Shared Cultural Heritage Projects supported in 2020

In July 2020, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York announced an open call for shared cultural heritage projects. We received an unexpected number of quality proposals focusing on Dutch-American cultural heritage from the East coast and the Midwest. In this blog, you will find an overview of the projects that are supported by Dutch Culture USA this year. We would like to thank everyone that has sent in a letter of intent and wish everyone the best of luck with their projects.

Projects supported in 2020

• Calvin University and Hope College – Digitization Dutch Papers
  Digitization of the A.C. van Raalte Papers at Calvin University, Heritage Hall in Grand Rapids, MI and the A.C. van Raalte Institute at Hope College, Holland, MI.
• Columbia County Historical Society – Luykas van Alen House signage and digital tour
  The Columbia County Historical Society will develop an outdoor, accessible, educational ‘wayside’ sign installation, and a digital tour component for two Dutch historic sites in upstate New York (The National Historic Landmark Luykas Van Alen House and the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse).
• Gracie Mansion Conservancy – The Horn’s Hook Project: the Shared Heritage of Early Dutch History at Gracie Mansion
  Dr. Steven Jaffe, Evan T. Pritchard and Dr Nicole Maskiell will research the Dutch history of Gracie Mansion. This narrative will be incorporated in their website and in its tours, printed material, online video’s and a panel on Dutch heritage of the sites around Gracie Mansion.
• Historic House Trust – Virtual Heritage Trail of Dutch houses in New York City
  Creation of a virtual heritage trail on Dutch heritage in NY, linking all the different historic houses with Dutch history together. The virtual trail will be a feature of the newly designed website of the Historic House Trust.
• Greenway Heritage Conservancy HRV – Brochures Dutch heritage in the Hudson River Valley
  The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area will design a brochure, digitally and in print, on the Dutch history, culture and early interactions with Native American and other European settlers in the Hudson Valley. This brochure will be the sixth and final addition to the brochure collection on the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.
• Museum of the City of New York – Professional Learning Development
  The Museum of the City of New York will develop the educator course Native New York: American Indians and Dutch New Amsterdam (Spring 2021) and an online resource guide for educators on the people of New Amsterdam. For previous editions see our blog.
• Musicians of Ma’alwyck – Virtual concerts Dutch music on Dutch sites
  The Musicians of Ma’alwyck have recorded two virtual concerts of 18th century Dutch music recorded at Crailo State Historic Site and Schuyler Mansion in Albany, NY, accompanied by a spoken narrative about the Dutch history of these sites.
• New Netherland Institute – Amsterdam Correspondence Translation Project
  The New Netherland Institute (NNI) and the Archives of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) in New Brunswick, N.J. will digitize and create a calendar for the manuscripts in The Amsterdam Correspondence. The collection, held by the RCA, consists of nearly 400 documents, almost exclusively in the Dutch language, written in places now within the bounds of the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania from the 1640s to the early 1800s.
• New Netherland Institute – ArcGis Storymap
  The NNI and Dr. Chelsae Teale of the Institute for Cartographic Design at Humboldt State University in California will create an ArcGis StoryMap immersive web experience that combines text, interactive maps, and other multimedia content—of Dutch-American heritage sites throughout the United States
• New-York Historical Society – Women and the American Story
  The New-York Historical Society will create additional educational resources for Women and the American Story, including teaching materials on Sojourner Truth, virtual Professional Learning Development Workshops and animated educational tools.
• Albany Institute of History and Art – Exhibition ‘A Sense of Time: The Historical Art of L.F. Tantillo’
  The Albany Institute of History and Art is presenting the exhibition A Sense of Time: The Historical Art of L.F. Tantillo from January 27, 2021 until July 25, 2021. The exhibition explores the shared Dutch cultural heritage in New York, through the work of artist Len Tantillo on New Amsterdam and New Netherland.

Call for proposals 2021

Are you working for an American organization and working on a project relating to Dutch-American cultural heritage? Contact Sophie van Doornmalen (sophie-van.doornmalen@minbuza.nl) for project advice and applying for project support. The next call for proposals will be published in March 2021 on our website.

Shared Cultural Heritage Program

Through Dutch Culture USA, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York actively promotes and supports Dutch-American cultural heritage: the tangible and intangible legacy from the past, shared by our two countries. The Shared Cultural Heritage (SCH) Program aims at better management, conservation and accessibility of shared cultural heritage for a broad public. Through international exchange and sustainable cooperation, the Shared Cultural Heritage Program aims to enhance the visibility and appreciation of shared cultural heritage by reinforcing the awareness of our shared heritage for a broad American audience.

The U.S. and the Netherlands share a history of over 400 years. From the 17th century New Netherland colony, to its aftermath, from the Dutch migration to the Midwest in the 18th century and the Louisiana Purchase to the Second World War This Dutch-American history has left many traces in the U.S., such as collections, archives, historic sites, vocabulary, geographic names and more broadly the legacy of tolerance, trade and social mobility.

Since 2013, the Dutch Culture USA Program of the Consulate General in New York has supported a wide range of projects. These projects range from digitization projects to educational programs, from exhibitions to heritage tourism projects and from intangible heritage to the cross over to contemporary art forms. Within these projects, there is room for multiple perspectives on history.