Money available for projects honoring statehood

ALASKA NEWSPAPERS STAFF
editor@alaskanewspapers.com

April 07, 2008 at 8:12AM AKST

The Alaska Humanities Forum is offering a total of $1 million to projects that explore statehood.

The effort, called Alaska’s Statehood Experience, is meant to honor the state’s 50th anniversary next year.

“The ASE program encourages creative exploration of all aspects of Alaska’s journey to statehood,” according to a Humanities Forum press release.

Under a general competitive-grant category open to all applicants, the Humanities Forum will award a maximum of $100,000 per project in the areas of media, public meetings/exhibits, oral history, research, planning and creative expression.

Winning projects might include a speaker series across Alaska led by elders and historians or a collection of oral histories from people who played a part in the statehood journey.

The deadline to apply for those grants is May 15.

In another category targeting young Alaskans – called AK 50: “Our Stories” – the Humanities Forum will award a maximum of $2,000 to students, classes, schools and K-12 clubs for projects that “reflect upon statehood, civics, and American identity,” the release said.

A few of those youth-focused projects have already won, but the Humanities Forum will take applications and continue awarding winners through the spring of 2009.

One early winner includes an effort by Ray Voley, a teacher at the Kenny Lake School in Copper Center. Voley, Alaska’s reigning Teacher of the Year, is recruiting students to write and perform a play about Alaska that will be presented to area residents. He won $900 for that effort.

Grant criteria and online applications are available at the Alaska Humanities Forum Web site: www.akhf.org.

For more information, e-mail grants@akhf.org or contact the forum’s grants officer, Laura Schue, at (907) 272-5373.

ASE is a partnership between the Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation, which provided the money for the grants.