Friday November 15, 2024 [Providence, RI]
At the National Humanities Conference on Friday, November 15, the Federation of State Humanities Councils (Federation) presented the 2024 Schwartz Prize for outstanding work in the public humanities to The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for the Institute for Louisiana Culture and History, Humanities Montana for The Democracy Project, and Wisconsin Humanities for Community Powered.
“These award-winning projects reflect the power of the public humanities and the deep community engagement at the core of humanities council work,” said Phoebe Stein, President of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. “Each project, in its own unique way, furthers education, access, and community health at the local level in ways that can inspire us nationally, even globally. My sincere congratulations to all.”
About The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Institute for Louisiana Culture and History
The Institute for Louisiana Culture and History (ILCH) is a statewide educational hub providing reliable, accessible Louisiana social studies resources to K–12 students and their teachers through workshops and online resources. Through the ILCH, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities aims to ensure that every Louisiana student has access to free digital social studies content and that every Louisiana educator receives the pedagogical support necessary to bring this content to life in the classroom. ILCH is strengthened by key partnerships with expert historians, curriculum specialists, and scholars as well as with organizations such as the Louisiana Department of Education, universities, museums, and archives, all working towards the common goal of equipping teachers and students with the best social studies resources available to explore Louisiana’s complex history and culture and develop an understanding and appreciation of our state, its people, and our contributions to history.
“I will approach this [school] year with more openness and energy! I have been revived in my ‘why!’…This workshop has lessened my anxiety and awaken[ed] my creativity.”
-Teacher workshop attendee
The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities acts as a steward and supporter of Louisiana’s diverse and vibrant culture and history. To that end, they are dedicated to ensuring access to the humanities, offering and broadening pathways for a lifetime of learning for people of every generation and from every walk of life. They champion the humanities to enrich the lives of all Louisianans in all 64 parishes. Visit leh.org to learn more.
up and put forward by a house representative, and teens gave proponent testimony before the house education
committee.
About Humanities Montana’s The Democracy Project
The Democracy Project is a teen-led, non-partisan initiative supported by local libraries, community partners, and Humanities Montana. This program gives teens the resources to meet community needs while learning their role in an evolving democracy. Through direct civic engagement, teens work for six months on projects they feel are vital to their community, ending with a public showcase. Montana is extremely diverse in terms of geography, demographics, and educational settings. The Democracy Project aims to make civic education and engagement accessible to teens in all groups and locations. To this end, it is sited in public libraries, which exist in even the smallest communities like Wibaux, MT (pop. 454). Each Democracy Project library collaborates with local non-profits and businesses, local and state government, and state institutions. The depth of the relationships built through these collaborations strengthen the council, the program, and support Montana’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
“In my many years of being a librarian, working with the Democracy Project and its group of dedicated, caring, teens who have been meeting all year long and using their time to write a House Bill and developing a website dedicated to Teen Mental Health has been the highlight of my career. It has been an honor to work with this group of forward-thinking young people. They give me hope.”
-Sherry Schlundt, Teen Services Librarian, Lewis and Clark Public Library, Helena MT
With a mission to serve communities through stories and conversation, Humanities Montana offers experiences that nurture imagination and ideas by speaking to Montanans’ diverse history, literature and philosophy. Established in 1972, Humanities Montana is one of 56 councils across the nation that the National Endowment for the Humanities created in order to better infuse the humanities directly and effectively into public life. Visit humanitiesmontana.org to learn more.
About Wisconsin Humanities’ Community Powered
Community Powered (CP) is a community resilience initiative that offers practical tools for exploring history, culture, and storytelling to Wisconsin community members. Wisconsin communities face a host of challenges, both natural and manmade, and CP has been designed to help Wisconsin communities meet these challenges head-on using their unique local assets. Participants are trained in a toolkit of humanities-based approaches, like interviewing and photography, storytelling and conversation, asset-mapping and community walks—all in an effort to get community members connecting around their vision for their hometown. Community members then tackle a challenge identified by the community and address it with a locally designed project. Already, these methods have inspired teens to lead community cleanups and devise other projects in Spooner, kickstarted a series of story circles among immigrants and refugees in Appleton, and revitalized long-lost traditions, like lacrosse in the Forest County Potawatomi community.
“I am not able to solve the issue of people feeling like they don’t belong in Appleton, but the project I did and the events I created were able to give people that sense of welcome, and even if it only lasted for two hours, being able to say that my work made people genuinely feel good is for me a big accomplishment. A story circle had an audience of 9 people, but at the end of the night those people were laughing like they were old friends, and several people did become new friends. That may not look like a lot, but that impact might mean a lot to those people and that’s a great contribution to make.”
–Rachel Steiner, Community Powered Project Coordinator for Appleton
Established in 1972 as an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities strengthens our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state. Visit wisconsinhumanities.org to learn more.
About the Schwartz Prize
Since 1982, the Federation has awarded the Schwartz Prize to up to three councils for outstanding work in the public humanities each year. The prize was established by founding Federation board member Martin Schwartz and his wife, Helen. The Schwartz Prize judges are selected from humanities partners, former board members, and council board and staff of the prior year’s winners. For more information, visit www.statehumanities.org/schwartz-prize-faqs.
The Federation of State Humanities Councils
The Federation of State Humanities Councils (Federation) was founded in 1977 as the membership association of state and jurisdictional councils. The Federation provides support for the state humanities councils and strives to create greater awareness of the humanities in public and private life. For more information about the Federation, visit: www.statehumanities.org.
The state humanities councils are independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations supporting grassroots humanities programs and community-based activities. Humanities councils were created by Congress in the early 1970s and receive an annual congressional appropriation through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which most councils supplement with private funding. For more information about the state humanities councils, visit www.statehumanities.org/directory.
