LEH Receives $225K NEH Grant for “Humanities in the Public Square”

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $225,000 grant to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for “A More Perfect Union: Civic Education for American Families,” a project of the LEH’s PRIME TIME Family Reading Inc. initiative.

The grant will enable the LEH to present PRIME TIME Family Reading Time reading and discussion programs on the process of democracy and the U.S. Constitution for at-risk children and their families at sites across Louisiana in 2016. Video presentations and other materials posted on www.leh.org will facilitate further participation.

“This support from the NEH validates what so many of us know to be true: the humanities are a vital force in our democracy,” said LEH Executive Director Miranda Restovic. “We look forward to working with families and partners around Louisiana to implement this project.”

A More Perfect Union is intended to spark discussion and learning among Louisiana’s scholars, educators and families about the meaning of democratic citizenship, in response to the NEH-presented question: “How can the humanities deepen public understanding of the meaning of democratic citizenship in the twenty-first century in relationship to our founding principles and values, our political history, and our current circumstances?”

These are the first awards made under the NEH’s new Humanities in the Public Square grant program, which was created in April 2015 as part of The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square, an agency-wide initiative that seeks to demonstrate and enhance the role and significance of the humanities and humanities scholarship in public life.

“The pressing challenges facing our nation call for dialogue and understanding,” said NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “There is ample evidence that communities across the nation are eager to come together to discuss the critical issues that face them as citizens and neighbors. Using the unique insights of the humanities, these projects address a diverse range of subjects in order to bring new audiences and organizations together.”