Support for Tennessee Cultural Institutions

April 3, 2020May 25, 2021

To Our Partners and Friends,

On behalf of our team, we hope you and your families are doing well and staying healthy above all else. We hope you are joining us in following guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19 by social distancing and staying home.

I’m writing today to share an update on the status of relief funding to help our partners across the state who may be struggling financially due to the cancellation of programs and revenue-generating activities.

The National Endowment for the Humanities received $75 million in supplemental funding to assist cultural institutions and humanists affected by the coronavirus as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act economic stabilization plan appropriated by Congress and signed into law by President Donald J. Trump.

Approximately 40 percent of the appropriation, or $30 million, will go directly to the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils, based on the standard population formula used for their annual appropriation.

Humanities Tennessee will receive a portion of this funding which we will grant to Tennessee cultural organizations to aid with operational needs, such as payroll and rent.

There are many questions and details to finalize for this process, but our intention is to provide funds as quickly as possible, within the timetable and guidelines provided us by the NEH.

To get the process started, we need to gather information about how organizations are being impacted by COVID-19, the tornadoes, or both. Please take a moment to complete this survey if your organization is experiencing challenges. This is the first step in our process, with an application to follow at a later date.

COMPLETE OUR IMPACT SURVEY HERE