Public Humanities Projects

The Public Humanities Projects program supports projects that bring the ideas and insights of the humanities to life for general audiences through in-person programming. Projects must engage humanities scholarship to analyze significant themes in disciplines such as history, literature, ethics, and art history. NEH encourages projects that involve members of the public in collaboration with humanities scholars or that invite contributions from the community in the development and delivery of humanities programming.

This program supports a variety of forms of audience engagement. Applications should follow the parameters set out below for one of the following three categories:

• Humanities Discussions:
This category supports three-month-long to two-year-long series of at least fifteen in-person public programs that engage audiences with significant humanities resources, such as historic artifacts, artworks, literature, musical compositions, or films. These resources should be chosen to engage a diverse public audience. The programs must be anchored through perspectives presented by humanities experts as speakers, panelists, or discussion leaders providing context and analysis of program themes. Projects may include, but are not limited to, community forums, panel symposiums, lecture series, reading and discussion programs, analytical discussions on museum collections or theater/musical performances, life-long learning programs, or other methods of face-to-face audience engagement or informal education. Projects should be regional or national in scope; if they instead occur in a single state or territory, they should be state- or territory-wide. Projects must also develop resources to extend the life of the discussion program.

• Exhibitions:
This category supports the creation of permanent exhibitions (on view for at least three years) and single-site temporary exhibitions (open to the public for a minimum of two months), as well as travelling exhibitions that will be available to public audiences in at least two venues in the United States (including the originating location).

• Historic Places:
This category supports long-term interpretive programs for historic sites, houses, neighborhoods, and regions that are intended to be presented to the public for at least three years. Such programs might include living history presentations, guided tours, exhibitions, and public programs.

NEH encourages projects that explore humanities ideas through multiple formats. Proposed projects may include complementary components: for example, a museum exhibition might be accompanied by a website, mobile app, or discussion programs. Your application must identify one primary format for your project and follow the application instructions for that format.