Prepared for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies by David Colburn, Chair, Federation of State Humanities Councils, Addressing the National Endowment for the Humanities, March 26, 2010.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Federation of State Humanities Councils (FSHC), the membership association of the of the individual state humanities councils. I am David Colburn, chair of the board of directors of the Federation of State Humanities Councils and former chair of the Florida Humanities Council. For FY 2011 the Federation of State Humanities Councils is requesting $60 million for the NEH Federal-State Partnership and $144 million for national programs of the NEH as part of a total community request of $204 million for NEH programs.
With the additional funding for the Federal/State Partnership portion of the NEH budget the humanities councils can begin to address the tremendous needs that exist in our communities today. The state humanities councils are the neighborhood face of the humanities. They provide and support activities that touch individual lives, strengthen communities, and promote a better understanding of who we are as a people and what we stand for as a nation.
There are two things that I hope you will take away from my testimony today. The first is that the federal funding available at the state level through the state humanities councils is a lifeline for communities and for local organizations. The second point, even more important for the long-term vitality of the country, is that these programs are substantive, educational, enriching experiences for both citizens and communities. The programs councils conduct and support help us preserve and pass on our shared history and culture, the qualities that define us as a society. It is relatively easy to say, in difficult economic times, that humanities spending can be cut because humanities programs are not "necessary." I believe, on the contrary, that the work of the humanities councils is essential and more important now than ever. I also believe that state councils are providing a vital contribution to strengthening the economy and ensuring the survival of the cultural infrastructure in their communities and in the nation.
The Federation recently surveyed councils about the impact of the economic downturn in their states. The reports we received were both sobering and impressive:
The New Hampshire council, just as an example, reported that the number of organizations asking for programs rose by 109 percent from 2008 to 2009 and attendance at these programs is up by 60 percent.
The Wisconsin council reports that the council is often the only possible source of funding for organizations seeking their grants, and this is especially true in those areas where humanities organizations are the only source of programming of any kind for their citizens.
The New York council reported that more than half the organizations they work with have had to cut services or staff, and that 86 percent of those organizations would not have been able to conduct humanities programs without council support.
The Florida Humanities Council reports that last year more than 30 libraries applied for grants to conduct the council's Prime Time family reading programs that bring together a humanities scholar and storyteller with low-literacy families to read together and talk about books and ideas. The council was able to fund only six of those applications. The Kentucky Humanities Council has had so many Prime Time applications that they have had to ask those who have previously hosted it to suspend further application while they provide the program to others. With adequate resources they could easily double the programs they provide; as it is, lack of resources affects both the number and the eligibility.
The most recent grant round of the Idaho Humanities Council brought in requests totaling $150,000, though the council has only half that amount available to award. Indeed, many councils report that they are unable to fund more than half the requests they receive.
I believe it goes without saying that council programs have a powerful intellectual and educational impact on their communities, but they also preserve jobs and help organizations survive. Even when council grant funds are not contributing directly to financial viability of organizations, they are doing so in an indirect way by enabling those organizations to continue to be a vital presence in their communities and thereby to attract audiences to their programs and services.
Let me provide one specific example of the important economic and community impact that even a small amount of council support has provided. The Loves Jazz and Art Center in North Omaha, the only neighborhood-based cultural institution preserving the African American community's heritage in that city, serves an economically disadvantaged population and has survived largely on grants from foundations and corporate sources. Last year that support declined so dramatically that the Center was about to close its doors, just before a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibit, made available through a partnership between the state humanities councils and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, was scheduled to open. The Nebraska Humanities Council provided a $2,000 grant to keep the institution open. This prompted a city councilman who was present at the meeting to seek an emergency allocation from the city, and once the exhibit arrived, the Center was able to secure a county tourism grant that will provide support for the next three years. The director of the Center credited the Nebraska council with saving "not only a museum but a community's heritage."
These stories recur throughout the country, in large and small ways. A number of councils reported that many libraries and other organizations in small communities no longer have a program budget at all, and humanities council programs constitute the only offerings they can provide to the public. This is particularly true in rural areas and in areas hit especially hard by the economic downturn. The Kansas Humanities Council reports, for example, that in 2009 they supported 598 humanities programs in 117 communities and that the council's inexpensive programs mean that organizations without a program budget or staff can still provide these events. The Humanities Council South Carolina recently gave a $7,000 grant to a historical museum in a small economically distressed town. The museum, a donated historic house, employs one minimum wage staff person. The grant supported three scholars who catalogued the museum's collection and created a variety of exhibits that will be on display over the next three years, enabling the museum to attract local citizens and visiting tourists.
Larger efforts such as the Virginia Festival of the Book, conducted each March by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, attract tens of thousands of citizens. Like a number of other book festivals that councils support around the country, the Virginia Festival not only promotes reading and literacy, it also brings citizens and communities together while contributing significantly to the local economy.
