What is the Humanities Council? The West Virginia Humanities Council is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. We fund hundreds of programs each year in history and other fields of the humanities in communities across West Virginia at schools and colleges, libraries, museums, senior centers and other locations statewide.
What has the Humanities Council done lately? In the last year, the West Virginia Humanities Council continued to invest significantly in the cultural life of the Mountain State, including 57 grant awards totaling $278,108.42 and funding for more than 300 other programs, exhibits and presentations.
We served tens of thousands of West Virginians through lectures, traveling exhibits, living history programs, book festivals, research and travel grants, documentaries, publications, e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia online, and the first-ever Pearl S. Buck conference at West Virginia University.
Grant Awards Statewide
| Brooke | National ADBC Museum, Education and Research Center, ADBC Museum Artifact Preservation |
| Cabell | Cabell County Public Library, Ohio River Festival of Books 2016 |
| Cabell | Robin Conley, Narratives and experiences of trauma: A study of veterans' stories of combat |
| Cabell | Heritage Farm Museum and Village, Stories of Appalachia |
| Cabell | Viatcheslav Gratchev, Don Quixote: The Re-accentuation of the World's Greatest Literary Hero |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corporation, A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series, Marshall University |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., Amicus Curiae Lecture Series on Constitutional Democracy |
| Cabell | Marshall University Research Corp., The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum’s Summer Program for Black History Instruction |
| Cabell | Montserrat Miller, The Political Plate: Food and Catalan Nationalism |
| Cabell | Jana Tigchelaar, American Literature Association conference |
| Cabell | David J. Trowbridge, Civil War, Race, and Reconstruction in West Virginia: History and Memory |
| Fayette | Catherine Moore, Essay Collection with Ohio University Press |
| Fayette | National Coal Heritage Area Authority, Architects and Architecture of the West Virginia Coalfields |
| Greenbrier | Greenbrier Historical Society, Native American Heritage Gathering |
| Hampshire | Capon Bridge Ruritan Club, Focus on History, Capon Bridge Founders Day |
| Jefferson | Contemporary American Theater Festival, Inc., Contemporary American Theater Festival Stage Reading Series July 2016 |
| Jefferson | Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, Robert C. Byrd: Senator, Statesman, West Virginian |
| Jefferson | Shepherd University Foundation, 2016 Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award and Writer-in-Residence |
| Jefferson | Shepherdstown University Foundation, 2016 Shepherdstown Civil War Christmas |
| Jefferson | Shepherd University Foundation, Civil War Soldiers Database Upgrade |
| Jefferson | Jacob L. Stump, Appalachia and the Politics of Cultural Intervention |
| Kanawha | The Charleston Ballet, The Charleston Ballet: A 60-Year History of Dance |
| Kanawha | Kanawha Valley Friends of Old Time Music and Dance, Irish Stew: Mixed Roots in Appalachian Culture and Music |
| Kanawha | Step by Step, Inc., Cynthia Rylant: Stories for a lifetime for West Virginia Families |
| Kanawha | Step by Step, Inc., West Virginia Activists, Stories of Social Change |
| Kanawha | Thanks! Plain and Simple, Inc., Obtaining Accurate Rosie the Riveter Facts and Stories for Valid Education |
| Kanawha | University of Charleston, Outlier: The Story of Katherine Johnson |
| Kanawha | West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Us & Them: Season 3 |
| Kanawha | West Virginia Public Broadcasting, West Virginia’s War |
| Kanawha | Paul Zuros, Creating an American Identity: A Revolution in Decorative Arts 1776-1826 |
| Marion | Fairmont State University, A Celebration of Women's History |
| Marion | First Baptist Church, Forgotten Hero: Ensign James Maddox and the Sinking of the M.S. Zandaam |
| Marion | Tiffany Martin, 2016 Joint Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society and the International Society for Folk Narrative Research |
| Marion | Prickett’s Fort Memorial Foundation, The African American Experience on the Western Virginia Frontier: 1770-1850 |
| Marshall | Marshall County Schools, A Cultural Beat |
| Mercer | Bluefield State College Research and Development Corp., Windows on the World: Presentations on Bolivia, Brazil, Finland, Nigeria, and Tanzania by Fulbright Scholars |
| Mercer | Anthony Guy Patricia, 44th Annual Meeting Shakespeare Association of America |
| Mingo | Larry Joe Harless Community Center , 2016 Skirmish on the River |
| Mingo | West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, Program Fellow, Exhibit Design and Construction |
| Monongalia | Melissa Bingmann, Preserving families and youth for the future of the nation: New Deal Homesteads |
| Monongalia | Friends of Morgantown History Museum, Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad Interpretive Project |
| Monongalia | Leigh Anne Hughes, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo |
