Contact: Lainie Castle
Project Director, PPO
312-280-5055
lcastle@ala.org
For Immediate Release
June 13, 2007
NEH, ALA Public Programs Office announce ”Picturing America” Pilot Project Grant Recipients
More than 1,500 schools selected to receive American art resource collection
A pilot project of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ We the People program, Picturing America was created to promote the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture in K-12 schools through examples of the nation’s most significant works of art and architecture, and to facilitate interdisciplinary partnerships between school library media specialists, art teachers, classroom instructors and other educators. Picturing
Applications for Picturing America were accepted January 8 – March 19, 2007. In May, NEH increased the number of available awards from 500, in response to the high number of applications received. A total of 1,556 public, private, parochial and charter schools and home school consortia (K-12) were selected to receive the Picturing America collection. Awards were given to schools in all 50 states and the
Picturing
Established in 1992, the ALA Public Programs Office has a strong track record of developing library programming initiatives, including the acclaimed reading and discussion series "Let's Talk About It!," film discussion programs on humanities themes, traveling exhibitions, LIVE! @ your library®, and other programs. Recently, it established the Cultural Communities Fund, an endowment created to help all types of libraries across the country bring communities together through cultural programming (http://www.ala.org/ccf). More than 10,000 libraries and at least 10 million individuals have participated in library programming initiatives supported by the Public Programs Office. For more information, visit http://www.ala.org/publicprograms.
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports lifelong learning in history, literature, philosophy and other areas of the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, new technologies, exhibitions and programs in libraries, museums and other community places. For more information about NEH and its We the People program, visit www.neh.gov and www.wethepeople.gov.