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LEH Announces Deadline for 2019 Rebirth Grants

An image from the Vermilionville Culture Days festival. Three women of the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe: Theresa Shadow Dancer Gobert, Amy Beautiful Butterfly Showing Beautiful Wings Cormier, and Minerva Beautiful Flower Francis.
Photograph by Elsa Dimitriadis

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities offers grants to support projects that provide access to the humanities for Louisiana residents. The LEH will begin accepting applications for the 2019 LEH Rebirth Grants on July 1, 2019. Grant awards range from $500-$5,000. To download a PDF of the application, click here.

Projects will ideally occur between November 1, 2019, and November 29, 2020. Eligible projects include free public humanities programs that involve audience participation and discussion; documentary photography, podcast, and radio projects; digital humanities projects including websites and online documentation of Louisiana history and culture, new and continuing scholarly research about Louisiana, and assistance with publication projects and humanities-based educational initiatives. Click here for a list of past grantees.

LEH encourages projects that generate new content that can be incorporated into 64 Parishes magazine and website, two LEH initiatives that make the humanities available to the general public.

The application period for the 2019 Rebirth Grants has been expanded to allow applicants ample time to register for a SAM.gov number, and begins at 12 a.m. on July 1, 2019, and concludes at 11:59 p.m. on August 31, 2019.

Notifications of grants awarded will be made by October 15.

Application Overview

The Project Description provides a brief summary of the proposed project.

The Project Goals and Evaluation section includes the following:

  • Project Timeline provides LEH Board and staff members with descriptions of the project activities and timetable;
  • Humanities Content section lists the humanities disciplines of the proposed program,
  • a list of all Humanities Scholars participating in the project;
  • Sustainability section, including any plans to replicate the project in the future;
  • a plan for Evaluation of the project’s success.

The Budget and Outreach section includes:

  • Estimated Audience number and Target Audience, along with the publicity plans and outreach tools used by the project director and sponsoring organization;
  • Budget showing an itemization of the intended use of LEH funds,
  • Budget Narrative detailing the use of LEH funds, indicating payment and services for key project staff, humanities scholars, and consultants involved in your project; description of any 3rd-party gifts, citing sources, expected receipt dates, and amounts; and explanations of any unclear line items in your budget form.

The Support Materials include resumes of the project director, project staff, and participating scholars. Other items to be included are letters of support from sponsoring and supporting institutions, letters from institutions and organizations impacted by the program, and letters from supportive and interested individuals. Those who are applying for digital humanities initiatives such as web/app design should consider submitting samples of past work.

All LEH Rebirth Grant applications are subject to the same review process, which begins with the staff evaluating proposals prior to submitting them to the Grant Review Committee (GRC), which is comprised of LEH staff, LEH board members, and Louisiana scholars. The staff and GRC evaluate applications in four categories:

  1. Strength of humanities content;
  2. Outreach strategies;
  3. Partnerships with institutions, scholars and other humanities organizations
  4. Alignment LEH mission, including potential for incorporation in 64 Parishes magazine and website, statewide outreach, and special audiences.

Please note:

  • Film and video projects are NOT eligible under the Rebirth Grant stream as these projects are funded through our #CreateLouisiana grant stream.
  • Applicants for research and publishing initiatives should provide letter of interest or proof of contract from a publisher, or detail other means of reaching the public.

The GRC screens applications and provides recommendations to the Full Board. The LEH may in some cases award partial amounts of grant requests. Grant payment is awarded in one installment after project evaluation is completed and approved by LEH staff.

Before applying, please read the General Application Guidelines and contact LEH Grants Manager Christopher Robert at 504.620.2639 or [email protected] with any questions.