Funding will support plans to significantly expand digital engagement and outreach
Fort Ticonderoga is thrilled to announce it has been awarded a highly competitive grant from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) CARES Act in the amount of $285,358. The funds will support a project entitled From Fort to Screen: Ticonderoga’s Virtual Public Programming.
“The NEH CARES grant comes at a vital time to support our museum’s essential operations. The COVID-19 pandemic and forced closure of the site the past few months has placed significant financial distress on our operations,” said Beth L. Hill, Fort Ticonderoga president and CEO. “This much needed grant funding will support staff positions and allow Fort Ticonderoga to sustain and develop mission-critical educational programs that will continue serving our global audience.”
Specifically, project funding will enable the development and expansion of virtual public programming to engage a broad, multi-generational audience.
“The digital programming created during this project will bring the intersection of history and civics together in compelling and important ways,” said Stuart Lilie, Fort Ticonderoga Vice President of Public History and Project Director for this program. “Through interactive online discussions, students will question a historically costumed educator, challenging and refining their ideas about topics on the Revolutionary War.”
Funds will be used to:
- Transform an empty space in the museum into a virtual classroom studio for filming and delivering presentations, acquire the necessary equipment, and train staff in its use,
- Work with affiliate primary, secondary, and post-secondary educators to identify virtual classroom programmatic needs,
- Update and publish lesson plans for students and teachers in grades k-12,
- Create new digital classroom outreach programs for grades 3-12,
- Plan and present webinars aimed at teacher professional development,
- Digitize, catalog, and post museum artifact records to the Ticonderoga Online Collections Database for public and lesson plan use, and highlight pieces in the collection through new videos,
- Share lessons-learned through a webinar for museum peers
“Fort Ticonderoga is thankful to NEH CARES for their support and appreciates our region’s political leadership, including Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Senator Chuck Schumer for supporting the NEH CARES program. Supporting and sustaining our nation’s cultural heritage is vital to our society,” said Hill. “An investment in Fort Ticonderoga is an investment in our community’s economic vitality during this very challenging time. Fort Ticonderoga brings more than $12 million dollars annually into the Ticonderoga region.”
Fort Ticonderoga recently announced that it will reopen to the public beginning on June 30th. The 2020 opening was delayed due to COVID-19 and New York on Pause. To learn more about Fort Ticonderoga’s 2020 offerings including the Center for Digital History visit www.fortticonderoga.org.
National Endowment for the Humanities: 
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.
About Fort Ticonderoga:
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.