Given annually by the IHC, the Public Humanities Award recognizes individuals and organizations for their contributions to public understanding of the role the humanities play in transforming lives and strengthening communities. All photos by Steve Leonard Photography and Bruce Powell Photography

The Public Square fosters debate, dialogue, and exchange of ideas about cultural, social, and political issues with an emphasis on social justice.

Pictures from yearly Velosophie bike rides: physical, outdoor excursions in natural settings with evening reading and reflection.

The Odyssey Project provides a college-level introduction to the humanities through text-based seminars led by professors at top-tier colleges and universities to help adults with low incomes more actively shape their own lives and the lives of their families and communities.

Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, offers high-quality traveling exhibitions to small museums, libraries, and historical societies in Illinois towns with populations of 30,000 or less, or by invitation.

The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award is a biennial honor bestowed on individuals who carry the torch of the humanities. These humanities heroes are nominated by Illinois mayors.

Pictures from Road Scholars presentations from across Illinois

Capitol Forum on America’s Future, a year-long civic education initiative of the Choices Program at Brown University, raises international awareness and promotes educated civic exchange among high school students statewide.

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.

The Illinois Humanities Council presents All-Consuming: Conversations on Oil and Water, a year-long statewide series of free public programs that will examine the key issues related to oil and water. Join us as we use the humanities to ask how access to, control, and consumption of oil and water play out in the past, current, and future geopolitical environment; in Illinois and local communities; and in our individual lives.