CT Humanities (CTH) released its annual report for the 2022 fiscal year on Sunday, showing a historic investment in Connecticut’s cultural sector. Dubbed “A Year of Transformation”, CTH awarded 832 grants totaling $20,957,578 over the course of the 2022 fiscal year, an 857 percent increase over the previous year.
As an independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, CTH’s mission is to connect people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. While 92 percent of CTH’s funding comes from the state, the organization also depends on federal funds, community foundations and gifts from private donors to support its projects, administration and program development.
“We are very grateful to Governor Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly for investing in the public humanities and culture through our wide-reaching granting programs,” Dr. Jason Mancini, Executive Director of CTH and Helen Higgins, Board Chair said in a joint statement. “The public funding provided by the state and National Endowment for the Humanities allowed us to regrant operating and programming funds that sustained – and in many cases transformed – CT’s cultural organizations as they continued to recover from the pandemic and meet the needs of their communities.”
In addition to outlining the organization’s work funding the state’s humanities organizations, the report also highlighted CTH’s commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA), which was adopted by the CTH Board of Directors earlier this year.
“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,” the report states. “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.”
CTH also invested further in two of the organization’s digital programs, Teach It and ConnecticutHistory.org, according to the report, adding new functionality and improved website navigation, support for bilingual education activities and expanding the content available to the public.
