Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 - (Page 5)

charged with overseeing the poet laureate nomination process, chaired by LEH President Dr. Michael Sartisky. It selects a nominations committee consisting of two published poets from Louisiana, two professors of literature from a Louisiana college or university, two representatives from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and a representative from Louisiana State University Press. Nominees must be either born or domiciled in Louisiana at the time of nomination. According to selection guidelines, nominees must have published works in books, anthologies, literary journals or magazines. In addition, the selection committee seeks information from the general public and the literary community. The committee must select nominees who reflect the diverse cultures and heritage of Louisiana. The LEH will provide up to four grants in 2008 and four in 2009 of $2,500 to non-profit organizations such as libraries, adult literacy groups, or groups interested in language studies or bilingualism in Louisiana that wish to host Bourque for poetry readings, discussion or presentations. In Spring 2009, the LEH will present Bourque with a special award for his contributions to Louisiana and American literature. The LEH, through its grants program, helped make possible updated research and renovations to the Louisiana Art and Science Museum's Ancient Egypt Gallery. The Baton Rouge museum’s fully renovated Ancient Egypt Gallery reopened in July. The gallery’s new look includes fresh artifacts, bright new colors and images, and expanded, updated interpretive text on illustrated wall panels. The gallery focuses on the Ptolemaic period, which dates from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C., when Egypt enjoyed the respect of the Updating Ancient Egypt LEH receives $100,000 challenge grant for programming in Shreveport-Bossier The LEH is one of ten organizations to receive $100,000 Endowment Challenge Grants from the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier. The $1 million initiative is designed to build capacity among non-profit organizations that provide program services in the Shreveport-Bossier area. For its part, the LEH has committed to exceeding the Challenge requirements by providing $150,000 to the project. The $250,000 combined endowment will generate enough funds annually to significantly augment the LEH's existing efforts in Shreveport-Bossier. When LEH programs such as the Prime Time Family Reading Time, Readings in Literature and Culture (RELIC), the Summer Teacher Institutes, the Teaching American History institutes and the LEH Grants Program are added together, the LEH has invested more than $2.2 million in educational and humanities programming in the Shreveport-Bossier region. “This is why local foundations and donors ought to leverage their charitable investment through the LEH to maximize quality and impact,” said LEH President and Executive Director Michael Sartisky, Ph.D. The LEH has launched a new initiative to work closely with foundations and donors throughout Louisiana to leverage their charitable funds through the LEH to increase LEH programming in their communities. This marks the third major challenge grant the LEH has received in the past year. In addition to this grant, the LEH has been awarded a $400,000 Shreveport skyline Challenge Grant from the Kresge Foundation and a $350,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. All three grant processes were highly competitive. The fact that all three were awarded within a year indicates the effectiveness of the LEH's programs, the confidence these organizations have in the LEH, and especially in the case of Kresge and the NEH, the confidence they have in the LEH's new Louisiana Humanities Center and in a rebuilding New Orleans. For more information about the Community Partners Initiative and how it can work in your community, please contact Michael Boyle, Director of Development at boyle@leh.org or call (504) 620-2482. ancient world under Greek rule. Changes to the introductory room reinforce the importance of the Egyptians’ unique religion and include an updated timeline and world map, as well as displays of ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts. The mummy, also from the Ptolemaic period, has been reoriented for better viewing. The final room in the gallery has been redesigned and devoted to the ancient Egyptians’ belief in the afterlife and their funereal practices. A team of international experts researched artifacts and the museum's 2,300-year-old mummy. Since it arrived at LASM in 1964, the mummy was thought to be female. However, research completed by the LSU FACES Laboratory, under the directorship of Mary Manhein, revealed otherwise. The team also determined that he was approximately 25 to 30 years of age at the time of death, stood between 67 and 68 inches tall; and weighed approximately 124 to132 pounds. A CT scan performed at St. Elizabeth Hospital, following directives of Jonathan Elias of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, confirmed the FACES lab assessment and revealed additional groundbreaking information. “LASM’s mummy is extremely unique because he was not mummified in the typical sense. The body appears to have dried out naturally in hot, dry environmental conditions, making it unnecessary to remove the internal organs. The level of organ preservation is quite remarkable and suggests that the body was fully desiccated prior to its arrival at the embalming facility,” said Elias. For more information on LASM, log on to: www.lasm.org. For information on the LEH’s grants program, log on to: www.leh.org/html/grants.html Winter 2007-08/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 5 http://www.lasm.org http://www.leh.org/html/grants.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish Paintings by Rolland Golden The Historic New Orleans Collection The Great Ouachita River Flood of 1932 Jazz Notes Louisiana Architecture Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water Louisiana State Museum Through A Lens Sharply: An Interview with Michael Lewis MR-GO: A “miracle” mired in controversy Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans: An Autopsy Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

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