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Former Programs


  • Brown v. Board 50 Years Later: Conversations on Integration, Race, and the Courts
    Through Brown v. Board 50 Years Later: Conversations on Integration, Race, and the Courts, the Illinois Humanities Council developed a year of statewide programming that represents a rich fabric of social, political, and artistic responses to the impact of this historic Supreme Court desegregation ruling. The goal of this programming was to bring discussions about integration, education, jurisprudence, and other related topics to the public forum. Programs ran from May 2004-May 2005.
  • Chicago Science Expedition: Two Weeks Worth of "Wow"!
    Chicago is a major center of science and technology. Chicago Science Expedition: Two Weeks Worth of "Wow"! is a city-wide presentation of coordinated events and activities that will highlight how science and technology shape the way we live, work, learn and play in Chicago.
  • Chicago Science in the City - 2007
    Chicago is a major center of science and technology. Chicago Science in the City is the second annual city-wide presentation of coordinated events and activities that will highlight how science and technology shape the way we live, work, learn, and play in Chicago.
  • Einstein's Revolutions
    This series of five programs will explore the way different fields understand the same notions, such as time, the relationship between science and the humanities, and the continuing impact of Einstein's ideas on science and technology. Importantly, this series is aimed less at explaining Einstein's papers than at mapping out our accumulated knowledge of the universe, from the microscopic to the cosmic.
  • Future Perfect: Conversations on the Meaning of the Genetics Revolution
    There is a scientific revolution taking place that has the potential to change American society in profound ways. Advances in genetics hold much promise for combating disease, feeding more people, and generally improving our quality of life. Yet, these new sciences and technologies draw criticism and evoke fears. In the next decade, major decisions about genetics will be made. The courts, corporations, laboratories, and legislatures will be some of the places where these issues will play out. It is more important than ever that we all understand the issues. The Illinois Humanities Council believes humanistic questions can illuminate these issues.
  • The Art of Association
    The Art of Association promotes civic engagement by encouraging groups of leaders to gain a deeper understanding of their role in sustaining American democracy. Through the discussion of historic and contemporary writings, participants can explore questions about their individual and organizational role in the civic life of their communities. The newest Art of Association program at the Illinois Humanities Council is called The Meaning of Service.
  • True Learning, True Teaching Seminars
    The Illinois Humanities Council offered K-12 educators (teachers, librarians, counselors) free, humanities-based seminars led by respected scholars in retreat-like settings. The seminars were ISBE-approved.
A listing of programs that IHC has sponsored in the past.
  • Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) The Illinois Humanities Council launched the Chicago Humanities Festival in 1990 to link the humanities to public issues and to build new and broader audiences for the humanities. What began as a one-day event is now an annual series of more than 150 interdisciplinary programs, held in venues throughout the city, reaching more than 40,000 people. Now an independent nonprofit organization, the CHF is known for featuring world-renowned, as well as newly emerging, authors, scholars, and performing artists. The IHC was the CHF's founding and sole producer for seven years and has remained a major funder.
  • Choices for the 21st Century Choices was a four-part, scholar-led reading and discussion series held in public libraries throughout the state. The series addressed the question: Who are we as a nation and how do we define our role in a changing world? The program's goal was to bring citizens together in a non-partisan public space to engage in conversation on contemporary issues. Choices is a program of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
  • Governor's Lecture in the Humanities From 1994 to 1998 the IHC brought a major scholar in the humanities, chosen by the Governor, to the Executive Mansion in Springfield to address issues in the state's history and civic life. These popular annual lectures were open to the public, on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Heartland Chautauqua In partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council, the Heartland Chautauqua offered rural communities in Illinois and Missouri a week-long series of living-history presentations under a communal tent, combining botheducation and entertainment. Reminiscent of the traveling Chautauqua circuits of the late-19th and early 20th centuries, costumed humanists presented first-person historical figures in public discussions concerning major historical events of their time. Communities can now seek support for this kind of programming through the Community Grants Program.
  • HYPe (Humanities Youth Projects) The Illinois Humanities Council supported the efforts of young people in developing and producing humanities projects for themselves, their peers, and their communities through partnerships with youth-serving organizations. Youth determined what subjects interested them and worked with the IHC and their host organizations to develop a curriculum. With the support of humanist scholars and artists, HYPe participants have done research projects on the changing demographics in their neighborhoods, the history of Chicago along the Green Line "el," and the impact of gentrification on low-income communities.