Featured News

Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior (CSCLS) is a grassroots organization that was formed in 2020 to engage the citizens of the central Upper Peninsula to protect and improve the coastal habitat, shoreline, and fresh water of Lake Superior. CSCLS uses investigation and research, public education and outreach, community engagement, and legal advocacy to […]

In May 2024, the Americana Foundation honored two long-time colleagues upon their retirement from the Board of Trustees. Gary Rentrop, a resident of Cross Village, MI, retired in December 2023 after serving on Americana’s Board of Trustees for nearly 44 years. Gary, an attorney in the partnership of Rentrop & Morrison, was a close advisor

We are in an era marked by a significant decline in civic engagement, especially among young people. A 2022 study from the American Historical Association found that knowing history is correlated to higher levels of civic engagement, but according to the Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation), only 27% of young

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 before the Civil War,

A new web-based program is moving across the state to preserve 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 diverse food and ag

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 few organized and affordable

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 square miles of vacant

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 convenient, affordable, and accessible

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 gardens and natural areas.

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 whom are great-grandchildren of