Planning Grant to Establish a Provisional U.S. Virgin Islands State Humanities Council

The enabling legislation of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), an independent federal agency in the executive branch, authorizes it to “establish and carry out a program of grants-in-aid in each of the several states”—the term “states” defined as including the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI)—in order to advance the humanities in each of the states. Through this planning grant NEH aims to facilitate the promotion and execution of excellent humanities programming in the U.S. Virgin Islands. State humanities councils make humanities education and lifelong learning readily available at the local level, uniquely tailored to residents’ needs and interests. They do so by drawing upon local resources and experiences. Successful humanities programming benefits communities by expanding knowledge of their history and culture and by promoting lifelong learning. The principal goal of this planning grant is to enable the grantee to establish a provisional USVI State Humanities Council. After one year (in April 2018) the provisional council would be eligible to apply for a General Operating Support Grant through NEH’s Office of Federal/State Partnership, if by the end of the award period it has met a series of governance, planning, staffing, programming, and reporting requirements.