“I think even lying on my bed I can still do something.”

– Dorothea Linde Dix

The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery is pleased to announce a $5,000 grant from Mass Humanities for artist-in-residence Roberto Mighty’s ongoing earth.sky project. This grant will help support the creation of two additional films in Roberto’s earth.sky series that are focused on Dorothea Dix, the pioneering Civil War era nurse and early advocate for sufferers of mental illness, and George Thorndike Angell, a nineteenth-century Bostonian lawyer and animal rights activist. Dix and Angell both saw social problems that needed to be addressed and worked tirelessly to improve conditions for others. Their causes are still relevant to Massachusetts today and help to illustrate the huge difference that one individual can make to civic life as a whole. According to Roberto, “These individuals were renowned in their day but are not well known in our time. It’s a pleasure to interpret their lives using the modern multimedia arts.” Victoria Cain, Assistant Professor of History at Northeastern University, will advise on the historical aspect of the films. Thanks to this generous support, we are also pleased to announce an upcoming partnership with Roberto and the Cambridge Community Television’s Youth Media program that will connect local school-age filmmakers with Mount Auburn; and a lecture by Roberto Mighty on November 10, at 6:00 pm, at the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library.

This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.