What We Fund
Projects
VFH funds public humanities programs in Virginia that are shaped by and significantly involve humanities scholars and/or other community experts. The grant program encourages projects that increase public understanding of important issues and enrich the cultural life of the state, such as:
- exhibits
- lectures or lecture series
- community forums and public discussions, including book or film discussion programs
- festivals
- conferences and symposium
- media programs: films, script development, videos, television, radio, and digital media projects
- publications: brochures, posters, pamphlets, maps, books, journals, and catalogs
- research
- teachers' institutes
- oral or community history projects
Priorities
While the grant program is designed to remain as open as possible to new ideas and initiatives, VFH funding priorities are:
- Books, Reading, and Literacy
- Rights and Responsibilities
- Media and Culture
- Violence and Culture
- Science, Technology, and Society
- Virginia History
- Teacher education programs (especially those related to Virginia ’s Standards of Learning)
- African American History and Heritage
- The history and culture of minority communities in Virginia
- Virginia Folklife and traditional culture(s)
- The Future of Rural Virginia*
- Preparing for 2007
- Appalachian History and Culture
- Virginia ’s Maritime Communities and Cultures
- Virginia ’s Agricultural Heritage
Goals
The humanities emphasize analysis, interpretation, and exchange of ideas rather than the creative expression of the arts or the quantitative explanation of the sciences. The goals of the VFH grant program are:
- To encourage the development of high-quality educational programs based in the humanities
- To create and support accessible programs that reach the broadest possible audience in Virginia
- To support the work of humanities institutions and of local community organizations working within the humanities
- To explore the stories that define Virginia and its people
*VFH maintains a strong interest in the Future of Rural Virginia, and we continue to welcome and encourage proposals for projects that explore the changes affecting Virginia’s rural life and traditions; the forces that are driving these changes; and how individual communities, regions of the state, and the Commonwealth as a whole are responding. For further information, please see a related essay on this subject entitled: “The Need for a Statewide Conversation on The Future of Rural Virginia.”
