We’re delighted to announce that UW-Madison’s Center for the Humanities, with support from the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, has awarded Holding History a generous seed grant of $15,000. This grant allows us to enhance our planned programming for the current calendar year while also expanding our vision for future programming.
The award letter has high praise for the program: “We believe [Holding History] exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea and serves the [Humanities Without Walls] Consortium’s goals of extending access to community resources and generating knowledge reciprocally with community partners.” We were especially delighted by the recognition of and support for the many ways that our “interdisciplinary and community facing project provides mentorship of public scholars and thinkers and engages the community in the history of media.”
Exactly seven years ago, on July 15, 2015, we hosted a papermaking workshop for our student curators and began preparing for our first Holding History Keynote Event. (You can see a short documentary film here.) Since then, we’ve explored the hidden histories of books, archives, and unusual media forms with a range of intergenerational, public audiences. At over 50 hands-on events—such as archival discovery days, print and papermaking workshops, lectures, and reading groups—Holding History has hosted 2,500 visitors and interacted with thousands more through our digital channels.
We invite you to be part of Holding History’s future by signing up for our newsletter, reaching out to propose a collaboration, reading the Bookish Blog, listening to the HH Podcast, attending an event, or even donating to the program.
