The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award - 2006

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs is our co-sponsor and host for this event. We are also pleased to announce that Mayor Richard M. Daley has agreed to serve as the Honorary Chair for this exciting event.
If you are a 2006 recipient or if you are a Mayor who nominated someone in your community for the award in 2006, look for a formal invitation and further details in your mailbox in the early fall. For further information, please call Phoebe Stein Davis at 312.422.5585 ext. 233.
Nominations will be accepted for the next round of Studs Terkel Humanities Service Awards in the fall of 2009. Nomination packets will be mailed to Illinois communities in the late summer of 2009.
For the names of the 2006 recipients and their communities. Click "Bios" in the blue box at the right.
For more information about how your community can become involved in the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award program, please see the links on the right side of this page or contact the Illinois Humanities Council at 312.422.5580.
In honor of its 25th anniversary, The Illinois Humanities Council launched The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award program in 1999 in which mayors are asked to nominate those individuals, primarily volunteers, who have championed the humanities in their communities. The program is now run on a biennial schedule. Since 1999, nearly 400 recipients have been named. The communities that have participated in the program are as far south as Makanda and as far north as Waukegan. Of these recipients, the majority was involved in creating awareness about local and/or regional history in their communities through the establishment of historical societies or museums; others were noted for their outstanding dedication to education, formal and informal; to literacy and library programs; to creating awareness for cultural heritage, music, literature, and the arts. By recognizing their efforts, we also encourage others, notably local government, to pay a bit more attention to the humanities.
In local ceremonies, award recipients receive a medal designed especially for the awards program. The medals are struck in solid bronze by the Medallic Art Company -- the company that makes both the Pulitzer Prize and the Peabody Award -- and engraved with the names of the recipients and their communities. In addition, bios of all recipients are printed by the Illinois Humanities Council in a booklet, and all awardees and their Mayors or Village Presidents are invited to a biennial reception in Springfield or Chicago.
For names and communities of the previous Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award recipients click the "Archive" link in the blue box to the right.

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