Humanities Endowment Awards $19.8 Million for 124 New Grants

Awards include 37 We the People projects in U.S. history and culture

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that 124 successful applicants will receive a total of $19.8 million in grants or offers of matching funds for teacher seminars and institutes, faculty workshops, challenge grants, projects to preserve Iraq's culture, exhibits in museums and libraries, and programs in film, television, and radio.

Successful grants announced today include 37 designated as We the People projects, a special recognition by the NEH for model projects that advance the study, teaching, and understanding of American history and culture.

"The humanities convey the story of civilization, and NEH grant recipients tell that story," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "NEH supports projects that are rigorous, wide-ranging, and substantial in their examination and illumination of the great events and great ideas of the past in our own nation and throughout the world."

In this award cycle, institutions in 33 states and the District of Columbia received support from the NEH. A complete state-by-state listing of grants is available as an Adobe PDF file. The 124 new NEH grants and matching offers are in four of the Endowment's program areas-challenge grants, education, preservation and access, and public programs, with examples of each:

• We the People Challenge Grants require the awarded institutions to match federal funds on a 3-to-1 basis and are offered to strengthen programs and institutions that focus on United States history and culture. If successful in raising the required $17.5 million in nonfederal funds, the seven institutions-George Washington University (Washington, D.C.); University of Notre Dame (Indiana); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Duke University (Durham, N.C.); Pennsylvania State University (University Park); and the Montpelier Foundation (Orange, Va.)-will receive $5.8 million in federal funds from NEH. Together the federal and nonfederal funds will provide more than $23 million in new support for the humanities at these institutions.
• Seminars and institutes for teachers in schools, colleges, and universities to be held in the summer of 2006 allow teachers to gain a deeper knowledge of current scholarship in the humanities: "Models of Ancient Rome" (University of California, Los Angeles); "The American Maritime People" (Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Conn.); "The Silk Road: Globalization and Chinese Cultural Identity" (East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii); "Historical Interpretations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain" (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth); and "Punishment, Politics, and Culture" (Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.);
• Faculty Humanities Workshops bring teachers at all levels together with scholars and primary source materials for intensive workshops designed to deepen participants' understanding of significant humanities topics: "Alabama Storytellers and Myths: A Legacy of Lore" (George C. Wallace State Community College, Dothan, Ala.); "The Humanities in Latin American and Caribbean Studies" (University of South Florida, Tampa); and "African Americans and the Mills and Mill Villages of Gaston County" (Gaston College, Dallas, N.C.);
• "Recovering Iraq's Past" special initiative (preservation and access) supports projects to preserve and document cultural resources in Iraq's archives, libraries, and museums: "Archaeological Field Data from U.C. Berkeley Expedition to Nineveh: 1987, 1989, 1990" (University of California, Berkeley); and "The Iraqi Jewish Archive" (Center for Jewish History, New York, N.Y.);
• Museum and library grants support interpretive exhibitions, the interpretation of historic sites, interpretive projects (such as publications and public symposia), public programming, and websites: "Jazz Legacy: An American Art Form" (National Video Resources, New York, N.Y.); "The Nez Perce in Indian Territory" (National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Okla.); and "American Voices, from the Writers' Project" (Educational Film Center, Annandale, Va.);
• Media grants support development and production of humanities programs for radio and television: "Science and the Search for Meaning in the 21st Century" (SoundVision Productions, Berkeley, Calif.); "Discovering Frankenstein" (Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland); and "Speaking of Faith: Biographical Series" (American Public Media, St. Paul, Minn.); and
• Special projects grants support planning, consultation, and implementation of programs at diverse venues for public or non-academic groups, such as senior citizens, youth, members of civic organizations, professional groups, history and heritage tourists, hobbyists, and local citizens: "The Meaning of Service: A Reading and Discussion Program for Youth in Volunteer Service" (Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago).

Programs, total number of projects, and total dollar amounts for grants and matching funds included in this announcement are as follows:

We the People Challenge Grants (7) $5,850,000

Education Programs (65) $ 8,286,922

• Faculty Humanities Workshops (17) $928,163
• Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers (28) $3,793,929
• Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers (20) $3,030,018

Preservation and Access (3) $298,000

• "Recovering Iraq's Past" Special Initiative (3) $298,506

Public Programs (49) $5,905,903

• Humanities Projects in Libraries and Archives (5) $838,000
• Humanities Projects in Museums and Historical Organizations (26) $3,421,103
• Humanities Projects in Media (12) $640,000
• Special Projects (6) $1,006,800

NEH grants are awarded on a competitive basis. Throughout the year, humanities experts outside of the Endowment and members of the National Council on the Humanities consider all applications and advise NEH on the quality and significance of each proposed project.