Funding Opportunity for

Organizations

Public Humanities Projects

Maximum award amount

Planning: $60,000
Implementation: $400,000 (+additional $100,000 for Positions in the Public Humanities, if you choose to apply)
Chair’s Special Awards: $1,000,000

Expected Output

Exhibitions; Interpretation Plans; Discussion Series

Period of performance

Planning: Up to 24 months Implementation: 12 to 48 months

Applicants to NEH for awards with expected issuance dates on or after October 1, 2024, should be aware of revisions to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR Part 200) effective from that date. All NEH awards issued on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the revised regulations. You may incorporate these changes into your applications now.

Additional information is available at https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/2024-Revisions-to-2-CFR-200

The Public Humanities Projects program supports projects that bring the ideas of the humanities to life for general audiences through public programming.  Projects must engage humanities scholarship to analyze significant themes in disciplines such as history, literature, ethics, and art history. Awards support projects that are intended to reach broad and diverse public audiences in non-classroom settings in the United States. Projects should engage with ideas that are accessible to the general public and employ appealing interpretive formats.

Public Humanities Projects supports projects in three categories (Exhibitions, Historic Places, and Humanities Discussions), and at two funding levels (Planning and Implementation). Proposed projects may include complementary components: for example, a museum exhibition might be accompanied by a website or mobile app.

Projects may be international, national, regional, or local in focus and should reach a broad public audience. We welcome projects tailored to particular groups, such as families, youth (including K-12 students in informal educational settings), underserved communities, and veterans.

Small and mid-sized organizations are encouraged to apply if their projects address topics of regional or national relevance by drawing connections to broad themes or historical questions. Projects that don’t address issues of concern to wider regional or national audiences should consider applying to  Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations  or local sources of funding, such as their state humanities councils. Award amounts offered to successful applicants will reflect the project’s scope and the size of its expected audiences.

Which level of funding is right for your project?

Public Humanities Projects Webinar, 2024.

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Application Instructions

Review your application package

Read the Notice of Funding Opportunity to ensure you understand the expectations and restrictions for projects delivered under this grant and are prepared to write the most effective application.

Application Materials

Notice of Funding Opportunity, 2024 and 2025 (PDF)

Grants.gov application package

Program Resources

Frequently Asked Questions, 2024 and 2025 (PDF)

List of recent Exhibitions: Planning awards

List of recent Exhibitions: Implementation awards

List of recent Historic Places: Planning awards

List of recent Historic Places: Implementation awards

List of recent Humanities Discussions awards

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence for NEH Grant Proposals

Sample Application Narratives

Historic Places Planning Project: Emily Dickinson Museum, Comprehensive Interpretive Planning

Historic Places Implementation Project: The Owens-Thomas House, Interpreting the Dynamics of Urban Slavery in the South

Historic Places Implementation Project: Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Joseph and Rachel Moore Tenement Home

Exhibitions Planning Project (single site, temporary): National Museum of American Jewish History, Leonard Bernstein

Exhibitions Planning Project (traveling): University of California Los Angeles, The Art of African Blacksmiths

Exhibitions Implementation Project (traveling): Walters Art Museum, Ethiopia at the Crossroads

Exhibitions Implementation Project (single site, temporary): LACMA, Beyond Line

Exhibitions Implementation Project (permanent): Heard Museum, The American Indian Boarding School Experience

Discussion Programs (small): Maine Humanities Council, Afrofuturism

Discussion Programs (large): Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Revisiting the Founding Era

Register for a SAM number and an account on Grants.gov

When you are ready to apply, register for an account with SAM.gov and Grants.gov; both are required. If you already have completed the registrations, make sure they are current. 

Complete your application package

Follow the instructions outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and in the Grants.gov instructions. 

Submit your application package on Grants.gov

You will receive a confirmation from Grants.gov when you’ve successfully submitted your application. Subsequently, you will receive up to five more notices confirming different stages in the application process. Verify that you have received all confirmations. Note that email filters may send these messages to your spam or junk folder.