Category: External Grant Awards

Emerson College has been awarded three Grants for Arts Projects awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support Emerson Contemporary, ArtsEmerson and HowlRound Theatre Commons.

Grants for Arts Projects provides funding opportunities to strengthen the nation’s arts and cultural ecosystem. It is the National Endowment for the Arts’ largest grants program for organizations, with grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. In July 2023, the NEA received 2,129 eligible applications. Emerson’s three projects are among the 1,135 projects across America totaling more than $37 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2024 funding.

This is the first time the college has received three awards in the same funding round, and it is the first NEA grant received by Emerson Contemporary.

Leonie Bradbury
Distinguished Curator-in-Residence, Emerson Contemporary

Emerson Contemporary was awarded its grant in the Media Arts category, for the purpose of supporting an exhibition series showcasing underrepresented artists in new media and digital art, and related public programming. The exhibitions will feature both New England and national and international artists, and examine themes such as the climate crisis, loss, collective trauma, and rituals of mourning. Each exhibition will include robust public program activities, intentional educational outreach and community engagement initiatives for Greater Boston.

Ronee Penoi
Interim Executive Director of the Office of the Arts & ArtsEmerson Director of Artistic Programming

ArtsEmerson was awarded its grant in the Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works category for the purpose of supporting the presentation of multidisciplinary works and related activities at ArtsEmerson. It will support the presentation of works by Theater Mitu and Beth Morrison Projects, which disrupt the narrative of the racialized prison system and reimagine our shared future as communal radical action.

Jamie Gahlon
Associate Vice President, Office of the Arts & Director and Co-Founder of HowlRound Theatre Commons

HowlRound Theatre Commons was awarded its grant in the Theater category for the purpose of supporting HowlRound’s Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval of New Latinx Musicals, which will evolve the canon by developing three to six new works of musical theater by, for, and about Latine communities. The Carnaval will invite Latine and allied decision-makers and scholars to witness, engage with, and become advocates for the featured artists and pieces.

For more information on the projects included in the National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Faculty Team Awarded NEH Humanities Connections Grant

By Diana Potter

On May 20, 2024

In External Grant Awards, Faculty News, Faculty Spotlight

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Emerson College a NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant to develop a new interdisciplinary undergraduate major in climate and sustainability communication.

On April 16, the NEH announced $26.2 million for 238 humanities projects nationwide. These awards will support the preservation of historical collections, humanities exhibitions and documentaries, scholarly research, and curriculum projects. Emerson’s grant fits into the last category. The Humanities Connections program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education by encouraging partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. This year, the Humanities Connections program received 106 applications and made 18 awards totaling $1.7 million.

Emerson received $49,978 to further develop an interdisciplinary, dynamic, and experiential undergraduate major in climate and sustainability communication. Four Emerson faculty representing the Marlboro Institute, the School of Communications and the School of the Arts are overseeing this one-year project which will bring together faculty from across the college to work on curriculum development and experiential learning in relation to communication around climate and sustainability, as well as student focus groups that will convene this fall. The project will culminate in the submission of a new major proposal to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee next spring.

The four faculty co-project directors are Nejem Raheem, Professor and Chair of the Marketing Communication department, Jon Honea, Associate Professor in the Marlboro Institute, Rituparna Mitra, Assistant Professor and postcolonial scholar in the Marlboro Institute, and Christine Casson, senior writer-in-residence in the department of Writing, Literature and Publishing.

Nejem Raheem
Professor and Chair, Marketing Communication

Jon Honea
Associate Professor, Marlboro Institute and Director of the Honors Program

Rituparna Mitra
Assistant Professor, Marlboro Institute

Christine Casson
Senior Writer-in-Residence, Writing, Literature and Publishing

This award is a significant recognition in the realm of the humanities. The National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency created in 1965, supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from across the U.S.

This is not the first time Emerson has received an NEH grant. However, it is the College’s first Humanities Connections grant in support of major curriculum development. This award recognizes the connectivity of the humanities and the liberal arts to Emerson’s historic strengths in communications and the arts.

Category: External Grant Awards

Emerson awarded three grants from National Endowment for the Arts

Faculty Team Awarded NEH Humanities Connections Grant