Public Humanities Grants

The Public Humanities Grants, offered by the Hawaii Council for Humanities, provide up to $10,000 to support innovative public humanities projects. These grants encourage creative programming that fosters deep thinking and community engagement on relevant issues in Hawaii. Eligible projects must include public access and collaboration with local organizations. Ineligible projects include those focused on political advocacy or direct services, ensuring that funding supports enriching public discourse and understanding.

NOTE: Your LOI should be submitted through our grants application portal no later than three-weeks before the grant deadline.
Public Humanities Grants (up to $10,000)
This is our broadest ranging grant, and we hope this invites creative approaches to public humanities programming. We actively welcome exciting and engaging programs seeking to promote deep thinking, conversation, and connection on issues that impact our communities in Hawaiʻi.
Projects and Formats Eligible for a Public Humanities Grant
We encourage originality and imagination in your public program plans. Please note that while grant funds can be used to help create a resource (ex. book project, documentary film, curriculum, oral history project, exhibition, etc.), a good portion of the grant should be used for humanities informed programs open to the general public that broaden perspectives, enrich lives and strengthen communities.
Examples of Activities and Formats Include:

• Organizing a panel and facilitated community discussion about challenging and relevant issues;
• Developing thought-provoking community engagement for exhibitions, publications, films, or performances
• Creating humanities guides or essays or other materials to complement a program and that provide access to expertise and deeper questions on the issue;
• Creating and launching media—film, podcasts, sound recordings, and online media;
• Designing a collaboration between humanities and science communities that helps to more deeply explore a challenging and relevant issue
• Community meetings, workshops, symposia, and similar gatherings for non-academic audiences;
• Creating an interpretive exhibit that helps us dive more deeply into historical and contemporary issues
• Developing a guided tour of a historic site
• Developing a historical theater performance
• Research in the humanities and presentation of results to the community;

Eligibility

A portion of your humanities program must be open to the general public.Because our grants are federal in origin, your organization is required to be registered in the U.S. government’s System for Award Management (SAM). Your registration, which is renewed annually, must be currently active at the time of your application. Your UEI registration must be open for public searches. Grant applicants require a sponsoring nonprofit group or public institution based in Hawaiʻi. The sponsor organization must be a project partner and contribute substantively to the project beyond their fiscal responsibility.

Ineligibility

Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities does not award grants to individuals, out-of-state, or for-profit organizations.Examples of Programs NOT ELIGIBLE for Grants FundingProjects characterized by political or religious advocacy or bias (e.g., political campaigning, advocacy events that promote a single point-of-view, lobbying, etc.)
Direct service providing (e.g., social, psychological legal, or health services, training or counseling programs)
Fellowships or scholarships
Academic or professional conferences for a non-public audience
Fundraisers or events for profit
Art activities or performances when these are ends in themselves, without examination of their social, historical, or aesthetic context