Participatory experiences top the list of expectations for today’s visitors to historic house museums and other cultural institutions, which presents both challenges and opportunities for the field. One new avenue for audience engagement is the incorporation of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Humanities New York spoke with Deborah Emmons-Andarawis, Acting Director of Historic Cherry Hill, and Krysta Dennis and Michael Lounello from Siena College’s Creative Arts Department to discuss the debut of VR at the Albany History Fair in May 2018. Historic Cherry Hill and the college’s Creative Arts Department laid the groundwork for this VR experiment through last year’s celebration […]
Cultural Field Survey
Humanities New York first circulated its Cultural Field Survey in 2016, in order to complement other data sets important to the public humanities (these include Data Arts and the National Humanities Indicators). This year’s survey used both quantitative and qualitative questions to build on the previous year’s survey in order to help HNY better serve its grantees and program partners. A printable version can be found here. Method The survey data was collected in January and February of 2018 using data from 376 responses, with 208 complete and 168 partial (responses that were less than 50% completed were not tabulated). […]
Humanities Behind Bars: Educational Programs for Incarcerated Youth on Rikers Island
Humanities New York sits down with Josie Whittlesey of Drama Club and Cameron Rasmussen and Ryan Burvick from the “Beats, Rhymes and Justice” program. They discuss the Action Grant-supported projects they offer to incarcerated youth (men and women under the age of 21) on Rikers Island. HNY: Rikers Island sounds like a difficult place to get an educational program going. How did you start it? Josie: I started with one class at the Robert N. Davoren Complex. It took a long time to get invited in. When I finally got there, it was just a matter of doing a weekly […]
Excerpt: “Making Mass Incarceration”
The following is an excerpt from Elizabeth Hinton’s From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime. Elizabeth is Assistant Professor in the Department History and the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Hinton’s research focuses on the persistence of poverty and racial inequality in the 20th century United States. If you’d like to explore the broader historical context of mass incarceration, you may watch After Attica: Criminal Justice and Mass Incarceration on our YouTube channel. In the century between the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865 and Johnson’s call for the War […]
“History from Below” An Interview with Jen Hoyer, Interference Archive
Powerful graphic design and social mission intersect in “Finally Got The News,” an exhibition at Brooklyn’s Interference Archive funded through a Humanities New York Action Grant. The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings; all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements. Last month we sat down with project director Jen Hoyer to discuss the Archive and this exhibition. HNY: Tell us […]
Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements
The following is an excerpt from Deva Woodly’s upcoming book, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements, on the role of social movements, up to and including The Movement for Black Lives. Deva is an Assistant Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research. Her work explores the ways that public meanings define the problems that the polity understands itself to share, as well as the range of choices that citizens perceive themselves as having. If you’d like to explore the broader historical context of today’s social movements, join us on November 28th when Woodly […]
Sandy Ground & St. John’s Build Community Through Humanities Projects
Last year, St. John’s University celebrated New York’s African-American history and the diversity of Staten Island with “Sandy Ground at St. John’s: Faces of the Underground Railroad,” a public humanities and educational outreach program which brings the community into the history of the first free black community in New York State. Funded by a HNY Action grant, the installation, series of four public lectures, and K-12 school visits engaged audiences in the past, present, and future of the borough’s black communities. Read more about the program here. HNY: How did you put the Sandy Ground project together? Robert: I am […]
Further Readings from Turning the Tide: Communicating Climate Science
From Adam Rome: Climate scientist Mike Hulme’s Why We Disagree About Climate Change (2009). Historian Joshua Howe’s Behind the Curve: Science and the Politics of Global Warming (2014). Psychologist Mary Pipher’s The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture (2013). Howe also has edited a wonderful collection of documents, Making Climate Change: Documents from Global Warming’s Past (2017). The documentary I mentioned about the implications of climate change for national security and international order is “The Age of Consequences” (2017). For a sense of the likely impacts of climate change more generally, I still like a 2008 book by […]
The Genius of Earth Day
Humanities New York provided initial funds for the Buffalo Humanities Festival in 2014 and has been a proud sponsor for each year since. The Festival is produced by the Humanities Institute at the University at Buffalo in cooperation with Buffalo State College, Canisius College, Niagara University, and SUNY Fredonia as well as cultural institutions including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Arts Center. Each year, the festival draws on Buffalo’s many rich academic traditions and resources to engage the most pressing questions of our time. This year’s Festival theme is “Environments;” HNY’s panel event “Turning the Tide: Communicating […]
Interview: Women’s Suffrage History in Rochester
Formed in 2016, The Rochester Area Suffrage Centennial Alliance (RASCA) is a network of institutions that are coordinating celebrations for the anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in New York State. The Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library received a Humanities New York (HNY) Vision Grant to support the RASCA planning process. They also received an Action Grant for the “Because of Women Like Her” exhibit, which is on display at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County through October 14, 2017. HNY: RASCA involves a large network of institutions in the Rochester area. What […]
