ELIMINATION of NEH Funding
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: We received notice from the Acting Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities that effective April 2nd all awarded grants — including our 5-year General Operating Grant and other program-specific awards — are canceled in their entirety.
The loss of NEH funding will result in Wisconsin Humanities closing its doors very soon.
The end of NEH funding to Wisconsin Humanities and other state humanities councils will harm communities in every state, in every Congressional district, and contribute to the erasure of our shared humanity and hopes for democracy.


Celebrating our past, envisioning our future
Our work around the state:
Grantee Spotlight: Bronzeville Histories
A Q&A with Project Director Kitonga Tumaini Alexander
Kitonga Tumaini Alexander is a Milwaukee native and former Milwaukee school teacher. He has a PhD in history and is a researcher for Marquette University and an Adjunct Lecturer at UW-Milwaukee. This month, WH intern Sheila Drefehl caught up with Dr. Alexander to learn more about the Bronzeville Histories project, which received a WH grant in 2024.
Bronzeville Histories is a multi-faceted project with in-person and digital components. The goals and vision have evolved to meet the needs of Milwaukee's northside residents. We invite you to read more about the project in this special grantee feature!
Community Connectors from around Wisconsin!
Wisconsin Humanities is proud to welcome our second class of Fellows who will be trained in Community Powered methods.
The Fellows will spend the first six months of the year learning humanities tools, techniques, and strategies for harnessing the strengths in their communities. The second half of the year-long program will include mentorship and support as each Fellow implements project ideas. We are so excited about the ways this incredible group of Fellows will expand the impact of the public humanities in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Humanities’ Launches Tribal Health Initiative
The Community Powered Tribal Health Initiative marks a significant expansion of our award-winning Community Powered training program.
This groundbreaking new initiative was awarded a Community Impact Grant from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) in support of the first three years of the initiative.
We are honored to partner with Wisconsin tribal communities to address the tribes’ contemporary challenges and work together to create culturally-relevant solutions that honor traditional wisdom and community priorities.
Our Statewide Commitment
Since our organization's founding as an independent nonprofit in 1972, Wisconsin Humanities has worked in every corner of the state with YOU to explore what it means to be human, to be part of a democracy, and to strengthen each of our communities.

Explore: Opportunities to Engage Statewide
Follow Your Curiosity
Find Wisconsin Humanities on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!
Thank you to The Isthmus for publishing this Op-Ed today: "The bold idea at the heart of the Arts and Humanities Act (of 1965) was that a functional and healthy democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. The investment in “culture” was a way to balance the fast pace of modern ...“science” by offering ways for people to stay connected with their humanity.
A few years after the establishment of the NEH, Congress determined that the best way for this federal support to work efficiently and effectively for everyone in the country would be for states to administer the money themselves. It’s a big country and every state has rich culture, local histories, and pressing questions.
Since the founding of the federal/state partnership in 1971, nonprofit humanities councils have been locally established and managed in all 56 states and territories. Wisconsin Humanities opened in 1972 and, thanks in part to the cultural norm we call the Wisconsin Idea, has been deeply committed to working in communities rural and urban, big and small, new and old, in every corner of our very large state."

Wisconsin Humanities was alerted April 3 that its federal funding was canceled, effective immediately. The organization had to tell groups statewide...
isthmus.comToday we are sharing an important update about our digital storytelling program, Love Wisconsin. As a result of the defunding of Wisconsin Humanities and all state councils' operational grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, we will be sharing just one last story, a feature ...with Ojibwe Black Ash basketmaker April Stone. Her ideas about human craft and environmental change are as relevant today as they were when we first met April, and we hope you enjoy the updated ‘Where is she now?” chapter. You can also listen to Human Powered podcast to hear an interview between April and Love Wisconsin producer Jen Rubin.
The news of the cut to the WH was abrupt, and so we are still figuring things out. If you want to know more, we have updates on the Wisconsin Humanities website: wisconsinhumanities.org
https://www.lovewi.com/april/

