Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County is pleased to announce eleven new mini-grant awards to local heritage-related nonprofit organizations. This matching mini-grants program, made possible for the sixth year through financial support from the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, leverages other funding to assist local heritage related non-profit organizations create new programs, activities and events that build upon interpretive themes in the state, county and city-approved heritage area Management Plan, foster collaborative partnerships, and enhance local cultural historic resources and heritage tourism.

Organizations and projects approved for mini-grant awards include:

• The Historic Annapolis Foundation, for a new exhibit and living history interpretation celebrating the life and legacy of Maryland’s renowned eighteenth-century printer and publisher, Anne Catharine Green. The exhibit will be located in HistoryQuest at 99 Main Street in downtown Annapolis.
   
• The Anne Arundel County Bar Foundation, Inc. for a research project amplifying the Crossroads of the Community exhibit currently housed at the Anne Arundel County Courthouse. Reference materials resulting from this project will be available in the exhibit space and online.
   
• Banneker-Douglass Museum, with the Banneker-Douglass Museum Foundation, in cooperation with Anne Arundel County Schools, for an educational oral history project with Annapolis High School African-American History classes about the musical heritage of Carr’s Beach.
   
• The City of Annapolis, Annapolis and Anne Arundel Conference and Visitors Bureau, and Downtown Annapolis Partnership for the installation of a new sign marking the entrance to the Visitor’s Center and West Street at the boundary of the Annapolis Historic District.
   
• Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center, in partnership with the Northern Arundel Cultural Preservation Society, for the development and operation of a docent program for the Legacy Center and its exhibits.
   
• Historic London Town and Gardens, in collaboration with Anne Arundel County Schools, for an educational outreach program for local fourth grade students to learn about transatlantic trade during the eighteenth century. Student work from this program will be displayed at London Town and available for viewing online.
   
• Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, in collaboration with the Sands House, for an archaeological investigation at the Sands House and a public program presenting their results.
   
• The Shady Side Rural Heritage Society for a color brochure offering an ecological tour, including features of the bio-retention project that will be completed on the grounds of the Captain Salem Avery Museum in Spring 2010.
   
• The Annapolis Chamber Players and the Charles Carroll House for a series of chamber music concerts with educational discussions featuring music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
   
• The Annapolis Maritime Museum for its first brochure detailing the maritime experience offered by the expanded museum, including information on the “Oysters on the Half-Shell” exhibit opening March 2010.
   
• The City of Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission for a reprinting (and web-posting) of its informative booklet, Building in the Fourth Century, the Annapolis Historic District Design Manual.

Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County, one of Maryland’s 11 certified heritage areas, is a partnership among the State of Maryland, Anne Arundel County, the City of Annapolis, the town of Highland Beach, and local historic sites, heritage organizations, and heritage-related businesses, to encourage economic vitality through historic preservation and heritage tourism. For more information, please contact Executive Director Carol Benson at 410-222-1805 or visit our website at www.fourriversheritage.org.