Illinois Humanities Awards $43,400 in Grants to 11 Organizations

Eleven organizations across five counties in the state of Illinois received grant funding through our Vision and Action Grants (May 2023 cycle). Grantees were awarded in recognition of their ongoing humanities-focused missions, with support towards deepening engagement and broadening their impact across the communities they serve.

These organizations’ ingenuity in developing programs, exhibitions, and publications showcases the dedication to cultural engagement within the humanities happening in our local spaces. This group’s projects range from youth filmmaking immersion programs, site-specific theatre activations, expansions of prison libraries, and more—exploring themes such as food scarcity, mutual aid, forced displacement, and the celebration of human resiliency through storytelling.

Meet the Grantees

Of the 11 projects, seven are based in Chicago, and four are elsewhere in Illinois. They include:

• Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center / Black Artists Matter month ($4,000) – Springfield / Sangamon County
• Hyde Park Art Center / The Alien Nation and Sovereign States of Octavia Butler ($4,000) – Chicago / Cook County
• International Children’s Media Center / WorldScene Media Arts Immersion Residency ($4,100) – Chicago / Cook County
• Liberation Library / Liberation Library ($4,000) – Chicago / Cook County
• MAKE Literary Productions / 2023 Lit & Luz Chicago ($4,250) – Chicago / Cook County
• McLean County Museum of History / Making a Home Spanish-Language Tour ($4,000) – Bloomington / McLean County
• Nothing Without A Company, Inc. / Mitigating Factors ($2,250) – Chicago / Cook County
• Public Media Institute / The Mutual Aid Report – The Lumpen Radio Interview Series ($4,250) – Chicago / Cook County
• Quad Cities Pride in Memory, Inc. / Documentary Film ($4,200) – Davenport, IA / Scott County
• Serendipity Theatre Company DBA 2nd Story / Claiming Our Space: Stories of Hope and Courage ($4,100) – Chicago / Cook County
• Understanding Works NFP / A BOOK by ME: Intergenerational Storytelling ($4,250) – Monmouth / Warren County

The next deadline is September 1, 2023, for Active History Microgrants and September 15, 2023, for General Operating Grants. For more information, visit ILhumanities.org/Grants or contact us at communitygrants@ilhumanities.org.