On April 2, Humanities Kansas (HK) was notified that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) was suspended. As a result, HK has been forced to make immediate cuts to grants and programs across Kansas. The termination of federal funding puts HK resources at risk and will impact HK's ability to team up with local museums, libraries, and cultural organizations in communities of all sizes. As library leaders, we have been fielding questions from concerned community members wondering the impact of this cut on our libraries and local communities.
Humanities events bring people together to learn, engage, and build community. In 2024 alone, HK supported 207 events serving 473,649 citizens in the Big First District. Over the past three years in north central Kansas, HK has supported 60 speaker presentations, four grants for local-level projects, a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibit, a Vietnam veterans’ oral history project, and 11 poetry events. These projects explored history, supported civic engagement, and preserved important stories.
Amplify this impact across the state: in 2024 HK supported 488 events in 126 communities. More than 607,000 Kansans engaged with thoughtful and important programming exploring Kansas stories.
HK has been a strong partner in uplifting history and culture in Hays and our surrounding communities. The Ellis County Historical Society is collecting oral histories of Vietnam veterans, which will be preserved at the Kansas Historical Society and the Library of Congress. The Hays Public Library regularly hosts Speakers Bureau presentations that explore Kansas stories and are free to attend. An HK grant to the Nicodemus Historical Society supported a short film, “African American Pioneers,” which brings an important Kansas story to a national audience. These examples are a few of the many ways HK’s work helps us look toward the future while honoring our local history.
While the current speed and accessibility of online media has its benefits, how will our stories and community issues be retained for the future? HK supports local libraries, museums, and community groups as they preserve community histories one project at a time. At the heart of it, this work strengthens our community and connecst us with our neighbors and our collective past.
Suspension of the National Endowment for the Humanities and ultimately state grants to Humanities Kansas will lead to fewer and lower quality presentations, exhibitions, discussions, and preservation projects in Hays and surrounding communities.
If you want to learn more about Humanities Kansas and its impact on Kansans, visit https://www.humanitieskansas.org/.
— Ginger Williams
Fort Hays State University, dean of Library Services
— Brandon Hines
Hays Public Library, director