Projects We've Funded: Greater Boston Area

$5,000 to the Chinese Progressive Association in Boston for a traveling exhibition, Pilgrim Father/Illegal sons, juxtaposing a Mayflower pilgrim with undocumented Chinese immigrants. (LJA) (2008)

$10,000 to Discovering Justice in Boston for the play, The Judgment of Bett, dramatizing two court cases that led to the abolishment of slavery in Massachusetts. (LJA) (2008)

$9,375 to the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston for Race and Place, a four-session dialogue series to mark the 40^th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. (LJA) (2008)

$10,000 to the Filmmakers Collaborative in Waltham for At Home in Utopia, a film about co-op housing complexes in the Bronx built in the 1920s by Jewish immigrant garment workers. (LJA) (2008)

$7,500 to the Lioness Media Arts, Inc. in Brookline for the documentary, The Race to Execution, on the role of media representations of race in the criminal justice system. (LJA) (2008)

$2,500 to the Medford Arts Center for one-woman living history performances entitled Tea with Mary Cassatt in middle schools, libraries, and other venues. (2008)

A scene from Henry V, performed for panel discussion, Henry V Conversations: What is a Just War? Seth Powers as Henry and Molly Schreiber as Catherine. Photo by Carrolle Photography.

$4,000 to the Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Cambridge for two events—including workshops, performance of scenes and a writing activity—entitled Henry V Conversations: What is a Just War? in conjunction with a production of Henry V. (2008)

$8,994 to Brandeis University in Waltham for Not on a Silver Platter, a traveling exhibit on women in the construction trades following the 1978 Executive Orders that opened up industry jobs and training programs to women. (2008)

$3,280 to Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library for Boston and Beyond: A Bird’s Eye View of New England: A Lecture Series, and a Web-based exhibit, to accompany a gallery exhibit of late nineteenth century maps. (2008)

$10,000 to Lexington Historical Society for The Day the Revolution Began: Orientation Film for Visitors to Lexington. (2008)

$5,000 to New Repertory Theatre, Inc. in Watertown to support Their Voices Will Be Heard: Artist Responses to the Israeli/Palestinian Situation, including panel discussions, film presentations, and other events. (2008)

$7,052 to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston to support and expand this year’s Valerie Gordon public lecture, entitled Examining Human Rights and Racial Justice in Boston, the US and the World. (2008)

Congress of Racial Equality picketers in front of the First National Bank of Boston in 1965. Courtesy of Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department.

$10,000 to Old South Association in Boston in support of Revolutionary Ideals and Modern Debate: The Evolution of Liberty and Justice, a series of public programs and a teacher workshop on the Bill of Rights. (2008)

$5,000 to The Partnership of the Historic Bostons, Inc. in Boston to support First Contacts—In the Time Before Now: The Massachuset, a series of public events focusing on the Massachusetts people at point of contact with the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the week of “Charter Day”, September 4, 2008. (2008)

Still from Imagining Robert, a documentary by Lawrence Hott that tells the story of two brothers, Robert , who has struggled with mental illness for 38 years, and Jay, a prizewinning novelist and his brother’s primary caretaker.

$5,000 to Vinfen Corporation in Cambridge toward Moving Images: Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Film Festival, Vinfen’s first-annual Mental Health Film Festival, to be held at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (2008)

$10,000 to The Boston Museum for a video-response booth mounted at the Boston Public Library to capture visitors’ responses and stories at an exhibit, Choosing to Participate, and in future exhibitions. (2007)

Boston Museum Video Story Booth at “Choosing to Participate” exhibit at the Boston Public Library, January-May 2008.

$10,000 to Lifted Veils Productions, Inc. in Cambridge toward the production of a year long international radio program entitled The Color Initiative, focusing on skin color, to be broadcast by The World/PRI. (2007)

Kobe Bryant poster in Shanghai; one of the few non-white western images. Photo by Phillip Martin.

$9,595 to Stonewall Communities, Inc. in Boston to support The Birth of the Gay-Straight Alliance Movement in Massachusetts, 1987-2007, a course for seniors in the GLBT community that will capture oral history accounts.

