Public Humanities Projects

Maximum award amount

Planning: $75,000; Implementation: $500,000

Expected Output

Exhibitions; Historic Site Interpretation; Public Programs and Discussions

Period of performance

Planning: Up to 24 months; Implementation: 12 to 48 months

About the Program
Application Instructions

Public Humanities Projects supports Exhibitions, Historic Places interpretation, and Public Lectures and Discussion Forums that bring the ideas of the humanities to life for general audiences. Projects must engage humanities scholarship to analyze significant themes in disciplines such as history, literature, ethics, and art history. Awards support projects that are intended to reach broad and varied public audiences in non-classroom settings in the United States. Projects should engage with ideas that are accessible to the general public and employ appealing interpretive formats.

NEH especially encourages applications exploring the following topics:

Western civilization and America's place in it
Great works of literature, history, philosophy, and theology and their relevance to contemporary questions
The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution
Civic education; civil discourse; cultural literacy, and the practice of close reading

Public Humanities Projects supports two categories, Exhibitions and Historic Places, at two funding levels (Planning and Implementation). Support for the third category, Public Lectures and Discussion Forums, is available at the Implementation level only. Proposed projects may include complementary components: for example, a museum exhibition might be accompanied by a website or mobile app.

Which level of funding is right for your project?

Join us for a live Q&A session on Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 2:00 p.m.(ET).

Public Humanities Projects Webinar Transcript (PDF)

Application Instructions

Review your application package

Read the Notice of Funding Opportunity to ensure you understand the expectations and restrictions for projects delivered under this grant and are prepared to write the most effective application.

Application Materials

Notice of Funding Opportunity, 2026 (PDF)

Grants.gov application package

General Application Guide for Awards to Organizations

Program Resources

List of recent Exhibitions: Planning awards

List of recent Exhibitions: Implementation awards

List of recent Historic Places: Planning awards

List of recent Historic Places: Implementation awards

List of recent Humanities Discussions awards
Note that these public program projects were supported under a former category title and were not subject to the new program requirements. Consult the current NOFO to prepare your application.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence for NEH Grant Proposals

Sample Application Narratives

Historic Places Planning Project: Emily Dickinson Museum, Comprehensive Interpretive Planning

Historic Places Implementation Project: The Owens-Thomas House, Interpreting the Dynamics of Urban Slavery in the South

Historic Places Implementation Project: Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Joseph and Rachel Moore Tenement Home

Exhibitions Planning Project (single site, temporary): National Museum of American Jewish History, Leonard Bernstein

Exhibitions Planning Project (traveling): University of California Los Angeles, The Art of African Blacksmiths

Exhibitions Implementation Project (traveling): Walters Art Museum, Ethiopia at the Crossroads

Exhibitions Implementation Project (single site, temporary): LACMA, Beyond Line

Exhibitions Implementation Project (permanent): Heard Museum, The American Indian Boarding School Experience

When you are ready to apply, register for an account with SAM.gov and Grants.gov; both are required. If you already have completed the registrations, make sure they are current. 

Complete your application package

Follow the instructions outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and in the Grants.gov instructions.

Submit your application package on Grants.gov

You will receive a confirmation from Grants.gov when you’ve successfully submitted your application. Subsequently, you will receive up to five more notices confirming different stages in the application process. Verify that you have received all confirmations. Note that email filters may send these messages to your spam or junk folder.