FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Mike Pride, [email protected], (212) 854-7327
Sabina Lee, [email protected], (212) 854-5579
New York, N.Y. (Mar. 30, 2015) -- The Pulitzer Prize Board, in preparation for the 100th awarding of the Prizes in 2016, is launching a $1.5-million national initiative to ignite broad engagement with the journalistic, literary and artistic values they represent.
The project, called the Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires Initiative, will generate grassroots events and conversations across the country throughout 2016 about the impact of journalism and the humanities on our lives and times, illuminating their value to public life today and imagining their future.
“We intend to reach diverse audiences, using Campfire events to foster invigorating discussions – much as actual campfires create circles of conversation – both in person and through social media,” said Joyce Dehli, Pulitzer Prize Board member and chair of the Campfires Initiative. “We also hope to inspire new generations of practitioners.”
The Pulitzer Prize Board developed the initiative with the Federation of State Humanities Councils. It is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as Columbia University, which is home to the Pulitzers.
Campfires Initiative funds will support a wide range of live events that showcase Pulitzer Prize works. Collectively, they constitute a 100-year archive of some of the best of American cultural production. Centennial events will be represented on pulitzer.org, which is being redesigned for 2016. To extend the reach of live events during the Centennial year, Pulitzer will encourage the public to share their thoughts on its website and through social media.
'The Centennial is cause for celebration and commemoration, but it is also an opportunity to launch the Pulitzer Prizes’ second century in ways that deepen and inspire the public’s experience with great literature, history, music, drama and journalism," said Keven Ann Willey, chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board’s Centennial Committee. "To ensure that this activity reaches into diverse communities in all areas of the country, the Pulitzer Prize Board invited the Federation of State Humanities Councils to collaborate with us on the Campfires Initiative."
The Federation represents the nation’s 56 state and territorial humanities councils, which are now developing plans for 2016 events, often working with partners and grant recipients. A major goal of the Campfires Initiative is to strengthen and expand collaboration between the state and territorial humanities councils and the worlds of journalism, arts and letters.
"The Pulitzer Prizes are a national treasure, and the state humanities councils are proud to be part of this initiative," said Esther Mackintosh, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. "The reports we have received from councils on their plans for campfires have been infused with tremendous enthusiasm. I am confident that there will be amazing activities taking place throughout the country in 2016."
A note about the initiative’s name: It was inspired by James L. Carey, late professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, who, as The New York Times reported in his obituary, considered journalism "our collective campfire storytelling."
For questions about the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative, contact Mike Pride, administrator of the prizes, at 212-854-7327 or[email protected].