By Meghan Dudle, WH Director of Grants and Outreach
For 53 years, Wisconsin Humanities has re-distributed federal funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities with integrity and a passion for always improving. WH’s grant program has made accessible public humanities programming possible for everyday Wisconsinites.
Due to the devastating termination of our NEH General Operating Grant, Wisconsin Humanities has had to close the grant program for the foreseeable future. We heartily thank the hundreds of humanistic non-profits, libraries, museums, schools and universities, tribal nations, veteran services, and historical societies that we’ve joyfully collaborated with over 53 years. These community members have deftly contributed both to our mission and the well-being of their communities.
Over the decades, the grant program has adapted and evolved to meet the needs of the times, especially in times of emergency. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wisconsin Humanities provided $1.3 million of rapid-response funding to nonprofit community-based cultural organizations facing financial hardship. These grants assisted 191 nonprofits in keeping their doors open and we heard from communities that the money and help from Wisconsin Humanities was crucial.
When I joined the WH staff in 2022, my role was to talk with people all over the state to better understand how our grant program could improve. Specifically, I worked hard to make our grant program accessible to new applicants and, with our stakeholders and board, launched a new pilot grant program with new approaches to transparent grantmaking. In 2024, the number of first-time applicants increased from 26 to 34! And the board chose to fund more new projects – the number of first-time grant award recipients increased from 11 to 16. What I heard from applicants over and over is that Wisconsin Humanities’ grant program is a critical and unique source of funding for projects that engage Wisconsinites in conversations about contemporary public policy and social concerns.
To realize these librarians, historians, artists, tradition bearers, teachers and community leaders now have even less funding in the state is difficult and confounding. But, in this sad moment I believe it is also important to celebrate every project director and project team from the past 53 years of grantmaking – all of you who felt the spark of an idea or the desire to preserve a cultural tradition or the belief that a story should be heard and known. We know each other better because of this work. Thank you all.
For our last foreseeable Grantee Spotlightwe wanted to share what some of you told us when we asked you, “What Will Be Lost?” when we go into hibernation in June. Thank you for your heartfelt responses. We know you’ll continue this meaningful work with gusto and innovation as the world keeps changing and we hope to join and support you again in the near future.
What Will Be Lost?
In Milwaukee, teens at ArtWorks explored the ethics of fast fashion, environmental, consumer, and community health connections and ways to step into the mindset of “slow fashion.”
"It is not an overstatement to say that ArtWorks would not have been able to tap experts like Amanda McCarty and Madam Chino, or to send our Lead Artist to a national professional development opportunity, if it wasn't for Wisconsin Humanities' Opportunity Grant. We have been calling this grant a game-changer because it allowed us to, for the first time, step into new territory artistically, by popular request of past interns." — Rhiannon Orizaga, Executive Director
"Through our recent slow fashion project, Wisconsin Humanities empowered Milwaukee teens to explore history, identity, and sustainability—leading them to create work with layers of intention. Wisconsin Humanities helped our program staff create space for intergenerational dialogue, community connections, and meaningful youth engagement with creative professionals. If we lose Wisconsin Humanities, we lose a vital connector that helps amplify community stories." — Tracy LoMenzo, Project Director
In Marathon County, The Hmong American Center worked with Hmong youth and adults in workshops to preserve funeral and marriage traditions, Hmong language, and traditional music and dance forms like Qeej and Zaj Tshoob. They also provided opportunities for the broader community to tour the exhibit, “From Laos to America” for a better understanding of Hmong history.
"The Wisconsin Humanities grant has empowered the Hmong community in Wisconsin to not only embrace our past and preserve our rich culture but also to prepare for the future. With this support, we are able to teach our Hmong youth the vital history, traditions, and folk songs that beautifully narrate the story of our community, ensuring that our heritage remains alive and vibrant for generations to come." — Yee Leng Xiong, Project Director
In Oshkosh and Appleton, the Chicana/o & Latinx Studies program at UW-Oshkosh connected artists, youth, world-class musicians, academics, and the community at large around the growing influence of Mariachi folk music in the state of Wisconsin. Nine free and public events explored and celebrated the local histories and multinational histories of Mariachi musicians and the influence of the music in film and language instruction.
“I think this is a terrible loss, and a true risk for our local communities that rely on this type of funding to support small-yet incredibly impactful projects that aim at growing our understanding of the world. What is lost is impossible to quantify. Wisconsin Humanities plays an important role in connecting small communities across the state of Wisconsin, and in the process, it allows us to understand that regardless of where we are, we are partaking in a complex, interconnected, and ever changing world. It is also the promise that tradition matters, and certain traditions can keep us grounded in who we are as we move forward.” — Juan García Oyervides, PhD. Director, Chicana/o & Latinx Studies
In Beloit, a Community-wide read of Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed connected students and seniors to talk about utopia, social issues, and local change.
“WI Humanities funding allowed local high school students and senior citizens to imagine new worlds through science fiction and the power of imagination. The funding supported creative dialogue and discussion about imagining worlds and the transformative power of literature and art. If WI Humanities disappears, we will lose a crucial lifeline to understanding the history and human memory of our community (as featured in our Ursula Le Guin at Beloit exhibit and video). WI Humanities exposes an underserved community (Beloit) to the public humanities–that is, to broadly accessible ways of thinking, knowing, and reading that make us human and hopeful.” — Tamara Ketabgian, Project Director, William and Gayle Keefer Chair of the Humanities
In Dane County, Friends of McCathy Park utilized WI Humanities funding for Ho-Chunk youth to co-create trailsigns in McCarthy Park, bringing Indigenous stories into public spaces.
“The support of Wisconsin Humanities has enabled us to integrate into our project a deeper connection to the Ho-Chunk people and the Ho-Chunk stories that are indigenous to this land. Wisconsin Humanities has played an integral role in fostering deeper conversations and encouraging a deeper understanding of the Ho-Chunk roots entrenched in this land and also of the collective of Human Beings that share this space and place today.” — Amanda DePagter, Project Director
HELP US WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER!
We are not giving up. We are using this pause to prepare for what comes next. We’re writing our Next Chapter.
That’s why we’ve launched the Next Chapter Campaign — an emergency fundraising effort to ensure Wisconsin Humanities can survive this moment and emerge ready to serve our state once again. Thanks to a generous 1:1 matching grant from the Mellon Foundation, every dollar you give will be doubled.
DONATE HERE