$5,000 to Robert Treat Paine Historical Trust in Waltham to support the Stonehurst Exhibit and Signage Design Project at the country home of Robert Treat Paine, created by H.H. Richardson and Frederick Law Olmsted. (2007)

The new 40-page full-color guidebook to Stonehurst tells the story of this icon of American design. For more information, see www.stonehurstwaltham.org. Cover design: Gilbert Design Associates, Inc. Photograph: Bret Morgan.

$10,000 to the Center for Independent Documentary in Sharon for development of Peacemaking Circle, a film examining the application of a Native American method of interactive conflict resolution in the criminal justice system. (Liberty & Justice for All Grant) (2007)

$10,000 to 888 Women’s History Project, Inc. in Cambridge toward writers, consultants, and technicians to complete the production of the documentary film, Left on Pearl: Women Take Over 888 Memorial Drive. (Liberty & Justice for All Grant) (2007)

$10,000 to Theatre Espresso in Boston to support 18 performances of Uprising on King Street: The Boston Massacre, an interactive historical drama, for Boston school children at the John Adams Courthouse. (Liberty & Justice for All Grant) (2007)

$5,000 to The Commonwealth Foundation in Cambridge for the Massachusetts Poetry Outreach Project, a statewide inventory of individuals and organizations involved in poetry and the obstacles and opportunities they face. (2007)

$7,500 to Primary Source, Inc. in Watertown for Aspiring to Liberty: Middle Eastern Identities and Conflict in Context, a teacher institute focused on the different ways liberty and justice are expressed in the Middle East. (2007)

$600 to Roxbury Action Program for a Presentation by Humanities Scholar During Jazz Performance featuring scholar/ musician Salim Washington at the Harlem Book Fair/Roxbury, Roxbury Community College. (2007)

$4,588 to USS Constitution Museum in Boston for “I Shall Ever Be Under Obligation to You”: Sailors’ Stories from the War of 1812, a 20-minute drama based on the lives of sailors and sailors’ widows after the War of 1812. (2007)

The Makanda Project, featuring humanities scholar Salim Washington (front row, center).

Actors portray sailors, and widows of sailors, who
served on USS Constitution.

$10,000 to The Welcome Project, Inc. in Somerville for The Immigrant City: Then and Now, an exhibit and programs on the experiences of “older” and “newer” immigrants to Somerville, where 32% of the population is foreign born. (2007)

$10,000 to Boston College for pre-production funding of a documentary film on the impact and legacies of the Korean War. (2007)

$5,000 to the University of Massachusetts at Boston to sponsor a Dorchester visit from the Mass Memories Roadshow, a program that invites area residents to collectively archive documents concerning their families’ origins and arrivals in Massachusetts. (2006)

$1,000 to Primary Source, Inc. in Watertown to develop, in collaboration with the Watertown Schools, a curriculum on immigration and settlement in Watertown over the past 375 years. (2006)

$5,000 to the Newton History Museum to develop Hyphenated Origins, an exhibition on present-day immigration in Newton. (2006)

$3,060 to Touchable Stories in Boston to complete a permanent graphic installation depicting the ancient fishweirs used by the native communities that once occupied the area where modern Boston has grown. (2006)

$9,993 to 888 Women’s History Project, Inc. in Cambridge to produce a trailer for Left on Pearl: Women Take Over 888 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, a documentary on the 1971 takeover of a Harvard University building by women’s rights activists. (2006)

$998 to the Southborough Historical Society to catalog historical documents pertaining to the town’s 18th century triphammer mill. (2006)

$1,000 to the Westwood Historical Society to catalog the recently acquired Pickhardt family collection, the archives of a family who settled in the town in the late 1800s. (2006)

$10,000 to Theatre Espresso in Boston to underwrite 18 courthouse-based performances of the historical drama “Uprising on King Street: The Boston Massacre” for school groups, followed by a conversation about the issues raised in the play. (2006)

$10,000 to the City of Waltham Planning Department for a pilot program and study to develop a plan for use of a replica of an historic trolley as a means of linking cultural sites in the city. (2006)

$4,987 to the Education Collaborative for Greater Boston in Brookline to help underwrite the costs of a one-week teacher institute on the history of topographical changes in Massachusetts and their effect on communities throughout the state. (2006)

