State humanities councils are private, non-profit partners of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). There are 56 councils located in every U.S. state and jurisdiction. These councils work to support local public humanities programs as well as to extend the NEH's national programming to local communities.[1] [2] All state humanities councils receive federal funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities; beyond this, the councils are diversely funded through private donations, foundations, corporations, and/or state funding.[3]
The NEH was initially skeptical of the creation of local programming entities on the model of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which, by 1969, had created state-based arts agencies in every state.[4] However, under pressure from Congress and especially Sen. Claiborne Pell, the NEH began to experiment with the creation of non-governmental state-based committees in 1971. The initial mission of these committees was to facilitate conversation about public policy.[5] Responding to further pressure from Congress to transform the committees into state agencies, as the NEA had done, the NEH instead began working to increase the committees' autonomy. By 1980, the committees' programming agendas had been greatly broadened and the NEH had begun to refer to them as "state humanities councils."[6] The Federation of State Humanities Councils was founded in 1977 as a membership organization for the state councils.[7]
| State/Jurisdiction | Humanities Council | |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Alabama Humanities Foundation | |
| Alaska | Alaska Humanities Forum | |
| American Samoa | Amerika Samoa Humanities Council[8] | |
| Arizona | Arizona Humanities Council[9] | |
| Arkansas | Arkansas Humanities Council | |
| California | California Humanities[10] | |
| Colorado | Colorado Humanities | |
| Connecticut | Connecticut Humanities | |
| Delaware | Delaware Humanities Forum | |
| District of Columbia | Humanities DC | |
| Florida | Florida Humanities Council | |
| Georgia | Georgia Humanities Council | |
| Guam | Guam Humanities Council | |
| Hawaii | Hawaii Council for the Humanities | |
| Idaho | Idaho Humanities Council | |
| Illinois | Illinois Humanities Council[11] | |
| Indiana | Indiana Humanities | |
| Iowa | Humanities Iowa | |
| Kansas | Kansas Humanities Council | |
| Kentucky | Kentucky Humanities Council | |
| Louisiana | Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities | |
| Maine | Maine Humanities Council | |
| Maryland | Maryland Humanities[12] | |
| Massachusetts | Mass Humanities | |
| Michigan | Michigan Humanities Council | |
| Minnesota | Minnesota Humanities Center | |
| Mississippi | Mississippi Humanities Council | |
| Missouri | Missouri Humanities Council | |
| Montana | Humanities Montana[13] | |
| Nebraska | Humanities Nebraska | |
| Nevada | Nevada Humanities | |
| New Hampshire | New Hampshire Humanities Council | |
| New Jersey | New Jersey Council for the Humanities | |
| New Mexico | New Mexico Humanities Council | |
| New York | Humanities New York | |
| North Carolina | North Carolina Humanities Council | |
| North Dakota | North Dakota Humanities Council | |
| Northern Marianas Islands | Northern Marianas Humanities Council | |
| Ohio | Ohio Humanities Council | |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma Humanities Council | |
| Oregon | Oregon Humanities | |
| Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Humanities Council | |
| Puerto Rico | Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades | |
| Rhode Island | Rhode Island Council for the Humanities | |
| South Carolina | The Humanities Council of South Carolina | |
| South Dakota | South Dakota Humanities Council | |
| Tennessee | Humanities Tennessee | |
| Texas | Humanities Texas | |
| Utah | Utah Humanities Council | |
| Vermont | Vermont Humanities Council | |
| Virgin Islands | Virgin Islands Humanities Council | |
| Virginia | Virginia Foundation for the Humanities | |
| Washington | Humanities Washington | |
| West Virginia | West Virginia Humanities Council | |
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin Humanities Council | |
| Wyoming | Wyoming Humanities Council |