Description
Interpreting Americas Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world. The Division of Public Programs supports the development of humanities content and interactivity that excite, inform, and stir thoughtful reflection upon culture, identity, and history in creative and new ways. Interpreting Americas Historic Places projects may interpret a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. Grants for Interpreting Americas Historic Places should encourage dialogue, discussion, and civic engagement, and they should foster learning among people of all ages. To that end, the Division of Public Programs urges applicants to consider more than one format for presenting humanities ideas to the public. NEH offers two categories of grants for Interpreting Americas Historic Places: Planning and Implementation Grants. Planning grants are available for those projects that may need further development before applying for implementation. This planning can include the identification and refinement of the projects main humanities ideas and questions, consultation with scholars in order to strengthen the humanities content, preliminary audience evaluation, preliminary design of the proposed interpretive formats, beta testing of digital formats, development of complementary programming, research at archives or sites whose resources might be used, or the drafting of interpretive materials. The goals of Interpreting Americas Historic Places grants are to enhance lifelong learning in American history by connecting significant events, people, ideas, stories, and traditions with specific places; foster the development of interpretive programs for the public that address central events, themes, and issues in American history; and encourage consultation with humanities scholars and history organizations in the development of heritage tourism destinations. Interpreting Americas Historic Places projects should interpret a place that played a significant role in American history; enrich the visitor experience at one or more historic places by interpreting these places in light of broader themes in American history; make use of the specific features of one or more historic placesthe site, its location, buildings, or other natural or built featuresas integral parts of the proposed interpretation; be based on sound humanities scholarship; involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and implementation; approach the subject thematically, analytically, and interpretively through an appropriate variety of perspectives; interest broad audiences; and employ appealing and accessible program formats that will actively engage the public in learning.