Announcements
NEH Grant received for Oral History Project
WGBH-CICPR Press Release
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: | 8/26/98
| | Contact: | Leah Hollenberger,
| | WGBH-Boston,
| | 617-492-2777, ext.5321
|
WGBH's Cape and Islands NPR Stations, WCAI and WNAN,
receive NEH Grant for Oral History Project
WGBH Radio has received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities towards the planning and development of a Cape and Islands oral
history project. The project is a collaborative effort of WGBH Radio
Boston, WGBH's Cape and Islands NPR stations, WCAI 90.1fm and WNAN 91.1fm,
and Cape and Islands Community Public Radio/Atlantic Public Media
(CICPR/APM).
"The Cape and Islands is a geographically small yet historically rich
region, making it a logical place to pilot of this type of collaboration
between oral historians and public radio," says Bob Lyons, director of
radio project development for WGBH. "We see this as a flagship project for
WCAI and WNAN, and a model of the role public radio stations can play in
their community."
The grant is the first step in the collaboration, allowing WGBH and
CICPR/APM to refine the oral history project concept. Work will begin on
selecting themes, locating source material, scholars, organizations and
funders.
"This NEH grant will lay the foundation for the project to move on to the
production phase," explains Jay Allison, executive director of CICPR/APM
and a resident of Woods Hole, MA. "We hope to create a blueprint of
regional oral history that can be duplicated elsewhere in the public radio
system, essentially creating a national archive of compelling historical
programming for public radio listeners.
A primary goal of the collaboration will be making the Cape and Islands'
oral history accessible to a much wider audience through local and national
radio broadcast, classroom projects, museum and library exhibits and
on-line archiving.
Local organizations collaborating on the project include the Vineyard Oral
History Center at the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society, Woods Hole
Historical Collection, and the Nantucket Historical Society.
The project will use a network of nationally prominent scholars, including
Charles Hardy, Ph.D., West Chester University; Nathaniel Philbrick,
Director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies; John Fox, Founder, New
England Association of Oral History; and Maggie Holtzberg, Ph.D., Georgia
Council for the Arts, Folklife Program Director. Input will be sought from
additional scholars as the project progresses.
Examples of the type of topics suggested for the Cape and Islands Oral
History project include the change in industries between the 19th and 20th
centuries, the storytelling tradition of gams, the history of development
and tourism in the region, the indigenous sign language that was developed
due to a significant proportion of hereditary deafness on the Vineyard in
the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, herbal medicines and home cures used
in rural communities, historical exploration of the various ethnic enclaves
in the region, Native American cultures and histories, and the intense
relationship between artists and the sea.
Located in Woods Hole, MA, WCAI 90.1fm and WNAN 91.1fm are slated to launch
this fall/winter and will provide full-power, local public radio service to
the Cape and Islands. The stations will broadcast a schedule of NPR news
and information, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Car
Talk, and from Public Radio International, The World, This American Life,
and A Prairie Home Companion.
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