| Monongalia | Tania de Miguel Magro, The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater Symposium |
| Monongalia | West Virginia University Research Corporation, Creative Writing Coaching |
| Monroe | Monroe County Historical Society, Monroe County Heritage Days: War Comes to Union |
| Monroe | Peterstown Association of Community Engagement, Peterstown Heritage Festival 2016 |
| Nicholas | Jo Ann Flynn, WV Library Fall Conference |
| Ohio | Ohio County Public Library, Upper Ohio Valley Festival of Books |
| Preston | Aurora Project, Mini Film Festival |
| Raleigh | Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia, Youth Museum's History in a Wagon |
| Randolph | Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, Inc., West Virginia Historic Theatre Trail Promotion |
| Randolph | Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation, Inc., The First Campaign Exhibit |
| Randolph | West Virginia Railroad Museum, West Virginia Railroad Museum 2017 Exhibit |
| Summers | Hinton Area Foundation, From Creek to River: Writing Workshop Series |
| Summers | Summers County Historic Landmark Commission, Defense of the Upper Greenbrier: A Community Project |
| Upshur | West Virginia Wesleyan College MFA Program, West Virginia Wesleyan College MFA Residency Visiting Writers Series |
Other Council-Funded Programs
135 History Alive! presentations were delivered in 36 West Virginia counties.
Humanities Council grant applications went online, allowing the digital submission of proposals in all grant categories.
The Humanities Council partnered with the Division of Culture and History, the West Virginia Association of Museums, the West Virginia Historical Society, Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, and the Mining Your History Foundation to present the annual West Virginia History Day at the state capitol.
“This Week in West Virginia History” continued on West Virginia Public Radio with twice-daily features from e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia online. It was also distributed to state weekly and daily newspapers.
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia (www.wvencyclopedia.org) had visitors from every state in the U.S. and 175 other countries around the world.
The Humanities Council awarded 50 grants and seven fellowships in 21 counties.
We supported the Ohio River Festival of Books in Huntington, the Upper Ohio Valley Festival of Books in Wheeling, and the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston.
A Council grant supports the exhibit, Robert C. Byrd: Senator, Statesman, West Virginian, now traveling statewide.
We partnered with military vets operating Lost Valley Studios to produce a six-part web series on West Virginians and their wartime experiences.
Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed delivered the 2016 McCreight Lecture in the Humanities on “The Hemingses of Monticello.”
Our state folklorist recorded 38 interviews in Randolph, Kanawha, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke, Hancock, Logan, McDowell, Roane, Raleigh, Hampshire, Berkeley, Gilmer, Jackson, Monongalia, Mingo, and Lincoln counties.
We funded Civil War reenactments in Union, Peterstown, and Gilbert.
Humanities Council travel funds sent Paul Zuros of Charleston’s Craik-Patton House to Williamsburg to study early American decorative arts, and other scholars to conferences in New Orleans, El Paso, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, and Raleigh County.
We supported a special residency at Shepherd University by award-winning Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier.
Our Hatfields & McCoys exhibit visited New Martinsville, Ripley, Parkersburg, Bridgeport, Morgantown, Petersburg and Seneca Rocks – and Boyd County, Kentucky.
We hosted our first farm-to-table fundraiser at the historic J. Q. Dickinson Salt-works in Malden.
Our folklife program presented ballad singer Phyllis Marks of Gilmer County, with support from ZMM Architects and Engineers and the Library of Congress.
We supported presentations by Fulbright Scholars at Concord University, Bluefield State College, and several Mercer County schools.
We continue to support the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan.
Council funds supported a traveling exhibit spotlighting architects and architecture of the southern coalfields.
A Humanities Council grant funded the creation of a driving tour featuring black history of the New River Gorge.
We funded the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s humanities lecture series.
Council grants supported the Appalachian Studies Association conference in Shepherdstown and the national meeting of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in Harpers Ferry.
We partnered with the Folger Shakespeare Library to sponsor two Wheeling performances of Gravedigger’s Tale, based on Hamlet, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.
A Council grant funded programs and an exhibit about Fairmont native James Maddox, a Navy hero in World War II.
We launched the toll free West Virginia Folklife Hotline at 1(844)618-3747.
The West Virginia Humanities Council board of directors is drawn from all parts of West Virginia. Click to see our list of present board members and their locations.
View the 2016 West Virginia Folklife Activities Report here
