Humanities DC

Last updated

HumanitiesDC, formerly known as the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, is an American non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities based in Washington, D.C. Humanities DC was founded in 1980 to fund and produce public humanities programming in the District of Columbia. It is one of 56 state humanities councils founded in the wake of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965. [1]

Contents

The HumanitiesDC office is located in the historic Uline Arena, 1140 3rd Street NE, 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20002. Rebecca Lemos-Otero was hired as the new Executive Director in September 2021. [2]

History

Founded in 1980 as the D.C. Community Humanities Council, Humanities DC funded several high-profile documentary films including The Stone Carvers in 1984, [3] Fishing in the City in 1986, and Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9 in 1989. During the 1990s, Humanities DC began producing its own public programming, to complement the public-humanities work of its grantees.

In 2005, in partnership with the DC Office of Historic Preservation, Humanities DC launched the DC Community Heritage Project, a combination of grants and programs aimed at empowering DC residents to research, disseminate, and preserve their own community histories.

In 2010, Humanities DC created the DC Digital Museum, an online repository of projects funded through its grant programs. The DC Digital Museum's collection of interpreted and primary source materials are available for download, streaming, or to borrow depending on copyright limitations.

Current activities

Humanities DC continues to offer a combination of grants and public programs.

Grants

Programs

DC Digital Museum

The DC Digital Museum is an archive of interpreted and primary source materials related to life in Washington, DC. The collection is built around the funded projects Humanities DC has collected since its founding. In 2014, Humanities DC launched Your DC Digital Museum, a series of public digitization events aimed at teaching residents about personal digital preservation and encouraging new submissions to the digital collection.

See also

List of state humanities councils

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Endowment for the Arts</span> Independent agency of the United States federal government

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965. It is a sub-agency of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Endowment for the Humanities</span> Agency of the US government supporting the humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is housed at 400 7th St SW, Washington, D.C. From 1979 to 2014, NEH was at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. in the Nancy Hanks Center at the Old Post Office.

The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management and improved support for teaching and research. In collaboration with the ten University of California Libraries and other partners, CDL assembled one of the world's largest digital research libraries. CDL facilitates the licensing of online materials and develops shared services used throughout the UC system. Building on the foundations of the Melvyl Catalog, CDL has developed one of the largest online library catalogs in the country and works in partnership with the UC campuses to bring the treasures of California's libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations to the world. CDL continues to explore how services such as digital curation, scholarly publishing, archiving and preservation support research throughout the information lifecycle.

Public humanities is the work of engaging diverse publics in reflecting on heritage, traditions, and history, and the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of civic and cultural life. Public humanities is often practiced within federal, state, nonprofit and community-based cultural organizations that engage people in conversations, facilitate and present lectures, exhibitions, performances and other programs for the general public on topics such as history, philosophy, popular culture and the arts. Public Humanities also exists within universities, as a collaborative enterprise between communities and faculty, staff, and students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiversity Heritage Library</span> Discipline-oriented digital libraries

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to address this challenge by digitizing the natural history literature held in their collections and making it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.” The BHL consortium works with the international taxonomic community, publishers, bioinformaticians, and information technology professionals to develop tools and services to facilitate greater access, interoperability, and reuse of content and data. BHL provides a range of services, data exports, and APIs to allow users to download content, harvest source data files, and reuse materials for research purposes. Through taxonomic intelligence tools developed by Global Names Architecture, BHL indexes the taxonomic names throughout the collection, allowing researchers to locate publications about specific taxa. In partnership with the Internet Archive and through local digitization efforts, BHL's portal provides free access to hundreds of thousands of volumes, comprising over 59 million pages, from the 15th-21st centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save America's Treasures</span>

Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services are also partners in the work. In the early years of the program, Heritage Preservation and the National Park Foundation were also involved.

