Sample Proposal for Public Programming Proposals
Contact Person: Sharon Steele
Name of Organization: Salt Lake City Basketball Museum
100 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT
801-000-0000
steele@slcbasketball.org
1. Title of Proposed Project
Museum Exhibit and Conference
LDS Church All-Church Basketball Tournaments, 1922-1971
2 A description of the program
The Salt Lake City Basketball Museum is planning a temporary exhibit on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS) All-Church Basketball Tournaments We have gathered uniforms, trophies, and other material, and we will have them on display. In connection with the exhibit, we would like to invite Richard Kimball, a professor of history at Brigham Young University to speak about the role of sports in the LDS Church. He is the author of Sports in Zion: Mormon Recreation, 1890-1940 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003) We are requesting funds to pay Kimball’s honorarium and to publicize his lectures and our exhibit
3. A summary of the project’s relationship to the Intermountain West.
The tournament spans a time period when the LDS Church was a small Intermountain West church. At first all the teams came from that area. Even as the Church grew, the majority of its members and the tournament teams were western. In addition, the Church held all the tournaments in Utah, usually in Salt Lake City. Local newspapers, radio, and television stations carried games. It was the place to be in Salt Lake City each March. The project provides valuable information about how members of a prominent religious group in the Intermountain West used athletics to promote its cause.
4. A description of the intended audience for the program
We hope that the general public will be interested in viewing our exhibit and listening to Kimball’s presentation. We will advertise the lecture through the Utah State Historical Society, local historical societies, university history departments, and newspapers.
5. A summary of the way the program will promote an understanding of the Intermountain West
A. Bartlett Giamatti explains in his book, Take Time for Paradise (New York: Summit Books, 1989), 13: "It has long been my conviction that we can learn far more about the conditions, and values, of a society by contemplating how it chooses to play . . . than by examining how it goes about to work." Dr. Kimball’s lecture on church basketball tournaments will show the important of sports to a significant society, the Mormons, in the Intermountain West. The study of Mormon athletics supports that thesis. Mormons believe that being physically fit strengthens spiritual values and that providing a place for boys and men to play keeps them out of trouble.
6. A detailed budget
Research: $0
Honoraria: $200
Notes: Payment to Richard Kimball for his presentation
Travel: $58
Notes: Travel expenses Provo to Salt Lake City 180 miles @ 32 cents
Publicity: $1,010
Notes: Purchase of Utah State Historical Society mailing list $200
Advertisement in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News (Salt Lake papers) $150
Postage to mail post cards 3,000 x .22 $660
Publications: $0
Total $1,268
7. Have you been funded by the Redd Center in the past? No
8. Have you already received other funding for this project? No
9. Where else are you applying for funding? The Utah Humanities Council