$2,400 to the Belmont Historical Society for the recording and transcribing of oral histories of Belmont’s farming past. (2006)

$4,970 to the USS Constitution Museum in Boston to support a teacher workshop on the use of primary sources and a special turn-around cruise designed to introduce educators to the Constitution’s resources. (2006)

$4,130 to the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University in Waltham for partial support of a conference of human rights activists, journalists, filmmakers and scholars to examine issues related to the documentation and reporting of human rights abuses. (2005)

$5,000 to the USS Constitution Museum Foundation in Boston to support research on African American sailors serving on the Constitution during the War of 1812. (2005)

$5,000 to Discovering Justice in Boston for the development of an educational theater piece using excerpts of Shakespeare plays to explore issues of justice. (2005)

$5,000 to Primary Source in Watertown to develop a week-long teacher training institute examining Islamic societies from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. (2005)

$10,000 to Documentary Educational Resources in Watertown for pre-production work on SecondHand, a documentary film examining the cultural significance of used clothing from the 1890s to the present day. (2005)

$1,695 to the Trustees of Boston University to help underwrite a symposium on Jewish contributions to the development of tango music. (2005)

$5,000 to the Meru Education Foundation in Lexington for development of curriculum materials on the history of trade between India and Salem, Massachusetts in the 18th and 19th centuries. (2005)

$5,000 to the Madison Park Development Corporation in Roxbury for planning of an exhibit and symposia on the history and culture of Roxbury in conjunction with the rehabilitation of historic Hibernian Hall. (2005)

$10,000 to Documentary Educational Resources in Watertown for pre-production work on the documentary Scenes from a Parish, an examination of the effects of demographic and cultural change on a working-class Catholic parish in Lawrence. (2005)

$10,000 to Filmmakers Collaborative in Waltham for planning of a series of documentaries examining the lives of significant women in American history. (2005)

$3,000 to Orchard House in Concord to bring school children from Revere to attend performances of the interactive historical drama The Trial of Anthony Burns. (2005)

$3,500 to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington for a reading and discussion program and film series in conjunction with an exhibition of artifacts from the American West. (2004)

$4,000 to the Discover Roxbury/Bridges Program to support a series of five “moving lectures” – trolley tours of Roxbury’s historical and cultural sites. (2004)

$1,680 to the Royall House Association in Medford for creation and development of a website promoting an historic Georgian home. (2004)

$4,000 to the Boston Museum Project to support the pilot phase of a project to record oral histories of the Big Dig. (2004)

$5,000 to Boston College and scholar Ramsay Liem toward implementation of an MFH-funded plan for an exhibit on the complex and largely unexplored legacy of the Korean War. (2004)

$5,000 to Primary Source in Watertown toward the costs of an interdisciplinary summer teacher institute on Islam. (2004)

$3,835 to the Organization of American Historians to help underwrite three public programs to be held in conjunction with the OAH annual meeting in Boston in late March 2004. The programs focus on Japanese-American draft resistance in WW II, the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the Garrity decision on busing in Boston. (2004)

$5,000 to the Robert Treat Paine Historical Trust in Waltham to support publication of a guidebook for a distinguished work of American architecture and landscape design, built in the late 19th century by a significant figure in the history of American philanthropy. (2004)

$5,000 to the Filmmakers Collaborative in Waltham for a series of five screenings of documentaries that trace the efforts of citizens to transform their communities. Each screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion with the filmmaker and an activist who appears in the film. (2004)

$1,000 to the Bedford Historical Society to inventory the Bedford Women's Community Club records. (2004)

$1,000 to the Robert Treat Paine Estate in Waltham to inventory Stonehurst's collection of furnishings as a first step in preparing an interpretation plan for the estate's interior. (2004)

$5,000 to the Newton Historical Society at the Jackson Homestead to underwrite the planning for a new exhibit on abolitionism to open in the spring of 2004. (2003)

$3,000 to The Cantata Singers in Boston for programming related to the performance of a new choral piece using historical accounts of the 1704 Deerfield raid and its aftermath. (2003)

