LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 30, 2016) – The Pulitzer Prize Board announced the award of a $40,000 grant to the Kentucky Humanities Council, Inc., for events and activities in conjunction with this year’s 35th anniversary of the Kentucky Book Fair. The inclusion of Pulitzer Prize winners, Joel Pett (Pulitzer recipient for editorial cartoons in 2000), and Maria Henson (Pulitzer recipient for editorial writing in 1995) at the Book Fair and at other venues throughout the Commonwealth will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize.
“As caretakers of the Kentucky Book Fair, we are thrilled to be able to bring focus not only to Kentucky’s premier literary event but to include the prestige of the Pulitzer Prize at the same time,” said Kentucky Humanities Executive Director Ben Chandler. “Both entities are rich in history and humanities-driven experiences. Through the Kentucky Book Fair and with the esteem of the Pulitzer Prize, we have the ability to showcase the written word and how its affect on us as individuals, families, and communities make for an informed citizenry of Kentucky.”
In addition to the Kentucky Book Fair on Nov. 5, 2016, the Pulitzer Centennial Campfire initiative will be the focus of a concerted effort to reach young readers throughout the Commonwealth, high school journalism and exemplar academic students, and the public at large throughout the next several months. A listing of events will soon be available on the Kentucky Humanities Council website (www.kyhumanities.org).
About the Kentucky Humanities Council
The Kentucky Humanities Council, headquartered in Lexington, Ky., is invested in “Telling Kentucky’s Story” throughout the Commonwealth and provides programming such as Kentucky Chautauqua®, its Speakers Bureau, PRIME TIME Family Reading Time®, Kentucky Humanities magazine, and Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibits. The Kentucky Humanities Council, Inc., is an independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and is supported by the National Endowment as well as private contributions.
About the Campfires Initiative
To prepare for the centennial, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced the Campfires Initiative, which aims to ignite broad engagement with the journalistic, literary, and artistic values the Prizes represent. To inspire year-long programming throughout the country, the board partnered with the Federation of State Humanities Councils on the initiative. After a review of grant proposals, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded more than $1.5 million to forty-six state humanities councils.
The programs will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning work in journalism, arts and letters, and music. The goal of the board and the Federation of State Humanities Council is to engage American communities in discussion about the values these disciplines represent. “We look forward to bringing the centennial to life next year with a diverse array of council programming that reconnects Americans with the nation’s amazing cultural production of the last 100 years,” said Esther Mackintosh, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils.
The Federation and the Pulitzer Prize Board, which is headquartered at Columbia University, developed this initiative together. It is supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Pulitzer Prize Board.
To learn more about the Federation of State Humanities Councils, please visit www.statehumanities.org. To learn more about the Pulitzer Prizes Campfires Initiative, please see their March 2015 announcement.
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