December 11 News Story
Local History Project Nets Grant
The National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C., has awarded Auglaize County's The Wallpaper Project a $10,000 consultation grant to determine the feasibility of developing an oral history performance and associated programming to tour Ohio during the state's bicentennial in 2003.
The Wallpaper Project is the theater and community history initiative for Auglaize County. Since 1997 organizers have collected some 250 oral histories from longtime and lifelong residents, with the information gathered used in publications, exhibits, and annual oral history-based productions. The performances are the largest public product of the effort, and have drawn enthusiastic, standing-room-only audiences for every appearance. The Wallpaper Project has been so successful that it will serve as a curriculum model for this summer's inaugural Ohio Oral History Institute, co-sponsored by the Ohio Humanities Council and the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums.
States coordinator Rachel Barber, "The Wallpaper Project has taught us that converting narratives into drama makes history accessible and interesting to a wide-ranging audience. The audience realizes that their neighbors, friends, and relatives have told the stories that are dramatized before them. The cast itself ranges in age from high school freshmen to octogenarians, all of whom help us tell the story of Auglaize County effectively yet beautifully."
The Wallpaper Project also includes such programming as lobby exhibits, interactive readers theater sessions at nursing homes, and school residencies. Great Lakes Theater Festival, Cleveland, has collaborated with Auglaize County organizers since the program's inception.
According to Barber, the success of the countywide effort led organizers to dream of a touring production and programming to coincide with and help celebrate the Ohio Bicentennial. The performance would visit as many as fifty communities throughout the state during 2003. The NEH assistance will fund a logistical study, mailings to potential participants, and several regional meetings of interested persons (which will be held in the first half of 2001). Organizers will also travel to Illusion Theater, Minneapolis, and Madison (WI) Repertory Theater for on-site observations of related projects. In addition to its application to Ohio's Bicentennial, the effort will serve as a model for other states and regions throughout the country.
According to Barber, "We are absolutely thrilled about the opportunity that the National Endowment for the Humanities has given us. We look forward to working with others throughout the state to make the touring oral history project a exciting reality for Ohio's anniversary."
The Wallpaper Project applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities via "Extending the Reach," a new series of funding opportunities designed to spread the support of the agency to selected constituencies throughout the United States. It was one of only two Ohio organizations to receive awards from the NEH during this round of funding.
The National Endowment for the Humanities was established by an act of the United States Congress in 1965. It is an independent grant-making agency of the federal government that supports research, education, and public programs in the humanities.
For more information, please contact Rachel Barber, 419-738-4924.
Thanks, Mary Lou Barber.
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