Press Release

Eight Illinois Organizations Receive Illinois Humanities Community Grants

January 13, 2016

The Poetry Center of Chicago, the YWCA of the University of Illinois, and the Peoria Riverfront Museum some of the projects receiving support from the $40,000 overall grant for this cycle. The next round of applications is due May 15th.

 

CHICAGO, IL—January 13, 2015—Illinois Humanities’ Board of Directors has awarded a total of $40,000 to eight nonprofit organizations across Illinois for the development and the production of public humanities projects. The grantees are:

  • Hands on Stanzas – The Poetry Center of Chicago ($5,000) – Funding to support a Poet in Residence classroom program
  • Chicago Public Art, Inc. ($5,000) – Funding to support further development of a mobile app mapping public art in Chicago
  • Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy Program – Chicago Lights ($5,000) – Funding to support the Free Write literacy and tutoring program for incarcerated youth
  • “The Final Journey: Responding with Faith” – Chicago Sunday Evening Club ($5,000) – Funding to support CSEC’s documentary on aging
  • “American Spirits: The rise and fall of prohibition” – Peoria Riverfront Museum ($5,000) – Funding to support a traveling exhibition from February to May 2016
  • Exhibit on Native American Women – Mitchell Museum of the American Indian ($5,000) – Funding to support a year-long exhibit featuring the lives of 13 Native women leaders
  • Youth Empowerment Performance Project – 8th Day Center for Justice (fiscal agent) – ($5,000) Funding to support a new public performance produced by LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness
  • Hearing Black Girls’ Truths – YWCA of the University of Illinois ($5,000) Funding to support a community reading project focused on Black girlhood and womanhood

Any nonprofit group, organization or institution is eligible for financial support from Illinois Humanities. Illinois Humanities funds public projects in the humanities, including documentary films, local and community history projects, literary symposia and oral history projects. The deadline for the next application cycle is May 15, 2016. Our new grantmaking guidelines will be posted before then.

Please send an email to Mark Hallett at mark.hallett@ilhumanities.org to discuss guidelines and for grant advice.