The Heritage Community Investment Program (HCIP) invests funds—provided by the City of Edmonton—into the stabilization, increased professionalism and innovation of heritage in Edmonton, for Edmontonians. The HCIP program offers four unique grant streams: Operational, Project, Project Accelerator, and Travel Grants to individuals and heritage organizations working to connect citizens to the stories of our city.
The Project Accelerator Grant and Travel Grant streams have four intake periods per year. Through these two grant streams, the EHC supports individuals and organizations undertaking small scale heritage projects that tell an Edmonton story in a unique or innovative way, and provides assistance for travel, education and research that shares an Edmonton story.
Catch up with the latest Project Accelerator Grant and Travel Grant recipients from our third grant run below!
Project Accelerator Grant
“Wildflowers Project”
Sharon Rose Cherweniuk
Grant Awarded: $10,000
Conceived as the research and production aspects of a forthcoming exhibition, the Wildflowersproject will focus on the creation of 24 new articles or Métis historical replica beadwork. Each item will be inspired by and dedicated to Métis/Bois-Brûlé women associated with the historic Fort Edmonton area. Seeking to interpret the lived experiences of these women as makers of fine craft, the Wildflowers narrative will explore stories from historical events from various timelines, circumstances, and generations. Designed to appeal to audiences at various levels, this series of fine craft endeavours to share a compassionate world, where families lived in accordance with the seasons and marked their life passages through arrivals and departures, and celebrations and sorrows.
“Beyond Curls & Kinks”
Osas Eweka
Grant Awarded: $10,000
Through a 30-minute documentary film, this project explores the complex relationship African and Caribbean girls, youth, and women have with their natural hair as it relates to race, culture, heritage, self-esteem/confidence, and body image.
“Wop May: The Pilot That Started It All”
Frederick Kroetsch
Grant Awarded: $10,000
This project will create a short documentary about famed Edmonton pilot Wilfred ‘Wop’ May, to be screened at the Alberta Aviation Museum and to be used as a pitch for a larger documentary.
“Edmonton Women Sheltering Women”
Rose-Marie McCarthy, Ardis Beaudry, Phyllis Ellis, and Lynn Hannley
Grant Awarded: $7,000
Begun in the 1960s because of concern for women arriving from rural Northern Alberta, the story of Edmonton’s shelters follows a group of local women from emergency shelters to WIN House for battered women with children, Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS), and Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS). It is a story of a group with the belief that all women have the right to safe havens and the determination to provide these. To prepare a book-length history, this project will use archives and interviews to document the history, the women involved, and the lessons learned.
“Somali Cultural Gala”
Somali Canadian Women and Children Association
Grant Awarded: $10,000
The Somali Canadian Women and Children Association will be hosting a Cultural Night Gala. The Cultural Night is an opportunity to take pleasure in the delightful facets of Somali culture and to celebrate cultural diversity, share traditional customs through music and dance, and discover new tastes through food and drink. The program content includes folk play, a fashion show, cultural dance, singers, and poetry.
Travel Grant
Deborah Dobbins
Grant Awarded: $1,035
Travel and education funding to attend the Oral History Association Annual Conference in Montréal, Quebec on October 11 and accept two awards on behalf of the Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots.
Crystal Fraser
Grant Awarded: $4,000
Travel funding to Dachan Choo Gèhnjik, Northwest Territories in the summer of 2018 with her two-year-old daughter, Quinn, to film a short documentary entitled “Quinn’s Camera.” In this documentary, a Gwich’in mother and daughter reclaim their language by visiting their ancestral fish camp, Diighe’tr’aajil, on the Mackenzie River.
Rochelle Starr
Grant Awarded: $4,000
Travel and education funding to attend and present as part of a research team at Healing Our Spirit Worldwide (HOSW): The Eighth Gathering– an international conference in Sydney, Australia from November 26-29 that brings together Indigenous peoples from around the world.
For more information on the Heritage Community Investment Program please visit edmontonheritage.ca/grants.