Americana Foundation

Since 2016, the Soo Locks Children’s Museum, a registered 501(c)(3) organization, has been working with community partners to create a museum to serve nearly 4,000 children in a rural three-county region in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. The area features tremendous natural resources but has a nearly 30% child poverty rate and More Articles...

A new web-based program is moving across the state to continue preserving Michigan farms and farming communities by shepherding land to the next generation of stewards. When you think of Michigan’s largest economic drivers, what comes to mind? Automotive has topped the list for decades, but agriculture is an important second. Michigan’s More Articles...

Detroit has long been home to a vibrant urban farming community and many Detroiters and neighborhood associations have created green spaces to make their neighborhoods more attractive, healthier, and more sustainable. Still, many of the vacant lots in Detroit remain overgrown and neglected. According to Detroit Future City, Detroit has 24 More Articles...

A landmark exhibition co-organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art will focus on the work of Black potters in the 19th-century American South. The exhibition presents approximately 60 ceramic objects from Old Edgefield District, South Carolina, a center of stoneware production in the decades More Articles...

A recent Americana grant will help to expand and stabilize the food system in Northeast Michigan – in the words of the grant recipient, to create “a region where local food and farming are an avenue for wealth creation and economic development, where healthy-fresh food is available to all residents in More Articles...

For more than a century, Historic New England (HNE) has engaged audiences to develop a deeper understanding and enjoyment of New England home life. HNE’s 38 historic homes, farms, and landscapes across Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island span four centuries and feature a variety of architectural styles, beautiful More Articles...

Amelia Lancaster’s path to the Americana Foundation Curatorial Internship at Colonial Williamsburg had its share of twists and turns. Originally from Jackson, Tennessee, Amelia graduated from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia with a Major in Art History and Minors in Chinese, Cultural Heritage, and Museum Studies. Her college experience More Articles...

In the spring and summer of 2022, the “next generation” of Americana’s founding family participated in the second year of a program designed to introduce them to Americana’s mission, program areas, and priorities. The Next Gen cohort includes Jessie Harper, Kyle Harper, Ashley Thomas, Jennifer Thomas, and Nathan Thomas, all of More Articles...

Coleman Yoakum, founder and Executive Director of Micah 6 Community, came to Pontiac in 2012 hoping to serve a neighborhood that had high crime, high foreclosure, and high unemployment. He and a group of equally passionate and capable friends bought a house in Pontiac, formed Micah 6 Community, and became part More Articles...

The Alliance of Leadership Fellows (ALF) will use a recent grant from Americana to develop a series of Climate Crisis Dialogues that will enable climate advocates to share perspectives about how differing forms of evidence and impact---while they converge in painting a devastating picture---must be understood and integrated in building new More Articles...

From May 2020 through August 2021, five “next generation” members of Americana’s founding family participated in a program that introduced them to Americana’s mission, program areas, trustees, and staff. The Next Gen cohort included Jessie Harper, Kyle Harper, Ashley Thomas, Jennifer Thomas, and Nathan Thomas, all of whom are great-grandchildren of More Articles...

In August 2021, Americana awarded a grant to the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey/Traverse City to support the production of a television documentary and educational classroom series that explores and celebrates the history, traditions, culture, and natural resources of Michigan. The sixty-minute documentary film entitled Michigan: An American Portrait explores More Articles...

Decades ago, furniture and decorative arts contributed by Americana’s founders, Adolph and Ginger Meyer, served as a key part of the historic redecoration of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms in the Harry S. Truman Building in Washington DC that houses the U.S. Department of State. The Meyers contributed to the project to More Articles...

In February 2021, Americana awarded a grant to support the launch of a new series on WDET titled “Rooted.” WDET launched the series in large part due to the realization over the past year that everything is much more connected than we might believe. The series will consist of stories hosted More Articles...

Old Sturbridge Village is an outdoor living history museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. For 75 years, the Village has depicted life in a rural New England town during the period of 1790 to 1840. The Village features historic buildings, collections of Americana, costumed historians, and programs in agriculture, horticulture, households and More Articles...

The Great Clock at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia is one of Monticello’s most familiar and celebrated objects. The clock was built to Thomas Jefferson’s specifications and has remained in the Hall at Monticello since 1804. “It is a rare survivor and an original artifact,” explains Gardiner Hallock, Robert H. More Articles...

Edible Flint grew out of efforts to address issues of food insecurity and challenged access to healthy food, increasing rates of health problems resulting from inadequate nutrition, and increasing amounts of abandoned property and vacant land in Flint, Michigan. It was created by early partners like the Ruth Mott Foundation, the More Articles...

Hessel, Michigan is an unincorporated village in the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula. Known for its great fishing, antique boat show, and annual Aldo Leopold Festival, its “up North” character and location near the Les Cheneaux Islands makes it a wonderful spot for summer travelers. A key feature of the village More Articles...

Asbury Farms (Flint, MI) works to strengthen its neighborhood by transforming blighted and underused land into community gardens and supporting local residents interested in growing fresh food or earning a living from food production.  The idea for Asbury Farms arose out of the strategic decision of the leaders at Asbury Community Development More Articles...

The work of restoring historical furniture, buildings, and other items is often detailed and meticulous. Conservators must recognize materials, construction techniques, and surface preparations used in a historical object and then use specialized tools – often small tools like those a dentist uses – and sometimes chemical treatments to uncover the More Articles...

Growing Hope (Ypsilanti, MI) launched in 2003 with a mission of setting up and supporting school and community gardens. Today, its activities are much broader – producing organic vegetables and flowers at its one-acre urban education and demonstration farm, operating two farmers markets, one of which is a year-round market hosted More Articles...

People often ask Americana staff and trustees about the partnership that exists between the Foundation and MSU Tollgate Farm and Education Center. In 1987, the Foundation’s founders - Adolph and Ginger Meyer – gave Michigan State University 60 acres of their beloved Tollgate Farm located within the city limits of Novi, More Articles...