PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities announced Tom Roberts, Lorén Spears, Providence Children’s Film Festival and Marta Martínez as its award recipients for the 2016 Celebration of the Humanities, which will take place Oct. 6 at the Providence Public Library.
Roberts, founding executive director of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, is to receive the Honorary Chairs’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities for his “visionary leadership” of the organization from 1973 to 1995. The Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities will be given to Spears, executive director of Exeter’s Tomaquag Museum for collective awareness and understanding of native history and pioneering educational practices at the museum. For its campaign to increase media literacy in the younger generations, Providence Children’s Film Festival will be awarded the Innovation in the Humanities Award. Rhode Island Latino Arts’ Executive Director Marta Martínez will be presented the Public Humanities Scholar Award for her work to document the burgeoning Latino community.
Elizabeth Francis, Humanities Council executive director, is excited to share the recipients’ projects with the community.
“Their outstanding work exemplifies our 2016 theme, “Amplify,” which highlights how the humanities heighten awareness of voices and stories that need to be heard, resonate with current issues and future possibilities and magnify connections between economy, community and culture,” she said.
Since its founding in 1973 the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities has sought to strengthen public history, cultural heritage, civic education and community engagement across the state. The nonprofit has provided $7.7 million in grants to support more than 650 Rhode Island organizations, researchers, filmmakers, scholars and oral historians.
