SUFFOLK—The Western Tidewater Regional Council for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities will offer a free workshop on the grant application process from

1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, at Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts at 110 Finney Ave.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Project and Grants Director David Bearinger will conduct the session.

The focus will be on how grants can be utilized to support research, education and programs in the humanities.

Since its founding in 1974, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has sponsored more than 40,000 humanities programs throughout Virginia. Previous funds awarded in Western Tidewater, which serves the counties of Sussex, Surry, Southampton, Isle of Wight and cities of Franklin and Suffolk, have included:

Isle of Wight County Museum Foundation with Isle of Wight Academy and the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association for the recreation of the 17th Century ‘Publique Ffaires” licensed by the Virginia Colonial government to encourage trade and other beneficial interchange between colonists and local Indian tribes.

Isle of Wight County Museum Foundation with the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association and Paul D. Camp Community College for the “Educators’ Ethnohistory Institutes” which focused on regional archaeological prehistory through recent times, in annual summer sessions for teacher recertification.

Blackwater-Nottoway RiverKeeper Program in Southampton County for research and publication about water-powered mills along the rivers’ watersheds, including oral history interviews. The RiverKeeper generously included a funding request for an oral history workshop for museum/historical society staff and independent scholars to develop and refine their own interviewing techniques from all of Western Tidewater.