Challenge Grant Awarded for Deaf NYC Story Documentation

Gallaudet’s newly renamed Drs. John S. & Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center (formerly the Center for Deaf Documentary Studies) is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a major challenge grant.

In December 2016, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) released welcome news that the Center is the recipient of a $100,000 Humanities Access Challenge Grant to support collaborative documentation and creation of new primary-source material on deaf life. With matching donations, NEH funds will enable the Center to film stories of deaf people who live in, or came from, New York City.

The project, Deaf NYC: Signs of Change became a focus of the Center following a March 2016 panel discussion co-hosted with City Lore, a New York City-based cultural heritage/folklife non-profit organization. During that event, a diverse group of deaf New Yorkers shared experiences of growing up before closed captioning existed. They talked about neighborhoods, schools, clubs, subway meeting places, and how being a member of a cultural-linguistic community embedded in a large city impacts every part of their life. This new challenge grant builds on work to date and adds to our understanding of the many sides of New York City.

The Center was one of 34 organizations nationwide to receive this highly competitive Humanities Access challenge grant.

“Humanities Access grants support innovative projects that will help ensure that high-quality cultural programming is available to everyone,” said NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “Americans of every age, race, and economic status should be able to access the incredible opportunities that the humanities provide.”

About the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.