$4,300 to the Boston Pan-African Forum in Cambridge for programs featuring an educator from the Robben Island Museum in South Africa, offered in conjunction with an exhibition of recent South African art at the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury. (2003)

$5,000 to Primary Source in Watertown to help underwrite the cost of purchasing permissions for documents to be included in the fifth “Making Freedom” Sourcebook. Developed by Primary Source and funded in part by MFH and NEH, the Sourcebooks are being published next spring by Heinemann. (2003)

$5,000 to the Somali Institute for Research and Development (SIRAD) in Boston for two forums, presented in Somali with English interpreters, featuring presentations by scholars and discussions of recent Somali history and the problems facing Somali immigrants as they build a new community in Boston. (2003)

$5,000 to Discovering Justice: The James D. St. Clair Court Public Education Project in Boston to support scholarly review of the script, development of a study guide for, and the first performances of a new drama focused on the Red Scare of the 1920s. (2003)

$5,000 to Gore Place Society in Waltham to support the Greater Boston History Project, a collaborative effort to use the Internet to increase thematic connections among and visitation to more than two dozen small museums and historical sites in Greater Boston. (2003)

$3,000 to the Underground Railway Theater in Arlington for three work-in-progress sessions and a staged reading of a new play based on stories by Grace Paley; a scholar-led discussion of Paley’s work will follow each of the programs. (2003)

$4,550 to Boston College and scholar Ramsay Liem to support the planning phase of an exhibit devoted to the legacy of the Korean War for Korean Americans. (2003)

$4,000 to Touchable Stories, Inc. and artist Ross Miller in Boston to cover the design and writing of two 5' by 12' enamel panels to be permanently installed in the Arlington Street T station when it is renovated in the fall of 2003. The panels will tell the story of the 5000-year-old fishweirs that are buried under the Back Bay, alongside the tracks of the Green Line. (2003)

$4,000 to the USS Constitution Museum in Boston to support a symposium designed to bring recent scholarship in maritime history to an audience of teachers and the general public. (2003)

$3,000 to the Boston Public Library to produce and print a simple brochure explaining the Notable Women mural hanging in the lobby of the General Library in Copley Square. (2003)

$4,980 to The Fenway Alliance in Boston for two public forums, one on civic architecture and one on landscape design in urban settings, to be held at institutions in the Fenway area. (2003)

$5,000 to the Cambridge Forum to support a series of public forums on education reform. www.cambridgeforum.org (2003)

$4,740 to the Framingham Historical Society and Museum for an exhibition on Framingham architecture, a catalogue, and related programming. (2003)

$5,000 to Primary Source in Watertown to support editing and distribution of high-quality videotapes of lectures on various aspects of Islamic culture in Afghanistan and other parts of Central Asia. www.primarysource.org (2003)

$5,000 to the Somerville Museum to support the programming and outreach phase of an exhibit funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Foundation in 2001. (2003)

$5,000 to the Center for Independent Documentary in Sharon for a pre-production grant to complete a treatment and fundraising sample for a one-hour documentary about the social history of the banjo. (2003)

$2,500 to the Center for Independent Documentary in Sharon and filmmakers Steve Gentile and Jim Wolpaw of Boston to support screenings, panels, and a study guide for a recently completed film on Emily Dickinson, funded in part by a major grant from MFH (in 1997). Loaded Gun premiered at the MFA in April and has since been shown at several film festivals in the region. (2003)

$2,500 to the Nichols House Museum, Inc. in Boston for a Scholar in Residence project to explore the political and social activities of the landscape architect, author, and reformer Rose Standish Nichols (1872-1960), with scholar Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello. (2003)

$2,015 to the Boston Irish Film Festival to support the post-screening discussion of the feature film, H3, based on the 1981 hunger strikes at the Maze prison in Belfast. (2002)

$5,000 to The Public Media Foundation, Inc. in Boston to support the development of on-line materials for teachers related to a play based on Sarah Orne Jewett's short story, "The Flight of Betsey Lane." (2002)

$3,200 to ZUMIX in Boston to provide support for an extracurricular course for young residents of the Maverick Gardens housing development in East Boston. Participants photographed life at Maverick on the eve of its demolition by the Boston Housing Authority and exhibited their work at Maverick and another venue. (2002)

