LOS ANGELES (CNS) — National Endowment for the Humanities grants have been awarded to 10 groups and organizations in Los Angeles, part of a $31.5 million program for projects across the country it was announced Tuesday.
USC received three grants and UCLA received one from the third and final round of funding for the fiscal year 2022, and will support humanities research, education, preservation, and public programs. The grants were awarded in addition to $52 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and jurisdictional councils.
“NEH is proud to support the many scholars, curators, storytellers, filmmakers and teachers who are helping preserve, examine, and share the country’s rich and expansive history and culture,” NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) said. “From books and documentaries to the preservation of cultural heritage materials, these 226 exceptional projects will foster the exchange of ideas and increase access to humanities knowledge, resources and experiences.”
The three projects that received grants from USC are the Voces de las Abuelas, a media projects production, Booksnake: Building and Testing an Augmented Reality Tool for Embodied Interaction with Existing Digitized Archival Materials, and A Woman’s Ancient Manuscript in Virtual Space.
The Voces de las Abuelas project received $536,733. The project director is Amara Aguilar and it is a documentary series on Mexican and Mexican American food culture in the borderland cities of El Paso, Los Angeles and Tucson.
The Booksnake project received $150,000. The project directors are Peter Mancall, Curtis Fletcher and Sean Fraga and it is the development of a prototype application that will allow users to view and manipulate digitized archival materials in augmented reality as well as an evaluation of its potential as a teaching tool for the humanities.
The Ancient Women’s Manuscript project received $150,000. The project directors are Lynn Dodd and Sabina Zonno and it is an immersive VR experience that allows users to explore and study an illuminated manuscript from the 15th century.
UCLA received a $8,853 grant for its project, The CloA Collections: Assessment and Preservation Training.
The project director is Willemina Wendrich, and the project is a preservation assessment of approximately 323 archaeological and ethnographic objects, as well as preservation of workshop, environmental monitoring of the new collections spaces, and the purchase of archival storage supplies.
The Academy Foundation, International Documentary Association, and Latino Public Broadcasting also received grants, ranging from $75,000 to $699,154.
3-D SPACE in North Hollywood received a $10,000 grant for its project, 3-D SPACE Assessment of Stereoscopic Media Collection.
La Historia Historical Society in El Monte received a $9,982 grants for its project, Preserving the Memories of El Monte.
The California State University, Long Beach Foundation received a $25,000 grant for its project, Rethinking the 18th Century Italian Culture and Its Transnational Connections.
A portion of the grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities support the publication of a Library of American anthology and accompanying national public programs series at 90 public libraries on 400 years of Latino poetry and enable the development of machine-learning algorithms to compare and classify features of Realist, Impressionist and Barbizon School paintings to help art historians trace the spread of artistic styles.