January 25, 2025

Calling all South Dakota non-profits with ideas for humanities projects! The South Dakota Humanities Council is accepting applications until February 28th for grants up to $10,000.

What are the humanities? Broadly, humanities refer to the study of human society and culture and include academic disciplines such as history, sociology, philosophy, language arts, foreign languages, and the history, criticism, and theory of the arts, both performing arts (e.g., theater, music, dance) and visual arts (e.g., painting, sculpture, photography).

What do the humanities do? The humanities engage, inform, and inspire in ways that broaden understanding of the complex world in which we live. To help ensure that all South Dakotans share in these benefits, SDHC awards federal grant funding twice a year, providing non-profit organizations and tax-exempt government agencies with funds to develop and implement meaningful humanities programming in communities across our state.

SDHC’s February 28 grant deadline is for projects taking place after May 1. Programs can come in a variety of formats, including workshops, presentations, reading/discussion events, exhibits, media projects, and more. Programs should be free, open to the public, and designed to attract a diverse audience. All applications must include a public discussion event.

Successful applicants will advance SDHC’s mission, “to celebrate literature, promote civil conversation, and tell the stories that define our state,” through projects in three categories: discussion, media, and research.

1. Discussion – These programs include opportunities to engage the public with a scholar or scholars during one or more public events such as conferences, festivals, lectures, and invited speaker presentations.

• Media – These projects require engaging the public with a scholar or scholars during one or more public events related to the creation of a media project.  Media projects might include, but are not limited to, humanities-related films, videos, scripts, podcasts, exhibits, photography, and publications such as books or e-books.  While we support these types of projects, SDHC will not fund publication or production costs (including equipment rental related to production) for them. We will, however, support pre-production research, the public event, and other expenses as indicated on the budget form.

• Research – These programs encourage scholarly research in the humanities, especially topics relevant to South Dakota culture and heritage, and include one or more public presentations of the research by the scholar(s).

To help you prepare your grant application, we invite you to join SDHC staff for a Webinar at 12 PM Central Time on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, to learn about our grant opportunities and the grant application process. 

WEBINAR LINK:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81809604151

To learn more and to apply, visit http://www.sdhumanities.org/grants.

For more information, contact Melinda Berdanier, SDHC Grants Coordinator, at melinda@sdhumanities.org or (605) 688-4530.

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