BHSU AWARDED $242,769 GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

Black Hills State University was awarded a nearly $250,000 grant to restore and expand BHSU Center for American Indian Studies (CAIS) public programming. The grant will help to amplify, through virtual platforms, CAIS programs such as the annual Wacipi (powwow), American Indian Awareness Week, speaker series and coursework. It will also provide funding to create a professional film to document and preserve elders’ wisdom and cultural knowledge related to resilience in the face of adversity.

The digital oral history project, “Howasteya Oyuspapi: Capturing Their Good Voices,” will be supported by funding for a one-year temporary Assistant Director, five student interns, consultants, and marketing and promotional efforts.

Dr. Urla Marcus, the Director for the BHSU CAIS, will serve as the project director.

This NEH grant was provided as part of the American Rescue Plan funding provided to nearly 300 cultural and education institutions to help them recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The American Rescue Plan recognizes that the cultural and educational sectors are essential components of the United States economy and civic life, vital to the health and resilience of American communities,” said NEH Acting Chairman Adam Wolfson. “These new grants will provide a lifeline to the country’s colleges and universities, museums, libraries, archives, historical sites and societies, save thousands of jobs in the humanities placed at risk by the pandemic, and help bring economic recovery to cultural and educational institutions and those they serve.”  

SHARP grants to around 90 colleges and universities will mitigate economic shocks within higher education, where COVID-related enrollment declines, state funding shortfalls, and the added costs of campus closures and technology investments in online learning have led to the shrinking of postsecondary humanities programs and departments, accompanied by staff and faculty layoffs and salary cuts. These grants will provide emergency relief to public and private postsecondary institutions of all sizes. 

In addition to relief grants made through the NEH ARP: Humanities Organizations program, new grants announced today include 13 awards offered through the NEH ARP: Humanities Grantmaking program, which will fund competitive grantmaking programs that support humanities organizations and institutions. Collectively, grants awarded in the ARP: Humanities Grantmaking category will provide financial support to approximately 145 individuals and as many as 625 organizations in the form of fellowships and subawards.  A complete list of all 305 new NEH SHARP grants is available here.