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Several museum expansions and design research projects among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

2023-04-25T13:34:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced the awarding of $35.63 million in grants for 258 humanities projects across the United States. As with previous years, the 2023 edition of the grants includes funding for several architecture-related projects, including buildings and research.

Architectural projects to be funded include the William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, which will undergo a schematic design process for an expansion and renovation to its Rockland, Maine center. Meanwhile, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont will use the funding to design and construct a new Perry Center for Native American Art on its campus.

The Shelburne Museum, Vermont. Image credit: Flickr user Tolka Rover licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has received funding for preparatory architectural works for the renovation of a new Research & Learning Center at the Eckley Miners’ Village Museum in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, while the National Orn...

Beverly Willis Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright foundations among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

2022-08-24T17:18:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced a broad-ranging program of new grants that totaled $31.5 million and were awarded to 226 projects across the United States.

Included in the list are a few architectural organizations and historically significant institutions that were identified by the NEH as helping to “preserve, examine, and share the country’s rich and expansive history and culture.”

One of the biggest winners was the New York-based Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which received a total of $100,000 outright for their exploratory podcast series titled “New Angle: Voice — Pioneering Women of American Architecture,” wherein the impact of five great women architects are explored by executive director Cynthia Phifer Kracauer in information-rich half-hour segments that garnered some 40,000 listeners by the end of the first season. The series is sponsored by Knoll and SOM and produced by award-winning director Brandi Howell. Their Media Projects ...

ASU's Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is announced as President Biden's selection for NEA chair

2021-10-06T13:46:00-04:00

Arizona State University professor Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson has been officially named as President Biden’s nominee for chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Once confirmed, Dr. Jackson would become the first Black and Mexican American woman ever appointed to the prestigious chair since the agency’s inception during the Johnson administration.

Dr. Jackson holds a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA and has served on the National Council on the Arts since 2013. She is currently a tenured faculty member at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where her work focuses on community revitalization, race and ethnicity studies, and systems change.

Dr. Jackson is a native of Los Angeles and joins Harvard professor Shelly Lowe, a citizen of the Navajo Nation whom Biden tapped for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) chair, on a progressive slate with shared agendas that look to move forward in their mission in the wake of threats to eliminate both agencies that ha...

NEH announces $13.2 million in grants for cultural infrastructure

2018-08-10T18:04:00-04:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has just announced $13.2 million in grants for cultural infrastructure. 29 U.S. cultural institutions were awarded with matching grants including libraries, museums, archives, colleges, universities, historic sites, scholarly associations, and other cultural institutions which build institutional capacity for long-term sustainability. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation was among those awarded, receiving a grant of $576,106.

Trump's 2019 budget includes another attempt at defunding NEA and other cultural agencies

2018-02-14T14:12:00-05:00

The White House has revealed its budget proposal for 2019 and despite recommending a $716 billion spending increase for defense, Trump wants to slash funding for cultural programs. He has suggested cutting the NEA's budget from $150m down to $29m. Other cultural organizations would also see their budgets broken—Trump's plan would cut funding for the National Endowment of Humanities from $150m down to just $42m, the Institute of Museum and Library Services from $231m to $23m, and public television from $495m to just $15m.

Last year, when the President first took office, he similarly tried to institute significant cuts to these federal programs. Despite his best efforts, Congress—who has the final say on passing the federal budget each year—ultimately ended up retaining funding for the various cultural organizations in bipartisan agreement. Beyond being extremely important to the well-being of the country in general, these agencies also support many architectural initiatives that are ...

A tool to digitally analyze Frank Lloyd Wright’s floorplans among the recipients from $12.8M in NEH grants

2017-12-15T20:45:00-05:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded several grants in support of preservation of collections at small institutions, innovative digital projects for the public, and advanced humanities research. Among the many awarded projects was a new tool which uses digital analysis of architectural floor plans to show change over time in works by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Here are all the awarded architecture related grants:

"A two-year faculty and curricular development project at Tuskegee University to integrate humanities study and architectural training."

"The purchase and installation of environmental monitoring equipment to aid in the preservation of collections housed at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona - modern historic homes designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright."

"A program to involve 32 teens from minority and low-income groups in the study of the architectural history of Chicago's neighborhoods."

"The continue...

Trump may eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts — here's why that matters for architecture

2017-01-19T13:38:00-05:00

According to a report published by the Hill, President-elect Trump is planning significant cuts to federal programs, including the departments of Transportation, Commerce and Energy. What else is on the chopping block? The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. And, according to the report, they’re not just going to get budgetary cuts—they’re going to be eliminated. This matters.

The United States already barely supports the arts at all in comparison to other developed countries. But still, the NEA and NEH are crucial for the survival of arts and cultural organizations around the country. Best known for supporting the fine arts, these organizations also support many architectural initiatives under the rubric of “Design”, a category which here covers: “architecture, communications and graphic design, fashion design, historic preservation, industrial and product design, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, universal design, social i...