The Missouri Humanities Council, "Missouri Humanities" (MH) is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization that was created in 1971 under authorizing legislation from the U.S. Congress to serve as one of the 56 state and territorial humanities councils that are affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preserve America</span>

Preserve America is a United States government program, established under President George W. Bush, intended to encourage and support community efforts to preserve and enjoy the country's cultural and natural heritage.

The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) began as part of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a cooperative effort between the states and the federal government designed to catalog and preserve on microfilm the nation's historic newspaper heritage. The USNP was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and administered by the Library of Congress, who are currently funding the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), of which the INP is also a part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas Historical Society</span>

The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.

History Colorado is a historical society that was established in 1879 as the State Historical Society of Colorado, also known as the Colorado Historical Society. History Colorado is a 501(c)(3) organization and an agency of the State of Colorado under the Department of Higher Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Public History and Digital Humanities</span>

The Center for Public History and Digital Humanities is a digital humanities center in Cleveland, Ohio, based in the Department of History at Cleveland State University.

Heritage Preservation was an American non-profit organization. Its mission was to preserve the nation's heritage for future generations through innovative leadership, education, and programs. As of June 30, 2015 the organization was dissolved by its board. Several of its programs and resources have been absorbed by the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation. "Records that document the history and activities of Heritage Preservation from its very beginnings as the National Conservation Advisory Council and the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property", including an archive of its website, were accessioned by and are made accessible by the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical Heritage Library</span>

The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a digital curation collaborative among several medical libraries which promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. The MHL is currently digitizing books and journals and is working to expand to the digitization of archival materials and still images. In 2010, the MHL began digitizing titles, mainly monographs, in a variety of medical history and related fields including chemistry, nursing, dentistry, audiology, physiology, psychology, psychiatry, biological science, hydrotherapy, weather, veterinary medicine, gardening, physical culture, and alternative medicine chosen for their scholarly, educational, and research value. Since the inception of the project, materials in audio and video formats have been added to the collection.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an American independent, nonprofit organization. It works with libraries, cultural institutions, and higher learning communities on developing strategies to improve research, teaching, and learning environments. It is based in Alexandria, VA, United States. CLIR is supported primarily by annual dues from its over 180 sponsoring institutions and 190 DLF members, and by foundation grants and individual donations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Conservation Guild</span>

The Washington Conservation Guild (WCG) is a non-profit organization of conservation and cultural heritage professionals. The WCG serves as a resource for learning about the care of cultural heritage collections.

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitally preserve and make accessible historically significant public radio and television programs created over the past 70+ years. The archive comprises over 120 collections from contributing stations and original producers from US states and territories. As of April 2020, the collection includes nearly 113,000 digitized items preserved on-site at the Library of Congress, and 53,000 items in the collection are streaming online in the AAPB Online Reading Room.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program formed in 2017 to aid stewards of Black cultural sites throughout the nation in preserving both physical landmarks, their material collections and associated narratives. It was organized under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The initiative which awards grants to select applicants and advocates of Black history has been led by architectural historian Brent Leggs since 2019. It is the largest program in America to preserve places associated with Black history.

The cultural policy of the United States is the set of federal laws, regulations, and subsidies that promote the culture of the United States, including visual art, performing arts, heritage, language, museums, libraries, and sports. Most cultural policy in the United States is enacted at the local and state level, though federal programs also exist to carry out cultural policy.

Joy Ford Austin is a Guyanese-American non-profit executive, philanthropist, humanitarian, and patron of the arts. She was the director of the African American Museums Association, which she founded in 1980, and worked with insitutions to preserve African-American culture and history. From 2000 to 2020, Austin served as the executive director of Humanities DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since stepping down as executive director of Humanities DC, she has served as the president of AustinFord Associates and as the chief executive officer of Joy Ford Austin Arts and Humanities Advocacy.

References

  1. "Legislation for councils".
  2. "HumanitiesDC Names Rebecca Lemos-Otero as New Executive Directo". HumanitiesDC.
  3. "THE STONE CARVERS". DC Digital Museum. 1984.
  4. "Grants". HumanitiesDC - Grants.