These multiple benefits demonstrate not only that council support and programming strengthen the economy. More importantly, in my view, council programs ensure the social and intellectual vitality of each state's institutions and organizations-and by extension the individuals and communities they serve. They create opportunities for reflection on important and often difficult issues. Humanities discussions sometimes take place around books, sometimes in response to a stimulating speaker, sometimes in facilitated roundtables involving people holding very different viewpoints and from very different walks of life. They get people talking with neighbors and often with strangers about issues that are of fundamental importance to their communities.
State humanities councils are seen by their communities as honest brokers, their programs viewed as neutral ground, a safe space for expression and exchange of ideas and viewpoints, even when those viewpoints differ. Council programs cover essential issues for the citizens of this country to address at this particular moment in our history-immigration, race relations, religious and ethnic differences, the economy, the environment, medical ethics-all seen through the lens of the humanities. The need for programs that educate, enlighten, and expand minds simply cannot be overestimated at this time. The director of the Oregon Humanities Council recently noted that forums they offered for discussing a genuinely divisive local issue in Portland "were revealing, useful, and energizing to people of [opposing perspectives]. There were no other public, face-to-face (and therefore humanizing) forums for this conversation, which mainly played out in opinion pages, anonymous blogs, and letters to the editors of local papers."
Councils do not shy away from the most controversial and potentially divisive issues. The Illinois Humanities Council last year conducted a series of conversations around the state that brought together scientists, philosophers, historians, farmers, and environmental policy experts to discuss issues related to oil and water consumption. The Maryland Humanities Council used the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. to launch a series of "community conversations" that brought diverse audiences together to discuss the issue of race in the context of Dr. King's legacy. Humanities Montana is so committed to promoting civil discussion around difficult issues that in 2009 they sponsored a Conference on Civil Discourse in the Bitterroot, an area regarded as "stunningly beautiful but also the scene of intense conflict over land use, water rights, and more." The conference attracted 120 citizens in this rural valley community, including 20 high school students, who came together "to discuss the roots of uncivil behavior, to reflect on the role of media in encouraging respectful exchange of ideas, and…to consider ways to improve civil discourse and civic engagement in the valley."
State humanities councils are not just providing resources for existing institutions and individuals. They are also providing invaluable resources for the future, through support for teachers, students, and K-12 education in their communities. The teacher institutes supported by councils in more than twenty states are educating and inspiring teachers, who go back to their classrooms with renewed energy and new knowledge. Without council funding, opportunities for this kind of high quality content-based, in-depth training would not exist at all in many states. And the need for such resources for teachers continues to grow as funding from state government and other sources declines. The Florida Humanities Council, whose workshops generate materials, websites, and lesson plans as well as content instruction for teachers, received more than 500 applications this spring for just 200 spaces in their summer workshops. The Alabama Humanities Foundation partnered with the Alabama Department of Archives and History to conduct a teacher institute on the history and legacy of slavery in Alabama. Because of state budget cuts, the ADAH would not have been able to offer this institute, which brought together white and African American teachers from throughout the state, without the support of the Humanities Foundation.
At a time when schools are reducing school hours to meet financial cutbacks, the state humanities councils are stepping forward to provide teachers, parents, and students with a whole new range of online resources, as well as the enrichment of the classroom experience through support for such partnership programs as National History Day, which receives council support in a number of states. Councils in Nebraska and Illinois sponsor Capitol Forum programs that engage high school students and their teachers in discussion and deliberation about our nation's future in a changing international environment. The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities used the increase in federal funding received last year to launch a civic education initiative, through which they will award grants to teachers, schools, districts, and other agencies that support the work of developing, disseminating, and providing professional development opportunities to enhance K-12 civic education. These resources are an invaluable investment in the future of our nation.
I hope that my testimony has helped you to see what an incredibly beneficial and essential investment the state humanities councils are, even in tight economic times. I would only add that our request for $60 million comes from an extensive state-by-state survey of needs for council programming and support. Councils have identified more than $150 million in local program requests that could be funded immediately, wisely, and for the benefit of communities throughout the nation. Limitations on state budgets and private fund raising are only pushing those needs higher. We need your support.
Recently, the Washington Post published an editorial that recounted a speech made to Congress twenty years ago by Vaclav Havel. Havel, as you recall, was a leader in the successful effort to overthrow communist oppression in Eastern Europe and subsequently became President of the Czech Republic and received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. Havel stated, "The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility." We believe the mission and responsibility of the state humanities councils is to nourish the ideals that Havel describes, and we respectfully request your support so that we can continue to enrich the intellectual well-being of Americans and promote understanding with one another.