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NEH & Arizona

Between 2006 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Arizona received $8.8 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arizona Humanities Council for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.

  • About 200,000 pages of historic Arizona newspapers such as the Safford Rattler and the Tombstone Epitaph from 1880 to 1922 are being digitized by the Arizona Department of Libraries, Archives, and Public Records with support from a $714,800 grant. This work is part of the National Digital Newspaper Project, an NEH collaboration with the Library of Congress.
  • The Mesa Southwest Museum was awarded $4,900 to do a conservation assessment of twelve murals in its collection by Arizona artist Jay Datus. Painted in the 1950s, they depict the Phoenix area’s diverse cultural history.
  • A grant of $49,000 will help widen public access to the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s collection of recorded readings from the 1960s to the present. The Center will use a web-based application to make the recordings available. They include readings by authors including Pulitzer Prize-winners Archibald MacLeish and Robert Penn Warren.
  • Northern Arizona University implemented “Footprints of Ancestors: Intergenerational Learning of Hopi History and Culture” with the assistance of a $241,000 grant. Hopi youth learned about the cultures and history of the Four Corners region from tribal elders, cultural specialists, and scholars at historic and prehistoric sites.
  • Schools represented by 125 teachers and librarians from across Arizona are benefiting from a $16,000 grant to the Phoenix Art Museum that enabled it to present a seminar to improve instruction in American history, civics, government, literature, and culture. The collections of the Phoenix Art Museum and the nearby Heard Museum received special emphasis.
  • The Arizona Humanities Council, in collaboration with the state office of tourism, has developed the Arizona Heritage Traveler website, a guide to cultural and historical destinations with essays and recommended readings.
  • The Arizona Humanities Council recently made a $10,000 grant to the Tuscon Historic Preservation Society to support reinstallation of historic neon signs in downtown Tuscon. This preservation effort will be accompanied by interpretive panels, lectures, and a driving guide.
  • A grant of $75,000 is helping the University of Arizona and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona collaborate on “Moquis and Kastilam: The Hopi History Project.” The primary product of this collaboration will be a scholarly history of Hopi-Spanish relations from 1540 to 1821. Sources include Hopi oral traditions, interviews with Hopi elders, and colonial Spanish documents.