Newsroom Category: Grant Opportunities

Meet AHA’s 55 grantees from 2023

Birmingham / April 22, 2024: Curious what kind of public humanities projects the Alabama Humanities Alliance funds through its grant program? Take a look at AHA’s final list of 2023 grant recipients.

In 2023, AHA awarded 55 grants totaling more than $342,000 to support public humanities programs across the state. Collectively, this funding helps to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of our history, literature, philosophy, culture, civics, and more.

AHA offers Mini Grants (up to $2,500), Major Grants (up to $10,000), and Media Grants (up to $15,000) to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions statewide. Awarded projects take many shapes but each, in some way, helps connect Alabamians to our past, to the world around us and, ultimately, to each other.

Interested in applying for an Alabama Public Humanities Grant in 2024? Visit AHA’s grants page to learn more and consider talking with our grants director about project eligibility.

The most important elements for any potential grant project include:

1. Public participation
2. Strong humanities content
3. Direct involvement of humanities scholars.

For example, AHA often funds the following types of projects:

  • Lectures and panel discussions
  • Conferences, symposia, and festivals
  • Community history projects
  • Book or reading discussions
  • Teacher workshops
  • Temporary and traveling exhibitions
  • Oral history projects
  • Documentary films or series
  • Podcasts, apps, digital media

 

MEET OUR 2023 AHA GRANTEES 

Note that all Major Grants and Media Grants are evaluated by an independent review panel of humanities scholars and practitioners. Learn more about AHA’s 2024 Grants Review Panel.

Photo at top: A story quilt presented as part of Project Threadways’ oral history project and symposium (Florence, 2023 grantee). 

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded 50 years ago, in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. AHA promotes impactful storytelling, lifelong learning and civic engagement. Through our programs and grantmaking, we provide Alabamians with opportunities to connect with each other, with our shared history, and with the vibrant and complex communities we call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

$200K for humanities projects in 2023

Birmingham / September 1, 2023  — Through the first half of 2023, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has awarded 29 grants, contributing $206,996 in funding to humanities-rich public projects. Grantee programs cover the state — from a Kudzu Soliloquy series of conversations at Dothan’s Wiregrass Museum of Art to an exploration of Asian American culture at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library (youth panel pictured above).

Through June 2023, AHA’s statewide support includes: 12 Mini Grants (up to $2,500 each); 11 Major Grants (up to $10,000 each); and 6 Media Grants (up to $15,000).

Meet AHA’s newest grantees, awarded January-June 2023. 

The Alabama Humanities Alliance is the primary source of grants for public humanities projects in the state. AHA offers monthly Mini Grants; quarterly Major Grants; and annual Media Grants for documentaries, podcasts, and other digital projects.

In 2022, AHA awarded 51 grants in total, contributing $301,320 for humanities-rich public programming statewide. Those projects — steeped in history, literature, civics, culture, and more — reached nearly 214,000 Alabamians. Programming included festivals, book talks, teacher workshops, oral history projects, storytelling events, art panels, podcast series, and much more.

Support for AHA’s grants comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more about current offerings and guidelines: alabamahumanities.org/grants.

Remaining grant deadlines for 2023 include:

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we connect Alabamians to impactful storytelling, lifelong learning, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

Four Alabama teachers named Riley Scholars

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. / Nov. 21, 2022 — The Alabama Humanities Alliance has announced four recipients of its 2022 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship. Winners receive a $1,000 scholarship to support creative classroom projects that enhance students’ understanding of history and civics.

Since 2003, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has named 101 Riley Scholars and funded more than $100,000 in teacher scholarships. These competitive scholarships are named in memory of Jenice Riley — daughter of former Alabama governor and first lady Bob and Patsy Riley — and they recognize K-8 educators who share Jenice’s passion for teaching and extraordinary commitment to enhancing the quality of education in Alabama.

 

This year’s winners are:

Adriana Shirley, Blossomwood Elementary (Huntsville)
Project: Alabama the Beautiful (4th Grade)
Through this project, students will get a hands-on opportunity to explore communities beyond their own. After conducting research on different counties across Alabama, students will create 3-D “suitcases” that will include information and artifacts relevant to their respective counties. Students will then then take their school community and local leaders on a virtual “road trip like no other” to showcase what they’ve learned.

 

Sharon Neal, Prince of Peace Catholic (Hoover)
Project: All About Alabama (4th Grade)
Each year, students in Neal’s class research famous Alabamians and dress up as “wax versions” of their historical subjects to present their findings. To expand students’ research opportunities, this scholarship will enable the purchase of new books about Alabama’s people, landscape, and history. It will also allow Neal to acquire additional teacher resources to enhance the school’s fourth grade history curriculum.

 

Melissa Motes, Barton Academy for Advanced World Studies (Mobile)
Project: Student Historians Becoming Local Documentary Producers (8th Grade)
This project will equip students with the tools they need to translate their historical research into short documentaries. Films will focus on either the history of indigenous communities in Mobile or the history of Barton as a school. Students will become historians and storytellers as they explore the impact of immigrant groups and the importance of local archaeological sites.

 

Willie Davis III, Charles F. Hard Elementary (Bessemer)
Project: Let’s Explore the World Together (Kindergarten)
The purpose of this project is to introduce students to a diversity of cultures they likely haven’t experienced before. Students will learn about different countries, ways of life, celebrations, and traditions through discussion, literature, international cuisine, and other humanities-rich tools. The goal is to put students on the path to becoming global, well-informed, and empathetic citizens.

 

Next year’s Riley scholarship competition will open in Spring 2023. For more information about the Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship, visit alabamahumanities.org/program/jeniceriley-memorial-scholarship.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. AHA promotes impactful storytelling, lifelong learning and civic engagement. We provide Alabamians with opportunities to connect with our shared cultures and to see each other as fully human. Through our grantmaking, we help scholars, communities and cultural nonprofits create humanities-rich projects that are accessible to all Alabamians — from literary festivals and documentary films to museum exhibitions and research collections. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.