jane Androski Design Consultant
Suzanne Scanlan
Sylvia Ann Soares
Nina Stack
Robert Tessier
Valerie Tutson
United Way of Rhode Island
Scott Wolf in memory of Joyce P. Krabach, my exceptional wife
The Rhode Island Humanities 2024 Annual Campaign began on November 1, 2023 and concluded on October 31, 2024. If you find any errors or omissions, we apologize and ask that you please notify us at: sophia@ rihumanities.org
Gifts of $1,000 & over * Pell Circle Donors
Casandra Inez Engagement Coordinator (Jan–Oct 2024)
Imanah Mahmoud National Humanities Conference Engagement Facilitator (Sept–Nov 2024)
IMAGES & CREDITS
Our thanks to: Rachael Jeffers, Cat Laine, Marlisse Payamps, Julia Renaud, Kelsey Williston and all of our grantees who have contributed photographs.
rihumanities.org
HUMANITIES
BY AND FOR ALL RHODE ISLANDERS
Diverse sources of public and private funding ensure our ability to adapt, respond, and collaborate to reach more people, provide resources, and enhance the cultural ecosystem across the state.
69% OF ANNUAL SPENDING went directly towards grants and initiatives in 2024
4,500 $10M
$100K
PEOPLE REACHED IN 2024 by RI Humanities grant-funded activities
DISTRIBUTED through more than 2,070 grants since 1973
51,626 IN STATE FUNDING for THRIVE general operating support grants
PEOPLE RECEIVE OUR NEWSLETTER Humanities in Context, bimonthly
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): General Support, United We Stand funding, and National History Day funding
State (THRIVE support)
Gifts, Sponsorships, Foundation and other grants