About CT Humanities

Founded in 1974, Connecticut Humanities (CTH) is an independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources.

CTH has earned public trust through its responsible stewardship of federal, state, and private funds, its peer-review grant-making process, its online educational resources, and its work to support, stabilize, and strengthen the organizations and communities it serves.

CTH values and promotes inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in our workplace, on our board, with our partners, and through our funding.

“About Us” One-Pager – Download Here – PDF

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Commitment

To build an equitable funding culture, we are committed to inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility as we support partners in generating humanities content that represents the breadth of Connecticut’s people and the range of their stories. Connecticut’s long and complicated history still influences us today. CT Humanities is a beneficiary of that complicated history as well as a contributor. We celebrate the state’s centuries of achievement, even as we acknowledge the disparate impact of that history. As a humanities funder, CT Humanities belongs to a philanthropic ecosystem built on inequity and privilege that influences decisions about staff, board, programs, and management. We are committed to confronting bias, racism, and inequality in serving this state.

Our Mission

Connecticut Humanities champions the enduring value of public humanities in our lives and civil society. Through grant funding and capacity building, CTH strives to ensure the public humanities will continue to inspire storytelling, lifelong learning, informed public dialogue and civic engagement in ways that strengthen communities and enhance quality of life for all Connecticut's residents.

Core Beliefs

CT Humanities strives to make a difference not only for the organizations we serve and support directly but also, through and with those organizations, in the life of every resident of Connecticut. At CT Humanities, our mission is motivated by our core beliefs:

  • The humanities help us explore and examine what life means and help us contextualize and understand the world around us.
  • Humanities enrich lives by expanding minds, bringing families and communities together, fostering critical thinking, and increasing understanding of history and cultural heritage.
  • Robust public humanities, shared through vibrant history and heritage organizations, directly and substantially enhance quality of life.
  • Public access to and engagement of the humanities is essential to a thoughtful, informed, connected, innovative and just society.
  • The vitality of public humanities organizations is the key to connecting our past with our future.
  • Cultivating an environment of innovation, inspiration, connection, and communication across humanities disciplines for Connecticut strengthens communities across Connecticut.

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