Arts & Humanities

In Review // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The program continues to focus on stimulating new research in the humanities and its publication by supporting the work of individual scholars doing research or writing. We are, however, introducing changes in eligibility requirements expected to bolster support for new applicants. We are also pleased to announce that we are increasing the award amount to $8000 and expect to maintain similar funding rates as in past years, even as NEH limits submissions to one per institution for those subject to the nomination requirement. The new program guidelines will be posted by June 18, 2024 on our website at: https://www.neh.gov/grants/research/summer-stipends  

Institutions of higher education in the United States and its jurisdictions may each nominate two faculty members per deadline.

• Application available (anticipated): June 18, 2024
• Next deadline (anticipated): September 18, 2024

Due to the competitive nature of this funding program, the internal competition is run based on the anticipated September 18, 2024, deadline.

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The program works to accomplish this goal by:

• Providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both
• Supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective
• Funding a wide range of individuals, including independent scholars, community college faculty, and non-teaching staff at universities

Summer Stipends support continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months.  NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research.

No applicants*// Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0

*UofA will be submitting to NEA Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) in 2024. An organization may submit only one application to either Grants for Arts Projects or Challenge America per calendar year (see Application Limits for the one exception to this rule). If your organization submitted an application to the February 2024 Grants for Arts Projects deadline, you may not also apply to the Challenge America program in April 2024.

 the Challenge America program has extended the NEA’s reach by promoting equal access to the arts in communities across the country. We are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and fostering mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all individuals and groups.

Challenge America offers support primarily to small organizations for projects in all artistic disciplines that extend the reach of the arts to populations that are underserved. Challenge America seeks to address potential barriers for organizations seeking funding. The program features an abbreviated application, a standardized $10,000 grant amount, and a robust structure of technical assistance to facilitate entry to NEA funding opportunities.

Challenge America supports arts projects in all artistic disciplines. Projects must extend the reach of the arts to populations that are underserved. Possible projects include, but are not limited to: arts programming, including commissioning or presentation of artists or artwork; marketing and promotional activities; and organizational planning. Projects may consist of one or more specific events or activities, and should not cover an entire season of programming. We do not support seasonal or general operating support.

No applicants  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

This program assists organizations in effectively integrating arts, culture, and design into local efforts to strengthen communities over the long-term by funding creative placemaking projects across the country. Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners integrate arts and culture into community work by placing the arts at the table with other sectors, such as agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, public safety, transportation, and workforce development. 

Limit: 1 // PI: A. Kraehe  (VP Equity in the Arts) - Discipline: Media Arts

*An organization may submit only one application to the FY 2023 Grants for Arts Projects program (i.e., one application per calendar year), with limited exceptions.

New guidelines will be posted in December.
 

Important Note About Matching Requirements: All grants require a non-federal match of at least 1:1. Please contact your chair or director and dean to confirm institutional support for your project.

Grants for Arts Projects is the National Endowment for the Arts’ principal grants program for organizations based in the United States. Through project-based funding, the program supports public engagement with, and access to, various forms of art across the nation, the creation of excellent art, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.

The National Endowment for the Arts is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and fostering mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all individuals and groups.

These grants support arts projects that use the arts to unite and heal in response to current events; celebrate our creativity and cultural heritage; invite mutual respect for differing beliefs and values; and enrich humanity. Applicants may request cost share/matching grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Designated local arts agencies eligible to subgrant may request from $10,000 to $150,000 for subgranting programs in the Local Arts Agencies discipline. A minimum cost share/match equal to the grant amount is required.

NEA funds arts projects in the following disciplines: Artist Communities, Arts Education, Dance, Design, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Local Arts Agencies, Media Arts, Museums, Music, Musical Theater, Opera, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Arts, Theater, and Visual Arts.

Limit: 1 // B. Carter (Center for Digital Humanities)

Grants to Organizations  priorities are to: 1) Assist with the production and presentation of significant programs about architecture and the designed environment in order to promote dialogue, raise awareness, and develop new and wider audiences. 2) Support them in their effort to take risks in programming and create opportunities for experimentation. 3) Recognize the vital role they play in providing individuals with a public forum in which to present their work. 4)Help them to realize projects that would otherwise not be possible without our support.

No applicants// Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The Music Recording Program's objective is to increase the public's knowledge of and appreciation for contemporary American concert music and contemporary jazz through the documentation and distribution of commercial recordings.

Limit: 1 // PI: C. Laskowski (College of Law)
 

The Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program aims to support a more holistic understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern world through the creation of new humanities research centers on artificial intelligence at eligible institutions. Centers must focus their scholarly activities on exploring the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI.  

A Center is a sustained collaboration among scholars focused on exploring a specific topic. Successful applicants will examine the humanities implications of AI through two or more related scholarly activities. Centers must be led by scholars in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, but should include scholars from multiple disciplines. Scholars may come from one or more institutions. NEH welcomes international collaboration, but scholars at U.S. institutions must contribute significantly to the project. This program is for establishing new Centers; existing Centers and Institutes are not eligible in this competition.

