The Illinois Humanities has launched the Activate History Micro-Grants to enable those who maintain local collections of various kinds (archives, texts, photos, stories, and more) to explore creative ways for community members to become more engaged with them.
Donor Name: Illinois Humanities
State: Illinois
County: All County
Deadline: 09/01/2023
Size of the Grant: $750
Details:
Illinois Humanities see this work as encouraging individual curiosity and connections to local history; as celebrating the efforts of amateur and other local historians; and as an avenue for growing the outreach efforts of local collections– all of which helps bolster community identity. Illinois Humanities has designed this micro-grants program to be accessible with a quick turnaround, in response to the dearth of available funds for individuals and smaller entities to host discussions on history and related matters.
Guidelines
The Activate History micro-grants program funds creative interpretation and dialogue that is meant to attract attention to local collections, texts, and stories of regional significance.
- The Activate History micro-grants are for $750 each.
- Applicants can request up to $150 in additional support to help make their events more accessible to audience participants, particularly those with physical disabilities, as well as an additional $100 for documentation of the project (say hiring a photographer to cover a key event, for example). This might include such features as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), but can also include other resources such as providing transportation to and from events for those who need it.
- Funding can be used for leading conversations, for activating a space through an event, and for artistic interpretation of collections.
- Illinois Humanities is using a broad definition of an archive or collection. It sees archive, whether physical or electronic, as an everyday tool that encourages collective memory. The aim is to engage audiences with archives that have never been seen before, presenting an existing archive in a way that is original or fresh, or bringing in audiences that usually don’t have access.
- Funding is for stewards or other collaborators.
- Support can be for research and digitization provided they are part of an engagement strategy.
- Event or activity must happen within 6 months of the application deadline.
- Programs can be held virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid format.
Eligibility Criteria
Any nonprofit, church, school, government entity, library, museum and/or individual can apply. Either the applicant, the theme to be explored, or the audience addressed should be focused on Illinois. Special consideration is given to organizations with annual budgets of less than $400,000. For-profit businesses may not apply.
For more information, visit Illinois Humanities.
