Program areas at Utah Humanities
The mission of Utah Humanities (UH) revolves around offering first-hand, engaging humanities experiences. Our events are direct, personal opportunities to identify with literature, understand local and national heritage, and share viewpoints in civil conversations, all of which serve to strengthen the fabric of our personal and community relationships. We offer connection, context, and courage. We work with partners to extend our reach and deepen our work. In fact, everything we do at Utah Humanities is in collaboration with other organizations. Aligning with cultural, educational, professional, and service organizations is essential to fulfilling our mission, and partnering with us can result in measurable community improvement. Our statewide work at UH is divided into thematic Centers, each of which has a specific humanities focus and associated programs. It is through our Centers that we partner with Utah organizations to improve communities through the humanities. The Centers are the Center for the Book, the Center for Community Heritage, the Center for Educational Access, and the Center for Local Initiatives.
Utah Humanities awards modest grants to nonprofit organizations for public humanities programs. Grants are designed to support projects that strengthen communities by actively engaging partners and audiences in the humanities. We are a proud supporter of local communities, grassroots activities, tradition, and innovation. Our grants provide invaluable financial support to help bring educational programs, interpretive exhibits and activities, local history projects, oral history projects, media projects, and more to locations across the state of Utah.
In 2022, UH was honored to provide emergency relief funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to nonprofit organizations with humanities programs as part of the Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) approved by the U.S. Congress. $336,000 was subawarded to twenty-eight Utah cultural nonprofit organizations, providing critical relief from ongoing effects of the pandemic and to support humanities programming. Approximately $6,400 was used for expenses directly related to the administration of the ARP grants.