LEH Rebirth Grants

The LEH Rebirth Grants support initiatives that promote the humanities through public engagement, including diverse projects like festivals, documentaries, and educational programs. The grants prioritize community involvement and balanced viewpoints, ensuring humanities scholars lead the projects. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations and government agencies in Louisiana. Ineligible projects range from individual grants to those focused solely on the arts or scholarly audiences. The program encourages a wide participation across varied audiences, with an emphasis on underserved communities.

Background
LEH Rebirth Grants support programmatic initiatives focused on the humanities. Eligible projects include public humanities programs that involve audience participation and discussion; documentary photography, podcast, and radio projects; humanities-based festivals and exhibition development; digital humanities projects including websites and online documentation of Louisiana history and culture; speaker series; assistance with publication projects and humanities-based educational initiatives; and more.
LEH projects should include:
Humanities Scholars Involvement - Humanities scholars must play a central role in all phases of an LEH-funded project as planners, speakers, resource persons, panelists, and/or evaluators. The LEH defines a humanities scholar as an individual professionally trained and primarily engaged in the study, research, writing, and/or teaching of humanities disciplines. The individual can be employed in their field, retired, not employed, or on temporary leave from a professional position in the humanities. Affiliation with a college or university is usual but not mandatory. Scholars usually have a PhD in a humanities discipline or at least alternative credentials.Humanities Focus- All LEH projects must focus on topics and themes drawn from the humanities or bring the analytical potential of the humanities to bear on current political, social, or economic concerns and issues. The 1965 legislation that established the National Endowment for the Humanities, defines the humanities as follows: “The term ‘humanities’ includes, but is not limited to, the study and interpretation of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.”
Balanced Viewpoints - To avoid advocacy and bias, programs sponsored by the LEH must provide for a balance of viewpoints, especially those projects dealing with controversial contemporary issues. For example, a project addressing the First Amendment’s relation to religion in public schools should provide subject matter for both sides of the issue.
Public Audiences - Programs must be designed to address the out-of-school public rather than exclusively the scholarly community. The LEH especially encourages applications from minority-serving institutions and organizations as well as from rural and underserved areas of the state, but applications are welcome regardless of an organization’s size, audience, and location. The LEH encourages research and publishing project proposals to include a public component as well.
Community Involvement - Representatives of the community must be involved in all phases of a project to complement the presence of the humanities scholars. The LEH encourages advance planning with community groups.

Eligibility

Applications are open to nonprofit organizations with a DUNS number. Specifically, nonprofit entities with 501(c)(3) status, public-facing organizations operating within accredited institutions of higher learning, state and local government agencies, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments in Louisiana are eligible to apply for Rebirth funds.

Ineligibility

The LEH does not award grants to individuals.LEH Rebirth Grant funds cannot be used to support the following types of projects:Creative and performing arts (theater, dance, music, opera, etc.)
Research, writing, and publication of material targeted exclusively or primarily for a scholarly audience
Scholarships and fellowships
Course work for academic credit, except for teacher institutes
Construction or renovation (capital improvements projects)
Institutional staffing or any other form of operational support
Public information campaigns
Archival materials without a public componentWithin the actual budget, LEH grant funds, as a rule, cannot be used for the following purposes:Food, entertainment, or liquor costs