LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The National Endowment for the Humanities today announced $30 million in grants for 238 humanities projects across the country, with USC, the Autry Museum of the American West and the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles among the recipients.
The NEH's last round of funding for fiscal year 2020 “will support vital research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities,'' according to the independent federal agency established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965.
The peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $50 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and jurisdictional humanities councils.
“These challenging times underscore how important the humanities are to making American culture and world history relatable across generations,'' said NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede. “NEH is proud to award hundreds of grants to keep our nation's scholars, students, teachers and citizens moving forward in pursuit of new knowledge and understanding.''
The Japanese American National Museum was awarded $172,445 to put on two one-week workshops for 72 schoolteachers about the history and culture of Japanese-American immigrants and their place in U.S. history.
USC's Lynn Dodd and Sabina Zonno will use a $50,000 grant to create a virtual reality experience with a 15th-century illuminated manuscript to allow users to engage with the content of the manuscript and also gain an appreciation for handling rare materials.
The Autry Museum of the American West's $43,863 grant will be used to explore sustainable preservation strategies that can address deteriorating environmental conditions in museum storage and exhibition areas.
Improved environmental conditions would preserve the Autry's collection of more than 600,000 historical, archival and library materials and works of art that represent the diverse cultures, perspectives and ideas of the American West.
A Glendale-based unaffiliated independent scholar, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, was awarded $45,000 to research and write a biography of the late American fashion designer Chester Weinberg, who died in 1985.
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