Enews March 2021

Friends,

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois’ public humanities organizations have ensured that though we may be distanced, we are not alone.

Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods promotes the importance of nature for nurturing personal and community wellbeing. A gift of masks—created by volunteers they rallied — was distributed in conjunction with “at home” kits in English and Spanish to help Lake County families find wellness in nature.

These public humanities organizations are amongst 177 featured in On Wisdom and Vision: Humanities Organizations in Illinois During Covid-19, a report we issued earlier this month. The report analyzes Illinois Humanities’ 2020 COVID-19 relief grant-making of  $710,000, made possible by CARES Act funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the generosity of individual donors who contributed during Illinois Humanities’ 2020 Public Humanities Awards event.

The full report, executive summary, and an interactive map are available online. As we commemorate the anniversary of COVID-19 and all it has wrought in our state, I want to highlight a few of the most critical findings:

The impact is profound: Public humanities organizations in Illinois have been impacted by COVID-19 operationally and programmatically. This group lost nearly $10M in revenue in 2020 and 14% report fearing permanent closure. As a community they reached 1,700,000 fewer people than they originally anticipated serving during 2020.

The context matters: Many grantee partners are operating in areas where households struggled to make ends meet before the pandemic – and where COVID-19 has had a devastating (and disproportionate) impact.

What is local is national: Experiences described by grantees align with national research. Public humanities organizations:

• Expect and want to give more attention to equity and inclusion;
• Are excited about, and anticipate, opportunities for organizational transformation – particularly in terms of new modes of engagement and new audiences;
• Are looking for ways to work differently and in less isolation through networking, trainings, and resource-sharing;

Seeing and being seen: Just as participants in humanities programming are strengthened by having a place where they are “seen” and heard, and their stories are valued and reflected, public humanities organizations being able to “see” each other as a collective is powerful.

Every county in Illinois has important cultural assets, community anchors committed to preserving the artifacts, ephemera, and memory of Illinois’s history and identity. This ecosystem is ripe to contribute to the state’s ability to repair and heal from the triple pandemics of COVID-19, racial injustice, and disinvestment across rural and urban communities. Attempts to “build back better” without  humanities and cultural organizations at the table may leave Illinois bereft of the critical elements we need to carry us into our post-COVID-19 state.

Illinois Humanities is working to understand and learn from the intensive experience of this past year. We are committed to supporting free, high-quality humanities experiences throughout Illinois, particularly for communities of color, individuals living on low incomes, counties and towns in rural areas, small arts and cultural organizations, and communities highly impacted by mass incarceration. Some of the questions we are asking include: What are the ways in which an equity lens, combined with report findings, can inform grant-making and partnerships? How can we increase support for peer-to-peer learning, technical assistance, and partnership infrastructure? What is most worth knowing and experiencing about the public humanities in Illinois and how can we bring visibility to our community?