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Witness Stones Project Among Guilford Recipients of Humanities Grants

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By Ellyn Santiago in the Guilford Patch  on January 12, 2022

GUILFORD, CT — Guilford’s arts community will soon be enriched with the announcement Wednesday by state Sen. Christine Cohen about a quarter million in state arts grants.

The funds were awarded to nearly two-dozen shoreline arts and humanities organizations to “help them financially survive during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Cohen said.

The local grants are part of 624 statewide grants to different non-profit museums and cultural, humanities, and arts organizations totaling $16 million, and they are part of the $30.7 million in grants allocated by the state legislature to CT Humanities over the next two years. Continue reading.

James Mars Day: A Student Chronicle of Real History

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By Clarence Nurse in Intrepid Ed News on January 11, 2022

James Mars

I wasn’t happy with my school experience in New York City. I wanted more. This class at the Salisbury School (CT) has not only given me more but has also exceeded my wildest expectations about how enjoyable meaningful learning can be. It is now year two, and the course has shown no signs of losing momentum.

A class where all students earn an “A+” might sound suspicious to someone on the outside, but after seeing what we have been able to produce, a better question would likely be “can students earn a higher grade than A+?”

Continue reading

Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England with Dr. Jared Hardesty

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The local initiative, Slavery in Guilford: Witness to History, will present a webinar with Dr. Jared Hardesty.

Shortly after the first Europeans arrived in seventeenth-century New England, they began to import Africans and capture the area’s indigenous peoples as slaves. By the eve of the American Revolution, enslaved people comprised only about 4 percent of the population, but slavery had become instrumental to the region’s economy and had shaped its cultural traditions. This story of slavery in New England has been little told.

In this talk, Jared Hardesty will discuss his book, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds, focusing on how and why he wrote the book. He also will explore the lives of enslaved people in New England and larger issues such as the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England’s deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution.

Jared Ross Hardesty is associate professor of history at Western Washington University and a scholar of colonial America, the Atlantic world, and the histories of labor and slavery. He is the author of Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston (New York: NYU Press, 2016), which explores the relationship between slavery and other forms of dependence in eighteenth-century Boston, and Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England (Amherst & Boston: Bright Leaf, 2019).

This program will be presented as a webinar and registration is required.

Click here to register.

The Witness Stones Project Receives CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant from CT Humanities

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Connecticut Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has awarded The Witness Stones Project a $7,800 CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant (CTCFOSG). The grant will be used to diversify and enlarge the Project’s student audience.

The Witness Stones Project was one of 624 organizations in Connecticut that was awarded CT Cultural Fund support totaling $16M from CT Humanities. The CTCFOSG are part of $30.7M of support allocated to arts, humanities, and cultural nonprofits through CTH over the next two years by the CT General Assembly and approved by Governor Ned Lamont. The CTCFOSG will assist organizations as they recover from the pandemic and maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public.

This grant was administered by CT Humanities (CTH), with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature.

CT Humanities (CTH) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.

The Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) is the state agency charged with fostering the health of Connecticut’s creative economy. Part of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, the COA is funded by the State of Connecticut as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Witness Stones Project Receives Connecticut Humanities “American Rescue Plan” COVID Relief Funding

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Connecticut Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has awarded the Witness Stones Project a $10,000 CTH SHARP Capacity Grant to support staff development that would allow the Project to broaden and diversity the student audience it serves.

The Project provide research assistance, specialized curriculum, and professional teacher development to bring the history of slavery in Connecticut into middle and high school classes. Since 2017, the Project has grown from serving one school in Guilford, Connecticut, to serving more than thirty schools across the state. With support from Connecticut Humanities, the Witness Stones Project can bring the curriculum to more teachers and students.

The NEH received $135 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, which was approved by Congress this past spring. The state humanities councils, including CT Humanities, each received a portion of the NEH award to support museums, archives, historic sites, and other humanities-focused nonprofits. The Witness Stones Project was one of 69 organizations in Connecticut that was awarded ARP funding totaling $640,192 from CT Humanities. CTH SHARP Capacity Grants provide organizations funding for projects including building their information technology infrastructure, making their collections more accessible, conducting strategic planning, and undertaking inclusivity, diversity, equity, and access work.

“Our cultural nonprofits enrich lives, and it is important that they remain viable and accessible to all residents,” said Dr. Jason Mancini, executive director at CT Humanities.

Support for this project is provided to the Witness Stones Project by CT Humanities (CTH), through the Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this announcement do not necessarily represent those of CT Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

CT Humanities (CTH) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.

Witness Stones to Partner with Stonington Middle School

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The Witness Stones Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities, today announced a new affiliation with Stonington Middle School. The school in Stonington, Connecticut, will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in colonial Connecticut.

Students will examine primary source documents, such property, church, and vital records; wills and probate inventories; and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town. 

Stonington Middle School’s mission is to provide quality instruction, that will challenge students’ abilities and provide them with the knowledge and skills to participate successfully in a democracy.

Grant to Fund Important Lesson at RHAM

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By Traci Hastings, in The Chronicle

Dec. 8—HEBRON — A grant from the Hebron Greater Together Community Fund is being used to build awareness of history and diversity at RHAM Middle School.

In December, middle school students will begin a ” multidisciplinary exploration” through Witness Stones Inc., a nonprofit educational resource, funded through the grant. Continue reading.

Witness Stones Project Presented by the Branford Historical Society

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The Branford Historical Society welcomed the Witness Stones Project on November 10, 2021. We invite you to watch the lecture here:

Witness Stones Project to Partner with Wooster School

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The Witness Stones Project today announced a new affiliation with the Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. The  college-preparatory school will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in Connecticut.

Students will examine primary source documents, including property records, probate documents, and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town.

The Wooster School is guided by its purpose, promise, and beliefs, which represent the natural evolution of the school’s mission since its founder, the Reverend Aaron Coburn, charged them with preparing its students to be “gentle, generous, truthful, kind, and brave.” These commitments remind them that as a school community they must learn from the past, embrace the present, and look to the future as they prepare their graduates for college and lives of purpose in a world of increasing complexity and change.

Witness Stones Project to Partner with Connecticut’s Regional District 4

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The Witness Stones Project today announced a new affiliation with Connecticut’s Regional District 4. The District serves students in Chester, Deep River, and Essex, Connecticut.  The District’s John Winthrop Middle School will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in colonial Connecticut. Local support for the Project is being provided by the Connecticut River Museum and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex. 

Students will examine primary source documents, including property records, probate documents, and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town. 

The mission of the Chester, Deep River, Essex & Region 4 Schools is to engage all students in a rigorous and collaborative educational program.  They prepare their learners to be respectful citizens who are empowered to contribute in a globalized society.

The Connecticut River Museum’s mission is to lead in the study, preservation and celebration of the cultural and natural heritage of the Connecticut River and its valley. By deepening understanding of the River’s importance to past generations, the Museum will inspire the stewardship of future generations.