$1,150 to the Zamir Chorale in Boston to present a lecture/ demonstration by several scholars and the Zamir Chorale on different aspects of American Jewish music. (2002)

$4,779 to Teachers as Scholars in Boston to present two three-day seminars for English Language and World Language Arts teachers from the Boston Public Schools. (2002)

$8,000 to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston for five public readings and discussions of key passages from Dante's Inferno and a culminating day-long event featuring readings throughout the museum and a final lecture-discussion. (2002)

$25,000 to Primary Source in Watertown for year two of a professional development institute for middle and high school teachers entitled Making Freedom: African Americans in US History. (2002)

$25,000 to the James St. Clair Court Public Education Project in Boston to support performances at the John J. Moakley Federal Courthouse of an original play based on the 1854 trial of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, an event that convulsed Boston and galvanized the anti-slavery movement. (2002)

$24,420 to the Children's Museum in Boston to develop teaching materials on the Wampanoag people of Massachusetts. (2002)

$15,000 to the Cantata Singers in Boston for outreach and programming in conjunction with a performance of the newly commissioned choral work Slavery Documents 2, in which composer T. J. Anderson sets to music texts from the debate over slavery before and during the Civil War. (2002)

$4,175 to Boston History Collaborative in Boston to underwrite the participation of 113 children from urban elementary schools in Boston by Sea, a tour of Boston harbor incorporating a multi-media, interactive presentation of the harbor’s history. (2002)

$2,495 to the Massachusetts College of Art Foundation in Boston for a series of four lecture-discussions on various artists’ ways of using their work to effect social change. (2002)

$1,740 to the Boston University Institute for Medieval History in Boston for two evening lectures, accompanied by cooking demonstrations, that will explore the origins and development of European cuisine. (2002)

$1,250 to the Center for World Languages and Cultures, University of Massachusetts/Boston for a one-day workshop for employees of social service agencies on the historical, cultural, and linguistic background of the Haitian immigrant community. (2002)

$10,000 to the Somerville Historical Society for planning of an exhibit, oral history project, lecture series, and book about 14 movie theaters that used to anchor Somerville’s neighborhoods, only one of which survives today. (2002)

$20,000 to the Center for Independent Documentary in Norfolk and filmmaker Julie Mallozzi of Cambridge for production of Monkey Dance, a video documentary focusing on three Cambodian-American teenagers living in Lowell and examining the competing cultural influences they face as they move into adulthood. (2002)

$2,500 to the Friends of the Dwight-Derby House in Medfield for a Scholar in Residence project: “Tangible History: Building and Life at the Dwight-Derby House, 1651-2001,” with scholar Electa Trisch. (2002)

$21,750 to Boston University for a five-day summer institute for school administrators and teachers on integrating poetry into the public school curriculum at all levels, a program that will build on the success of the Favorite Poem Project developed by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. (2001)

$15,000 to the Public Media Foundation in Boston for production of a radio dramatization of Edith Wharton's 1910 short story "Afterwards," and related educational and Internet components. (2001)

$15,000 to MYTOWN and the Bostonian Society in Boston to launch an innovative program designed to help three neighborhood-based organizations create youth-led projects that use public history to increase citizen awareness and participation. (2001)

$2,500 to Dance Umbrella in Boston for a post-performance panel discussion about the influence of dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones on younger choreographers and on contemporary dance in general. (2001)

$2,500 to the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston for two events focusing on a multi-media work of art portraying the domestic lives of women in the United States: a lecture by a scholar of women's history, and a public conversation with the artists. (2001)

$23,280 to the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge to train and support high school humanities teachers in the use of a curriculum that uses historical events to examine the ethical aspects of intergroup conflict and to develop students' civic skills and values. (2001)

$24,405 to Primary Source in Watertown to support a summer curriculum development institute for public school teachers, followed by piloting and evaluation of instructional materials and activities, on the history of African Americans in the United States. (2001)

$2,500 to the Zamir Chorale of Boston in Newton for a two-part symposium about the history of women's participation in Jewish music as singers and composers. (2001)

$2,500 to Teamsters Local 25 in Boston for an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia examining the 90-year history of the Teamsters in New England. (2001)