Out of One, Many.

Dear Friends,

On behalf of Illinois Humanities' staff and board of directors, thank you to everyone who has reached out to ask how we're doing, if we're concerned about federal funding, and what can be done to help.

As the state partner for the National Endowment for the Humanities, federal funding makes up a third of our budget. As a nonpartisan, statewide nonprofit organization we take our responsibility to steward the funding we receive from all sources - individuals, foundations, and government - extremely seriously. In addition to trips to meet with members of Congress in Washington, DC, we are talking with all our funders and stakeholders. This letter to you is part of that effort.

We are concerned about funding. But we're also concerned about a great erosion underway: Executive Orders directed at reducing and reprogramming history, heritage, arts, and culture are impacting our most critical and long-standing federally-funded partners: the Smithsonian Museum, which we partner with to bring Museum on Main Street to small towns and rural communities; the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which provides funding specifically for museums and libraries; and national archives in agencies across the country.

Executive Orders are requiring anyone who receives federal funding to ask fiscal, strategic, and moral questions: What might we need to cut, reduce, or change? Will we have the resources we need to stay open? Will changes require us to go against our commitment to the public? To our values? We are also asking these questions.

Roots stop erosion. Against the backdrop of activities unfolding in Washington, DC, our commitment to our mission, vision, and values is more strongly rooted than it has ever been.

• Programs: We are providing FREE, accessible, and inclusive humanities programming across all of Illinois - and we are the only organization that does. We are hard at work developing a new community conversation series and resources for next year's 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, both of which we'll be sharing later this year. In the meantime, you can find a free program near you by clicking here.
• Grantmaking: We are supporting innovative and impactful humanities projects and initiatives across the state. From general operating grants to funding for programs that activate history, we support organizations that make the humanities accessible to Illinoisans right in their communities. Grantee Spotlights illuminate how federal dollars translate into local impact.
• Gathering: Our responsibility to help people gather is more urgent than ever. Upcoming events with Envisioning Justice and Foreground Rural Initiative Hubs will bring practitioners together to exchange ideas, foster collaborations, and build long-lasting relationships. Upcoming People's Salons will give us a chance to break bread together and delve into timely and universal themes.

I love being a champion for the humanities because the humanities create our most precious resource as a democracy: our public. The humanities enable us to become "We the people." E Pluribus Unum. Out of many one.

But also out of one, many.

The humanities remind each of us that nothing is simply "white or black," "evil or good," "for or against." Binaries are dehumanizing. Every time each of us resists the impulse to reduce someone else to just one thing, we are being humanists.

Being nonpartisan, making and protecting space for challenging ideas and conversations, are radically important to our efforts to ensure everyone in Illinois has access to the humanities.

An executive order affecting the National Endowment for the Humanities could be forthcoming. If it does, we will be in touch. In the meantime, here are some things you can do:

• Choose to gather. Our democratic endeavor requires hearts and minds, not just politics, policies, and technologies. Read, watch, listen, ask, and share - in public. What do you think? What makes you think that? Allow for the process of thinking, turning ideas over, and changing your mind, alongside others.
• Share stories and preserve memories. Document what you are experiencing. Memory is a catalyst for imagination. Archives, diaries, images- whether of personal or national importance - are not only about the past. They are the seedlings of how we imagine - and root - the future.
• Practice imagination. Democracy requires our imaginations. Humanities - and the humanistic endeavors of art, culture, and storytelling - are more powerful than politics for creating the society that we want.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (and the Smithsonian and IMLS for that matter) was created to ensure spaces, resources, and scholarship that promote the power of knowledge are not available only to "the elite," but rather, remain public for everyone.

We work in service to our public good. It is why the National Endowment for the Humanities was created for the nation, and is central to our vision of a state that is creative, connected, and just.

We are committed to you.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Lyon
Executive Director