History

The Michigan Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, opened its doors in 1974 to begin public humanities programming. Thirty years ago, the idea of public humanities was a novel concept because the humanities had traditionally been associated with university study in departments such as English, philosophy, ethics, and the other areas termed the liberal arts. But public humanities were meant to draw communities into the humanities rather than leave the field to academicians. This brave new world of collaborations between town and gown, between the National Endowment for the Humanities and state organizations was daunting, but it catalyzed a vigorous examination of what the humanities mean to contemporary life.

The Michigan Humanities Council faced this new world of humanities in practical fashion. The Council began with an emphasis on public policies and issues that affected the citizens of Michigan. The interests of the community emerged through public meetings, but what also emerged was both a clearer identification of key issues and of the changing meaning of the humanities. From a small office in the Kellogg Center on the Michigan State University campus, the Council began to funnel federal dollars into projects that brought together a variety of communities who shared an interest that could best be approached through the humanities.

Within a few years, the Michigan Humanities Council had an established interest in statewide programs that studied literature and examined the idea of the West in the American imagination. Perhaps because the country was in the midst of a recession, the Council also explored the American economy, American leisure, and our traditions of economic consumption. From early on, the focus was on both traditional areas of study and on the complex nature of contemporary life that seemed to have important historical roots.

The Council made several physical moves as it matured. Its first move was across the Michigan State University campus to the Nisbett Building. By this time, it had become its own fiscal agent; it had laid the structure for processing grants and planning programs. By the time it moved to its current location in Lansing, the Council had formulated an underlying strategy that not only promoted collaborative humanities programming, but which also created a public voice for the humanities throughout Michigan. But what was one of the Council’s most distinctive features was its keen sense of leveraging its grants through matching funds and its open embrace of entrepreneurialism as an important feature of non-profit activity. In a prescient fashion, it endorsed the partnerships and value of cultural activity that would help nonprofits sustain the access of Michiganians to the richness of our culture.

Throughout its life, the Michigan Humanities Council has understood that the humanities teach us what it means to be human. They illuminate the lessons of the past, the ideas that motivate us, the principles that guide us, and the questions that perplex us. For 35 years, the Council has served a central idea: that democracy depends upon educated and thoughtful citizens who fully participate in civic life. There is no clearer statement of this value than that provided by Bruce Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities: “Cultivating the best of the humanities has real, tangible benefits for civic life. We cannot neglect the great democratic imperative: to give each succeeding generation a brighter light, a broader perspective, and an enriched legacy with which to face the future.” The Michigan Humanities Council looks forward to the next 35 years of serving just such a vision of civil life.