Five recipients were announced for the 1999 Mountain Culture Grants (totalling $13,000) which are awarded annually to projects that creatively communicate the special nature and culture of the world’s mountain places.

"We are delighted to support these projects," says Bernadette McDonald, director of the Centre. "They represent a range of ways to make connections among people and mountain areas around the world." A selection committee reviewed 24 grant applications for projects in 8 countries.

The grant recipients are:

• Gerald Holdsworth, Arctic Institute, University of Calgary, Canada for an encyclopaedic, interactive CD-ROM about Mt Logan due for completion October, 2000. This will be the most extensive accessible compilation of knowledge about one mountain anywhere.

• Ken Sauls, The SouthWing Art project, Silverton, Colorado, USA, for a film on big wall climbing and climbers, called Land Beyond the Trees, due out in spring, 2001.

• The Mountain Institute for Frances Klatzel (Kathmandu, Nepal) and Alton Byers (Franklin, West Virginia, USA) for a photo exhibition on 40 years of change in Sherpa culture and Khumbu landscape, to be shown in Kathmandu in the fall of 2000 and permanently in Namche Bazar, Nepal at Sagarmatha National Park HQ from March, 2001.

• Karsten Hueur of Canmore, Alberta, Canada and the Y2Y (Yellowstone to Yukon) Hike, a project to raise public awareness about the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem and the proposal to identify, maintain and restore connections between the protected areas in Canada and the U.S.

• Banff and Canmore High Schools, Alberta, Canada and their Mountain to Mountain project, in which 22 Canadian students will travel, work and study in the Khumbu region of Nepal, strengthening the links between the mountain areas of the two countries.

Mountain Culture grants are awarded annually to projects that creatively communicate the environment, human heritage, inspiration and adventure of the world’s mountain places. more »»