WV Humanities: Major Grants

The West Virginia Humanities Council provides matching grants for nonprofit organizations to create public humanities programming in West Virginia. These major grants support various projects such as lectures, exhibits, and educational programs. Applicants must involve qualified humanities scholars and allow twelve weeks between the application deadline and project initiation. The program aims to enhance public understanding of the humanities, fostering engagement and appreciation of cultural heritage across the state.

West Virginia Humanities Council
The West Virginia Humanities Council offers a variety of matching grants to nonprofit organizations that provide public humanities programming for West Virginia audiences.
What are the Humanities?
The humanities represent a group of academic disciplines that have traditionally been concerned with values, ideas and choices. The term humanities includes the following:
Language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, theory and criticism of the arts; those aspects of social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to our diverse heritage, traditions and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current condition of national life.
These grants support major humanities projects including, but not limited to, lectures, school projects, symposiums, panel discussions, reading and discussion series, exhibits, reenactments, and conferences. Applicants should allow twelve weeks between the deadline and the start of the project.
Major grants have funded humanities programming at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, a permanent exhibit at the Weston State Hospital, archeology digs in Wood and Greenbrier counties, the Ohio River Festival of Books, and wayside exhibits at historic locations along the Kanawha Valley Rivers to Ridges Trail.
Humanities Scholar
The project must involve at least one humanities scholar, who will directly advise, offer direction on, or otherwise provide substantive contribution to the project. The humanities scholar associated with the project is expected to provide informed oversight regarding content, historical or cultural contexts, factual information, and/or information and research relevant to the project’s content.
As content-specific expertise is the quality a humanities scholar is expected to bring to any project, the appropriate credentials establishing that expertise may vary from project to project. For the purposes of grant applications made to the West Virginia Humanities Council, “humanities scholar” may be understood to mean:
a credentialed academic scholar in the appropriate content field; an expert practitioner in a living tradition upon which the project is centered; or a community member with extensive and documented life experience in the content area upon which the project is centered.

Eligibility

Eligible projects must:Be rooted in one or more of the humanities disciplinesInvolve qualified humanities scholars or expert practitioners in the project, as direct advisors Be sponsored by a nonprofit organization (NOTE: not required for Travel Assistance Program grants or Fellowships)Provide accurate budget requests, reflecting the actual costs of the projectSecure dollar-per-dollar matching funds (NOTE: not required for Travel Assistance Program grants or Fellowships)Provide a 25% cash match (for grant requests of more than $1,500)Provide a comprehensive and adequate plan for publicity and dissemination of informationBe open to or accessible by public audiencesProvide a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the projectComply with federal nondiscrimination statutesAllowable expenses for humanities projects and programs include the following:Honoraria for scholarsProject-specific (i.e. non-regular) staff salariesTravel costs including per diems, mileage and lodgingSupplies and materialsPublicity and printing costsPostage and telephone costsEquipment and facilities rental Eligible project types include, but are not limited to:Planning grants to bring in experts for project consultationConferences, lectures, and symposiaEducational school programsBrochures and booklets including printing and promotional costsExhibit development and implementationArchival projectsArchaeological projectsConference travel (through Travel Assistance Program grants)The planning, scripting, and production of audio or video materials, websites, or a newspaper seriesPublications (Publication grants)Individual research (Fellowship grants)

Ineligibility

We cannot fundProjects with little or no humanities contentCreative and performing arts (associated discussion sessions and educational programs may be eligible)Fund-raising events or for-profit projectsExpenses incurred or paid out before a grant is madeProjects/activities that have already taken placeProjects with high admission fees (reasonable admission fees may be allowed and should be discussed with the grants administrator)Projects not open or accessible to the publicPurchase of equipment or landBuilding renovationReceptions, food, alcohol or entertainmentFiscal agent fees (also ineligible as match)Academic courses for creditHistory Alive! presentationsRequests that advocate partisan political or social actionHistoric Highway markersPermanent staffing or regular staff salaries