In addition to the establishment of a sustainable Center, your project should engage in at least two activities that support research into the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI. Appropriate activities may include but are not limited to: collaborative research and writing efforts; workshops or lecture series; education and mentoring; and the creation of digital tools to increase or advance scholarly discourse about AI.  

Limit: 3 // 
A. Gerlak (Center for Studies in Public Policy)
L.  Medovoi (English)
A. Park (Poetry)

In the interest of maintaining a grantmaking portfolio that supports inquiry into issues of vital social, cultural, and historical import, the Higher Learning program at the Mellon Foundation invites ideas for research and/or curricular projects focused on any of the following three areas:
• Cultures of US Democracy
• Environmental Justice Studies
• Social Justice and Disciplinary Knowledge

The Mellon Higher Learning team will review all submissions and invite a few of the most promising ones to be developed into full proposals for potential grant funding. In consideration of the anticipated volume of concept submissions, we are unable to provide feedback on preliminary concepts.

Principal Investigator:
The Principal Investigator (PI) should be a faculty member or dean in a program or department in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, or the institution’s provost, and should have the support of the institution’s senior academic leadership. 

Limit: 1*  // PI: B. Carter (Center for Digital Humanities)  

*UArizona may submit only one application. However, the University’s library and museums may each apply separately. 

Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized organizations preserve and manage humanities collections, ensuring their significance for a variety of users, including source communities, humanities researchers, students, and the public, by building their capacity to identify and address physical and intellectual preservation risks. The program encourages applications from institutions that have never received an NEH grant as well as community colleges, minority serving institutions (Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities), Native American tribes and tribal organizations, and Native Alaskan and Native Hawaiian organizations. Furthermore, NEH encourages applicants whose organizations or collections represent the contributions of historically excluded communities.

The Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions program focuses on foundational activities in preservation and management of collections. Collections may include archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic items, tribal collections, material culture, historical objects, special collections of books and journals, and digitized and born-digital materials. Supported activities should fall into the following general categories, though the lists of possible activities are not exhaustive:

Preservation Assessments and Planning

• General preservation assessments

• Digital preservation assessments

• Conservation assessments

• Assessing environmental impacts of lighting systems or aging mechanical systems

• Assessing collection documentation needs to identify an appropriate collection management system

• Foundational conversations and/or consultations with source communities represented in collections to determine culturally appropriate preventive conservation practices and/or initiate or develop accurate vocabularies and/or descriptions of collection items resulting in a processing guide or written report with actionable recommendations

• Consultations with scholars and subject matter experts to initiate or develop accurate vocabularies and/or descriptions of collection items resulting in a processing guide or written report with actionable recommendations

• Development and revision of written plans, policies, and procedures such as emergency/disaster preparedness and response plans, digitization plans, storage plans, collection management plans, collecting plans, loan policies, and processing manuals

Preventive Care

• Purchase, shipping, and installation costs of storage and preservation supplies, including durable furniture and supplies (e.g., cabinetry, shelving units, storage containers, boxes, folders, and sleeves) for the purpose of rehousing collections for long-term storage or display, digital storage (e.g., external hard drives, RAID, NAS, LTO systems, and cloud- based storage), and discrete and reversible units to improve the environment (e.g., portable dehumidifiers, air conditioning units, UV filtering shades, and HEPA vacuums). Project expenses such as storage furniture, UV filters, or discrete units for air conditioning must demonstrate that they will not make irreversible changes to buildings.

• Implementing and improving environmental monitoring and/or integrated pest management programs, including the purchase of necessary monitoring supplies and related tracking software

• Implementing and/or piloting environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies, which may have been recommended in previous preservation assessments or by a consultant, such as addressing water runoff systems to prevent moisture impacts on collections spaces or creating preservation microclimates for vulnerable collections

• Workshops and/or training for staff and volunteers that address preservation topics, which might include preservation and care of specific material types, care and handling of collections during rehousing and/or digitization, preservation standards for digital collections, disaster preparedness and response, integrated pest management, or an overview of the agents of deterioration

  Collections Management

  • Initial steps that improve the management of collections and knowledge of the contents of collections, such as location and format surveys, inventories, updating condition reports, and/or other preparatory steps toward description of collections

  • Workshops and/or training courses for staff and volunteers that address intellectual control topics such as best practices for arrangement, description, and cataloging of collections

    We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to hire a consultant to support and further develop your organization’s capacity. Staff can also lead project activities, especially if they are implementing recommendations from a previous assessment or established frameworks. In all cases, you must demonstrate that project staff and consultants have the necessary background, skills, and training to perform the requested activities. For more information on how to select a preservation or information consultant, applicants may wish to consult the FAQs and resources included in H. Other Information.

    Applications can focus on discrete activities, such as an assessment or the development of a written plan, or a combination of connected activities, such as rehousing and updating collection inventory. If you have previously received a Preservation Assistance Grant, you may apply for another one to support the next phase of your preservation efforts. For example, after completing a preservation assessment, you might apply to purchase storage supplies and cabinets to rehouse a collection identified as a high priority for improved storage. NEH will not give these proposals special consideration and will judge them by the same criteria as others in the competition.