3 NM projects receive National Endowment for the Humanities grants

Adrian Gomez, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Aug. 15—The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced $41.3 million in grants for 280 humanities projects across the country on Tuesday.

Three New Mexico projects are on the list — two projects at the University of New Mexico and one at Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

The three projects were awarded $446,949 in total.

The round of funding — NEH's third and last for fiscal year 2023 — will support vital humanities education, research, preservation, and public programs. The peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $65 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

A $9,915 preservation assistance grant was awarded to the UNM project Rehousing the Documented Skeletal Collection. The project is directed by Alex Denning.

The grant will be used to the purchase of archivally sound custom storage boxes to house the human skeletal remains of 330 individuals, replacing the current undersized and outdated storage system.

The second grant is for $349,999 and is for the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology: Improving Preservation with Enhanced Storage project directed by Kari Schleher.

The grant is for sustaining cultural heritage collections and will be used for the final phase of a multiyear project to rehouse archaeological and ethnographic collections in a climate-controlled and more accessible environment.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is set to receive $87,035 as part of the sustaining cultural heritage collections.

The project awarded is Storage Improvements for Georgia O'Keeffe's Personal Library.

According to the museum the grant will be used for the relocation of Georgia O'Keeffe's personal library materials from the original location in the artist's home and studio to new compact shelving in the Michael S. Engl Family Foundation Library and Archive at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, a more secure, and climate-controlled facility.

"These 280 new grant awards underscore the wide range of exemplary, fascinating, and impactful humanities work that scholars, practitioners, and institutions are conducting in all corners of the country," said Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), NEH chair.

This funding cycle includes the first round of awards made under three new NEH grant programs that were created under the agency's American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future initiative, which leverages the humanities to strengthen our democracy, advance equity for all, and address our changing climate.

"I am especially pleased to announce a number of innovative projects funded through NEH's American Tapestry initiative that draw upon the insights of history, literature, culture, and philosophy to help us understand, discuss, and address some of today's most urgent social issues," Lowe said.