Vonnegut Library gets $50000 grant from Gannett Foundation. Here’s how they’ll use it. – IndyStar

The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library had been open in its new home for barely four months when the pandemic swept in, forcing cultural institutions to shut down temporarily. But it put the ensuing closureto work.

The museum applied to the American Library Association's United for Libraries to become a Literary Landmark, which designates a location that's linked to a deceased literary figure. It was selected, becoming the first of such landmarks in Indiana and joining the likes of Mark Twain and Zora Neale Hurston, among other famous names.

Now, "A Community Thrives" grant from the Gannett Foundationfor $50,000 will allow the museum to properly celebrate the designation and host programs around free speech in 2022, which is also the 100th anniversary of Vonnegut's birth.

Gannett is the parent company of IndyStar, USA TODAY and hundreds of other newspapers across the country.

The library is one of 16 recipients of grants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 across the country. All grant recipientsraised money through crowdfunding before receiving a grant.

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The $2.3 million initiative supports organizations working to address a range of social issues. This year, those issues included homelessness, mental health care for LGBTQ people, reproductive care and girls' education, to name a few. Since 2017, A Community Thrives has distributed $17 million in grants and donations to community-based organizations.

Now in its fifth year, A Community Thrives awards grants to many significant causes helping to improve lives. Each of our grant winners is making a positive impact, and we are proud to support organizations that share our purpose,"Gannett CEO Mike Reed said.

Its a great day when IndyStar through our companys foundation helps arts and literature thrive in Indianapolis, and we can be aligned with an organization like the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library," said Bro Krift, interim executive editor of IndyStar. "But whats truly awesome is how the museum will use the money to promote free speech, vital to how we live and how we learn to live better across society.

The Vonnegut Library's celebration for the Literary Landmark designation will be April 10, 2022, on Palm Sunday. Fittingly, it's also the name of a collection of essays, speeches and letters by Vonnegut, from which they'll read excerpts. Speakers and performers that day will include producer and author A'Lelia Bundles as well as artists and musicians Tim Youd, David Sasso, Kat Wallace and Rob Dixon.

Free hula hoops for the first 100 students with ID will nod to Vonnegut's quote: "I am an American fad of a slightly higher order than the hula hoop."Brics will give away free ice cream, and 100 students also will receive a free copy of "Slaughterhouse-Five." Comedian Gary Gulman will appear at an evening fundraising event.

"It's not just celebrating the actual books that Vonnegut wrote,"founder and executive director Julia Whiteheadsaid."It's celebrating the creative process and the fact that this person from Indianapolis went off and served his country in World War II and had a very important story to tell and continued to use the arts and humanities throughout his life to cope with that war experience and to engage with his audience.

The grant also will go toward discussions and programs around free speech, the women who shaped Vonnegut, and the author and neighborhood's connection to jazz. For "Vonnegut and Banned Stories," the museum will work with the Underground Railroad Museum, among others, for discussions that show how stories that come from conflict reveal the history of the First Amendment and build compassion.

"It's the process of sharing your story with the public that makes it more real and representative of the human condition. Vonnegut was great about not only telling his story but telling creative fictional character stories that make the reader think differently about life," Whitehead said. "It's basically feeling like you're not alone."

Stories of Vonnegut's mother Edith Lieber Vonnegut, family cook and housekeeper Ida Young, and Vonnegut's first wife Jane Cox will be part of "The Women Who Shaped Vonnegut" exhibit. Young, who was a descendant of people who had been enslaved, taught the young author about civil rights andChristianity.Vonnegut's mother was friends with writers and wrote creatively herself. Cox edited a lot of Vonnegut's early work and advocated for him to help the world discoverhis talent.

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An upcoming sidewalk exhibition,"Vonnegut and Jazz," will highlight the musicians who performed in Indianapolis between 1922 and 1945, along with the author's love for it, Whitehead said. The museum, at 543 Indiana Ave., sits in the neighborhood that once hosted an iconic jazz scene. The Gannett Foundation grant will support the final phase of the exhibit, most of which will be free.

The Vonnegut museum physically opened in 2011 atat 340 N. Senate Ave. and remained there until January 2019, when the lease was up. As the museum raised money to buy its permanent home on Indiana Avenue, it opened a temporary gift shop in Circle Centre Mall.

Since the institution's 2019 grand opening in its new home, it has fleshed out its collection and made building improvements. It now has a wheelchair rampby the front doorand a stocked shop with a storefront visible from the street. Art includes a screen print of Vonnegut's doodle ad for Absolut Vodka and an enlarged 1973 letter from the author to a North Dakota school board chair after the board had "Slaughterhouse-Five" copies burned.

Moving forward, the museum is raising money to receive matching grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities so it canupdate and repair its historic building, Whitehead said.She's in talks with a restaurant to open a first-floor cafe.And the museum has been expanding its youth writing program and developing relationships with students at Shortridge, Crispus Attucks, George Washington and Arsenal Tech high schools.

The institution also is setting its gaze nationally.Starting next year, it will take programs about Vonnegut's free speech and common decency ideals into all 50 states, Whitehead said. The Vonnegut museum is continuing diversity, equity, inclusion and access work by broadening the voices on its board and on committees that put together programming, she said.

"That's been quite possibly the most exciting change over the past year and a half, is just getting more people involved," Whitehead said. "In some cases, it was a matter of people just not knowing we were here, people who were already Vonnegut fans. But in other cases, it has been introducing people to the work we do."

In addition to the national grants,leaders across Gannett's USA TODAY Network of more than 250 news sites in 46 states selected other nonprofit organizations to receive community operating grants that start at $2,500. Organizations that focus on building up historically under-resourced and underserved groups were especially be considered. Twelve organizations were selected in Indiana.

"Across the country, A Community Thrives grants link USA TODAY Network brands to the communities in which we operate and beyond,"said Sue Madden, director of the Gannett Foundation. "Our reporters work every day to empower communities to thrive, and this program helps fulfill that core purpose."

For the full list of grantees, go towww.gannettfoundation.org/act.

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Jeanine Santuccicontributed to this report.

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

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Vonnegut Library gets $50000 grant from Gannett Foundation. Here's how they'll use it. - IndyStar