Courtesy NEH

Today, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that it has awarded $22.2 million in grants to 224 humanities projects around the U.S. relating to preservation of historical collections, the creation humanities exhibitions and documentaries, scholarly research, and various curriculum projects, according to an NEH press release. The recipients of this funding cycle also included several projects involving architecture and the built environment, such as a $151,586 grant to the University of California, Berkeley to organize archives on Cathy Simon, FAIA, and Karen Alschuler, founding principal and principal, respectively, of the San Francisco–based firm SMWM, which was acquired by Perkins and Will in 2008.

“In these somber times, when every individual, community, and organization in America is feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, it is a joy to be able to announce new projects that will produce vibrant humanities programs and resources for the reopening of our cultural centers and educational institutions,” said NEH chairman Jon Parrish Peede in the same release. “These 224 projects exemplify the spirit of the humanities and their power to educate, enrich, and enlighten.”

The NEH will also award a $59,982 grant to the Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago for a project aimed to protect and digitize slide collections of the United States’ 20th century built environment; a $99,932 grant to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., to create a curriculum on historic preservation and human-centered land use; a $6,000 grant to Ruth Toulson at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore to research global urban planning and burial practices; a $6,000 grant to Katherine Bentz at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., to research how health concerns impacted the designs of 16th and 17th century Roman villas; and a $75,000 grant to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., to redesign an “encyclopedic glass exhibition,” according to a project description.

This grant cycle arrives on the heels of the announcement that the NEH will receive an additional $75 million as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act to support cultural institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. These emergency grants will be announced separately, on a rolling basis.