FSHC Announces 14 Public Humanities Programs Nominated for 2019 Schwartz Prize
Winners to be announced on Friday, November 8 at the National Humanities Conference
October 25, 2019 – [Rosslyn, VA] The Federation of State Humanities Councils announces that fourteen humanities councils’ programs have been nominated for the 2019 Schwartz Prize. The winners will be announced in a special presentation at the 2019 National Humanities Conference on Friday, November 8 at 5:00 pm HST. The event will be livestreamed on the Federation’s Facebook page.
Every year an outside panel of judges, which is comprised of state humanities council members and national partners, review the nominations and look for innovative, far-reaching, capacity-building, or sustainable programs that either reach new audiences, incorporate new uses of technology, or demonstrate unique collaborations between the academic and public humanities. The judges can select up to three programs to win the Prize based on this criteria.
“This year, the judges had an exceptionally tough job due to the diversity and number of outstanding and innovative public humanities programs nominated,” said Esther Mackintosh, FSHC President. “These programs saw significant impact in their local communities, brought people together, promoted understanding and broke down conversation barriers resulting in real change, growth, and empowerment in their states and territories with reverberations that will be felt across the country.”
The following nominations, in alphabetical order by state, were accepted and received by the deadline by the Federation of State Humanities Councils:
- Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibition (Alabama Humanities Foundation)
- Sister School Exchange (Alaska Humanities Forum)
- CA 2020: Youth Perspective and the Future of California (California Humanities)
- Taking Root: Growing Youth Empowerment for Island Sustainability (Humanities Guahan)
- Sojourner Scholars (Illinois Humanities)
- One State / One Story: Frankenstein (Indiana Humanities)
- 64 Parishes (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities)
- Is Justice Just? (Maryland Humanities)
- Third Coast Conversations: Dialogues About Water in Michigan (Michigan Humanities)
- An Issue of Trust: Democracy and the Future of Journalism (Humanities Nebraska)
- Not Far From Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio (Ohio Humanities)
- Immigration Stories (Virginia Humanities)
- Beyond the Headlines (Wisconsin Humanities Council)
- WY Treaties Matter (Wyoming Humanities)
View all the 2019 programs, including their nominating statements, on the Schwartz Prize webpage. On this page, you can also view the 2018 Schwartz Prize winners, “This Land” by Oregon Humanities and “Racial Equity Grant Program” by Mississippi Humanities Council, and other nominees. Watch the 2018 nominees share about their programs here.
About the Schwartz Prize
Since its founding in 1982, the Schwartz Prize has provided a snapshot of council priorities and achievements and revealed the evolution of council work as it has expanded from grant-making to council-conducted programming to more sophisticated and strategic forms of public humanities work. The Prize is made possible through an endowment established by former Federation board member Martin Schwartz and his wife Helen to recognize outstanding work in the public humanities.
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