April Stone is a self-taught Ojibwe Black Ash basket maker from the Bad River reservation in Northern Wisconsin.
www.lovewi.comAll grants through the National Endowment for the Humanities are canceled due to cuts from the Trump administration. As a result, Wisconsin Humanities faces a shutdown after 53 years of service to museums, libraries, community centers, and more." Wisconsin Public Radio talked with Executive ...Director Dena Wortzel and the head librarian Angie Bodzislaw at the Spooner Memorial Library about the impact of the loss of funding on Wisconsinites.
Bodzislaw explains that the library's ongoing teen program is a "very powerful program" and the result of the WH's support through Community Powered training and mentorship. Teens find adult partners who listen and work with them to find solutions to the issues teens identify.
Wortzel explains that the defunding of the NEH on the eve of the nation's commemoration of 250 years since the Declaration of Independence means that Wisconsinities will lose their connection to the stories and history that is a crucial part of "who we will become" as a nation.
"That's what I believe that Wisconsinites want the federal government to defend, not to defund." Wortzel says. "It is urgent to call your member of Congress now because it's going to be gone."
Listen here!

The head of Wisconsin Humanities talks with us about the group’s future after its funding was cut. Two Wisconsin surgeons discuss a rare heart and...
www.wpr.orgThe future of the Wisconsin Humanities (WH) is at severe and immediate risk, as are the statewide cultural programs it supports and initiates. Wisconsin Humanities is the only organization in Wisconsin solely dedicated to statewide public access to historical and cultural programs that enrich ...lives, connect neighbors, and increase community resilience.
We are grateful to our community. Thank you for spreading the word.

The end of NEH funding to state humanities councils threatens to harm communities in every Congressional district.
wisconsinhumanities.orgGrants to libraries, museums and nonprofits throughout Wisconsin are in peril after the Trump administration said it’s immediately cutting off funding to affiliates of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Thanks to Wisconsin Public Radio for this urgent story.
This cut means that ...Wisconsin Humanities will loose the operational grant approved by Congress and will not be able to make grants to support Wisconsin's community-based nonprofits and organizations.. This loss of educational and cultural programs will be felt in every corner of Wisconsin.
Unless the Trump administration’s decision is reversed, leaders at Wisconsin Humanities said the organization will be forced to shut down “very soon.”

Wisconsin Humanities oversees educational and cultural programming across the state. It's preparing to shut down after the Trump administration...
www.wpr.orgThe end of National Endowment for the Humanities funding to state humanities councils threatens to harm communities in every Congressional district. Act now to make your voice heard. Visit our website to learn more.

Among the thousands of groups affected by the sudden cessation of funds are state arts councils, museums, historic sites, archives, libraries,...
www.npr.orgOur state and our country's history depends on your voices and passions. Thank you to everyone who is speaking up and sharing soulfully -- Please continue to make your voices heard with members of Congress with this quick and simple step: https://p2a.co/DdtlGIT
Thank you to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for today's story focused on the impacts of cuts to federal funding that supports Wisconsin Humanities and all state councils.
"Rural communities and small towns would be disproportionately affected by a Wisconsin Humanities shutdown, Dena ...Wortzel said, adding that the organization makes it a point of pride to reach all parts of Wisconsin. "Those groups have so few places to turn when they need cash."
Wisconsin Humanities received notice from the Acting Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities that effective April 2nd all awarded grants — including our 5-year General Operating Grant and other program-specific awards — are canceled in their entirety.
Wisconsin Humanities is raising the alarm about looming National Endowment for the Humanities cuts, which would affect dozens of cultural groups.
www.msn.comELIMINATION of NEH Funding EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Take Action NOW!
Today we received notice from the Acting Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities that effective April 2nd all awarded grants—including our 5-year General Operating Grant and other program-specific ...awards—were canceled in their entirety.
The loss of NEH funding will result in Wisconsin Humanities closing its doors very soon.
The end of NEH funding to Wisconsin Humanities and other state humanities councils will harm communities in every state, in every Congressional district, and contribute to the erasure of our shared humanity and hopes for democracy.
What can you do to protect Wisconsin Humanities and our work in your community?
Click here to take action NOW.