Crisis, Community and Civic Culture

FAIN: BC-50552-10

Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (Northampton, MA 01060-2406)
Pleun Clara Bouricius (Project Director: May 2010 to September 2014)

To support a new thematic emphasis for programming and grantmaking: Crisis, Community and Civic Culture. Programming will include the annual symposium and the annual fall history film and discussion events where Mass Humanities will partner with local history organizations and public libraries in six locations.

In FY 2010 Mass Humanities will introduce a new theme to focus its grant making and programming efforts: Crisis, Community, and Civic Culture. We will (1) issue an RFP for the new theme 2) offer $10K matching grants(twice the usual limit) for public humanities projects on the CCCC (C4) theme, (3) focus our annual symposium on the question of American exceptionalism, both here and abroad, and (4) organize a local history film and discussion series focusing on the responsibilities of citizens in participatory democracies, such as town governments in Massachusetts, using the film "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" (2009).