Volume 19, Number 6-7
Dec 1995

NEH Announces Major Restructuring and New Deadlines

The National Endowment for the Humanities sent an announcement (condensed below) to the Conservation DistList on Nov. 3. It reflects changes made necessary by a 36% cutback in the total NEH budget.

Effective December 4, 1995, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will be redesigned to create a leaner, more focused, and flexible agency in order to adjust to a 1996 budget reduction of almost forty percent.

With the reconfiguration, NEH will give greater support to the activities that best meet its guiding tenets: Activities

• that are best done at the national level;
• that have long-term impact;
• that have few other sources of support;
• that strengthen the institutional base of the humanities; and
• that reach broad sectors of the American public.

The Endowment will focus on the following areas:

• Supporting original scholarship
• Preserving the American cultural heritage
• Providing learning opportunities for the nation's teachers
• Engaging the American public in the humanities.

Structurally, the NEH will consist of three divisions containing a total of seven programs, and a separate office to administer challenge grants. Following are brief descriptions of the programs (by division) with contact information. Application deadline dates through September 1996 are contained in the Summary of NEH Programs.

Division of Preservation and Access

One program with one set of guidelines and one funding cycle, encompassing the following:

• Preservation and access projects (which will include support for education and training, regional field service programs, and research and demonstration projects), the stabilization and documentation of material culture collections, and the U.S. newspaper program.

The NEH Office of Challenge Grants

The NEH Office of Challenge Grants will continue to function in its present form, offering support for educational, scholarly, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. Grantees will be required to raise three or four dollars for every dollar they receive from NEH.

Public and educational programming [under the Division of Public Programs and Enterprise and the Division of Research and Education] will also continue under the energetic direction of the fifty-six state humanities councils. For information, contact the NEH Federal-State Partnership office.

A new edition of the NEH Overview of Endowment Programs, a brochure that describes Endowment programs, gives eligibility requirements, and lists the state humanities council offices, will be available in early 1996. For copies of the new Overview or for more information about the National Endowment for the Humanities, contact