January 9, 2024
The Highlights Foundation Receives a $50K Grant from Hawthornden Foundation to Support In-Community Retreats
Honesdale, PA – The Highlights Foundation has received a significant grant of $50K from Hawthornden Foundation to support our In-Community Retreats, part of our Essential Conversations programming.
Funds from the grant will be used to create scholarships specifically designated for In-Community Retreats at the Highlights Foundation in 2024, including Muslim Storytellers, Asian and Asian American Voices, Storytellers Writing Through Trauma, Jewish Voices, Neurodivese Storytellers, Native Creatives, Latinx Voices and LGBTQIA+ Voices.
In-Community Retreats meet a growing need for reserved and respected spaces where creatives can build and nurture a thriving community of peers in children’s literature. Storytellers who establish a new-artisan-community during these retreats can return to their greater communities nurtured themselves and ready to support others, including their readers.
“We’re excited to receive this grant to support our 2024 In-Community Retreats,” said George Brown, Executive Director of the Highlights Foundation. “We are honored that Hawthornden Foundation has recognized the work we’ve done and is supporting our efforts to expand access to our unique retreat center to more creatives.”
The goal of our Essential Conversations programming is to provide online and in-person spaces for children’s literature changemakers and innovators to lead—with resources and support. Our action comes through craft, education, and community-building for creatives and professionals in and around the children’s book industry.
About Hawthornden Foundation
Hawthornden Foundation is a private charitable foundation founded in 1982 to support contemporary writers and the literary arts. Established by Drue Heinz, the noted philanthropist and patron of the arts, the Foundation is named after Hawthornden Castle in Midlothian, Scotland, where an international residential residency program provides month-long retreats for creative writers from all disciplines to work in peaceful surroundings. Hawthornden also supports a second residential program at Casa Ecco, on Lake Como in Italy, the site of “Conversazioni”, private conferences attended by many celebrated writers and others in the arts, and a retreat for invited authors to complete a literary work in progress. In 2024, Hawthornden Foundation will open a new non-residential retreat – Hawthornden Brooklyn – in New York. In addition, the Foundation sponsors the annual Hawthornden Prize, one of Britain’s oldest and foremost literary awards, and provides grant support to other literary programs. Find out more at hawthornden.org.
About the Highlights Foundation
The Highlights Foundation positively impacts children by amplifying the voices of storytellers who inform, educate, and inspire children to become their best selves. The organization offers workshops and retreats to bring education, support, and encouragement to children’s authors and illustrators of all experience levels.
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CONTACTS:
George Brown, Executive Director, Highlights Foundation, George.Brown@highlightsfoundation.org
