List of state humanities councils in the United States


State humanities councils in the United States are private, non-profit partners of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 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. 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.

History

The NEH was initially skeptical of the creation of local programming entities on the model of the National Endowment for the Arts, which, by 1969, had created state-based arts agencies in every state. 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. 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." The Federation of State Humanities Councils was founded in 1977 as a membership organization for the state councils.

List of state humanities councils

State/JurisdictionHumanities Council
AlabamaAlabama Humanities Foundation
Alaska
American Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of ColumbiaHumanities DC
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
IndianaIndiana Humanities
Iowa
Kansas
KentuckyKentucky Humanities Council
LouisianaLouisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
MississippiMississippi Humanities Council
MissouriMissouri Humanities Council
Montana
NebraskaHumanities Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New YorkHumanities New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Northern Marianas IslandsNorthern Marianas Humanities Council
Ohio
Oklahoma
OregonOregon Humanities
PennsylvaniaPennsylvania Humanities Council
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virgin IslandsVirgin Islands Humanities Council
VirginiaVirginia Foundation for the Humanities
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming