The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) has been awarded $9,415.20 by the Arkansas Community Foundation’s Bridge Fund Endowment to design and lead a new interactive workshop, “Teaching a Web of Arkansas History.”

The project will be developed by CAHC Associate Provost Deborah Baldwin, Assistant Director Kimberly Kaczenski, Director of Technology Chad Garrett, and Archivist Shannon Lausch, with Lausch serving as the project organizer.

Lausch and Garrett will lead the workshops.

Open to museums, libraries, archives, and secondary education teachers across Arkansas, this free all-day workshop will be offered three times in 2016. Participants will receive hands-on training, creating a mock web exhibit about the Arkansan political cartoonist Jon Kennedy.

Lausch will give step-by-step instructions on creating a web-based exhibit with historical images.

As they work on the mock exhibit, participants will learn professional standards for caring for and digitizing photographs, as well as how to use Omeka, a free web-publishing platform.

The workshop will also teach participants how to write descriptions for digitized materials to optimize their ability to be found on the Internet.

All three workshops will be held in Little Rock but are expected to draw participants from throughout the state.

Travel assistance will be offered to teachers attending from outside the central Arkansas area.

About the Bridge Fund Endowment:

The Bridge Fund Endowment was created at the Arkansas Community Foundation in 1993 to serve as a bridge between Arkansas’ past and future by supporting education, libraries, and the teaching/promotion of Arkansas history. Grants from the endowment are made throughout Arkansas for schools, archives, local county and state historical societies, and museums for projects to provide training for teachers of Arkansas history; to facilitate teaching and learning of state and local history; and to increase the knowledge and understanding of Arkansas history, especially through research and publication.

About Arkansas Community Foundation:

Arkansas Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that fosters smart giving to improve communities. The Community Foundation offers tools to help Arkansans protect, grow, and direct their charitable dollars as they learn more about community needs. By making grants and sharing knowledge, the Community Foundation supports charitable programs that work for Arkansas and partners to create new initiatives that address the gaps. Since 1976, the Community Foundation has provided more than $120 million in grants and partnered with thousands of Arkansans to help them improve  neighborhoods, towns, and the entire state. Contributions to the Community Foundation, its funds, and any of its 27 affiliates are fully tax deductible.