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del.icio.usThe National Parks: America’s Best Idea Grant Program
The National Park Foundation and the National Park Service share a common goal of engaging new and traditionally underserved audiences in the educational richness of the national parks. The 2009 broadcast of the new film by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a co-production of PBS/WETA and Florentine Films, creates an unprecedented opportunity to use the dynamic medium of film to reach out to young people and adults through programs that engage teachers, families, and community groups in using the national parks as living classrooms.
The combined partnership of PBS/WETA, NPS and NPF will provide a powerful and compelling platform to connect more Americans to their national parks by:
- Uncovering new national park stories that will resonate with minority and traditionally underserved audiences;
- Creating opportunities for the public to connect to the national parks; and
- Creating wide-ranging communication vehicles for broad dissemination.
The film will be a cultural and educational vehicle for people to experience their national parks, to feel how very special they are, to see the majestic places, and to learn about the many people whose individual stories tell the stories of individual parks. As Ken Burns turns his talent as a storyteller and documentary filmmaker to the story of our national parks, it is sure to generate more public awareness about these national treasures than any other event.
Through this grant program, we want to find ways to connect with people who have had little or no experience in our national parks, as well as to find ways to deepen existing relationships. The scope of the project includes the development of pilot programs that will strengthen the National Park Service’s ability to reach underserved audiences.
