Kentucky Historical Society
Kentucky Oral History Commission Awards Grants

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2011) — The Kentucky Oral History Commission, which is administered by the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS), recently awarded the following grants: 

EKAP Oral History and Cyber Artist Network Project
Award Recipient(s): Joy Gritton and Gloria Stepp
This project seeks to document the individual lives and work of Eastern Kentucky women artists and their contributions to their communities. The proposed 20 interviews will focus on these artists’ struggles for social change in their communities and have been selected to represent diversity in ages, artistic medium and geography within the region. Photography will also be incorporated. All new research will be incorporated into a website in the hopes of fostering an inter-generational mentoring of women artists.

Beyond Entrepreneurship: Examining Alternative Economic Practices in Eastern Kentucky's Craft Industry
Award Recipient(s): University of Kentucky Research Foundation
Project directors: Michael Samers and Amanda Fickey
This grant funds part two of a previously funded KOHC proposal. The project seeks to document entrepreneurs in the Eastern Kentucky craft industry. The research is proposed to document the need for support in the development of future arts and crafts initiatives that benefit both artists and organizations. It seeks to document the alternative economic practices within these groups in relationship to the industry leaders in order to share an understanding of the practices that craft producers engage in on a daily basis.

ACLU of Kentucky Oral History Project
Award Recipient: ACLU of Kentucky
Project Director:  Michael Aldridge
This project's purpose is to document the history of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, founded in 1955. The ACLU of KY has defended the civil rights and civil liberties of Kentuckians for more than five decades, but the complete picture of its founding is clouded by a lack of documentation. The project seeks to gather and preserve the stories of those who led the ACLU of KY in its early years and those who have had a hand in its growth over the past 55 years.

Romano Mazzoli Oral History Transcription Project
Award Recipient: University of Louisville Research Foundation
Project Director:  Caroline Daniels
This project is to fund transcriptions for the interviews conducted in an earlier KOHC funded project grant to document the life of Romano Mazzoli. The interviewees discuss Rep.Mazolli’s work in his local and Washington offices, interactions with constituents and colleagues and his role on the national stage.

War on Poverty Oral History Project: Transcription
Award Recipient: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
Project Director:  Doug Boyd
This grant award is to fund transcriptions from the War on Poverty Oral History Project and documents the War on Poverty in the Appalachian Region of Kentucky. Topics include the Appalachian Volunteers, Head Start programs, the Volunteers in Service to America, the Community Action Program, conflicts between natives and “outsiders” and charges that volunteers were spreading communism, among other things. The War on Poverty was an important period in Kentucky history and this project has effectively documented many different facets of that major economic and cultural initiative.

Common Threads and Ties that Bind: Memories of Washington County, Kentucky
Project Director/Recipient:  Gwinn Thompson Hahn
Common Threads is a collection of 84 hours of recorded interviews that are scheduled to be published as a book in April 2012. The interviews, which began in 1974, preserved historical and cultural elements and changes in the area. The oral histories and memories of the interviewees span the 18th through the 20th centuries.

Stories from the Balcony Part II
Project Director/Recipient:  Joanna Hay
The Stories from the Balcony Oral History Project documents the Grand Theater in Frankfort, Ky. during the days of segregation. These interviews have been recorded on digital video by filmmaker and community scholar Joanna Hay who will continue work transcribing the collection with assistance from this grant award. For most of its history, African American movie-goers could only sit in the balcony of the Grand Theater. As one of the few public places that African Americans were allowed to go, the balcony holds a unique place in the memories of members of the black community.

The KOHC granting program has been awarding funding for oral history projects since 1976. KOHC currently provides grant funding for project grants, transcription grants and preservation grants. The deadline for grant applications is Oct. 15 annually.  For more information, see www.history.ky.gov. Click on “Oral History” at the bottom of the page.