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Community Grants Program

The Illinois Humanities Council gives Community Grant support to Illinois nonprofit organizations to develop public humanities programs for Illinois audiences and to provide technical assistance or general support to help accomplish their core humanities missions.

  • Our funding guidelines and application procedures have recently been updated! We've expanded what we fund, simplified the application process, and reduced the amount of time between the deadline and the award date.
  • Read all about our new guidelines. Next application deadlines: April 15, 2012
  • View photos from projects funded by IHC Community Grants.

The IHC's community grants program accepts proposals from nonprofit organizations that have a story to tell about Illinois or who have a way to use the humanities to enrich community life. We also accept proposals from organizations looking for technical assistance or general operating support.

Because we believe the humanities should belong to everyone, we especially encourage applications from organizations that bring humanities projects to new or historically neglected audiences or communities. To view examples of grants made in the past, visit any of our Community Grant Archives in the right sidebar.

The IHC conducts grant and resource workshops several times a year throughout the state. Workshops are held at our offices in Chicago on the third Fridays of May and November and in the fall and spring in central, eastern, western and southern Illinois communities. To speak with an IHC Program Officer about applying for IHC funds or attending a grant workshop, please call 312.422.5580 or email ihc@prairie.org.

Grant Recipients

GrantGrantee OrganizationAward
American ArabKartemquin Films$5,000
Aurora Public Library-Lead Partner in Fox Valley Reads 2011Aurora Public Library$5,000
Birthday: A Dorothea Tanning SymposiumKnox College$5,000
Center for American Archeology Archeology Day 2011 (June 25, 2011)Center For American Archeology (CAA)$2,000
Chicago ChronicleAmerican Theater Company$5,000
Chicago's Living Legends of Gospel Roundtable SeriesChicago Gospel Music Heritage Museum$5,000
Chinatown Centennial Lectures: Celebrating 100 Years of Chicago ChinatownChinese-American Museum of Chicago$5,000
Community-Based Collaboration Digitization Workshops: Local Heritaged Online in the Age of Broadband.The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois$2,500
CommUniversity General Support Grant ApplicationCommUniversity$2,000
Conservative Vice Lords Exhibit: A Museum of the StreetsJane Addams Hull-House Museum$5,000
Englewood initiative Arts Education ProgramYoung Chicago Authors$5,000
Freedom Riders Public ScreeningWIU on behalf of WQPT Quad Cities PBS$3,000
GARLIC & GREENS: Accessible Soul Food StoriesArcheworks$5,000
General John A Logan Museum General Support GrantGeneral John A Logan Museum$4,980
Guild Complex General Support GrantGuild Complex$5,000
History Speaks: A Civil War Sesquicentennial SeriesNaperville Heritage Society$2,000
Hope and SpiritBalzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture$5,000
Humboldt Park Mural Art Program Curriculum Projectarchi-treasures$5,000
Illinois Heritage Association Technical Assistance GrantIllinois Heritage Association$2,000
Improvisation: A Dialogue with JazzWestern Illinois Museum$2,000
Memory and Heart: Pasts and Presents of African American CommunitiesNew Philadelphia Association$2,500
Mitchell Museum of the American Indian General Support GrantMitchell Museum of the American Indian$5,000
Percolator Film Presents Beneath the BlindfoldPercolator Films$3,500
Tell the Story: The Chicago SNCC History Project: 1960-1965Sixty-Sixty-Five, Inc.$5,000
The Humanities for Women in PrisonStill Point Theatre Collective$5,000
The Polar Spirit - Views from the HumanitiesBoard of Trustees Southern Illinois University$5,000
Third Coast FilmLess Festival/Sound Travels InitiativeThird Coast International Audio Festival$3,500
Trauma and the HumanitiesBoard of Trustees of Southern Illinois University$5,000
Whose World? Dvarak's New World SymphonyQuincy Symphony Orchestra Association$5,000
Why Sycamore WorksSycamore History Museum$3,250
Working on the RailroadThe Savanna Historical Society$5,000