Mission and History

History

In 1965, the 89th Congress of the United States passed the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act (Public Law 209). This act established a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). (Read more on the establishment of the NEH.) Congress encouraged both endowments to decentralize at least a portion of their funding. By 1972, the NEH decided that nonprofit citizen committees afforded the best opportunity for promoting the humanities at the grassroots level in each state.

In May 1972, the NEH invited four Texans to a two-day conference in Washington to be briefed on NEH’s state program. These individuals were Thomas B. Brewer, vice chancellor of Texas Christian University; Levi A. Olan, Dallas rabbi and former member of The University of Texas Board of Regents; Emmet Field, vice president of academic affairs at the University of Houston; and David M. Vigness, chair of the department of history at Texas Tech University. The group then held meetings in Dallas to discuss establishing a state affiliate of the NEH in Texas. Through Brewer’s leadership, the Texas Committee for the Humanities applied for and received a $20,000 planning grant from the NEH, and operations began on January 1, 1973.

The board next conducted a series of regional conferences to determine how the state humanities council could best approach its work in Texas and to establish local connections and networks throughout the state. Since the NEH required all state humanities organizations to focus on the relationship between the humanities and public policy issues, the nascent organization was renamed the Texas Committee for the Humanities and Public Policy. On June 15, 1973, the council requested funds from NEH to support administration, program development, and grants to local projects. A $170,000, eighteen-month grant was approved, effective October 1, 1973. The board named Sandra L. Myres, a member of the history faculty at The University of Texas at Arlington, as its director. The council awarded its first grant in January 1974 to KUT 90.5 FM in Austin for a series of weekly two-hour radio programs focusing on the Texas Constitutional Revision Convention. Articles of Association were signed on March 18, 1976, and remained in effect until September 5, 1985, when the Texas Committee for the Humanities was incorporated under the laws of Texas. The Internal Revenue Service granted the organization tax-exempt status on August 25, 1976.

Name and program changes

In its 1976 legislation reauthorizing the NEH, Congress encouraged state humanities councils to undertake traditional humanities projects as well as those relating to public policy. Since that time, the Texas council has developed and funded numerous projects in traditional humanities fields, including U.S. and Texas history, literature, and culture. In recognition of this shift, the organization was renamed the Texas Committee for the Humanities in 1978. In 1996, the organization was renamed the Texas Council for the Humanities (TCH) to reflect the increasing use of the word “council” rather than “committee” by Congress and other state programs when referring to the state affiliates of the NEH. In recognition of its thirtieth anniversary in 2003, the council sought a name that better reflected its inclusive, accessible approach to supporting public humanities programs statewide. On January 1, 2004, the council changed its name to Humanities Texas.

Funding

State humanities councils experienced modest increases in annual federal funding from their beginning through the early 1980s. In 1986, however, the organization’s revenues were cut almost in half when federal funding dropped significantly and private-sector support—already weakened by the collapse of the Texas economy—diminished. Some major initiatives had to be curtailed, postponed, or eliminated. Funds were gradually restored by the early 1990s and held stable through 1995. As a result of the 1994 national elections, many federal programs, including the NEH, came under close scrutiny by the new Congress. By 1996, the NEH’s annual budget had dropped from $178 million to $110 million. State humanities councils, however, experienced more modest cuts, with the Texas council losing approximately 6 percent of its federal funding.

As a private nonprofit corporation working in cooperation with the NEH, Humanities Texas may solicit funding from the private sector. In addition to donations from the council’s Friends group, the council has received support from foundations and corporations. For example, the Shell Foundation and the Hoblitzelle Foundation provided major funding for The Texas Experience, a project marking the Texas sesquicentennial in 1986. Funding from The Brown Foundation helped launch the council’s magazine, which was published from 1977 to 2001. The T. L. L. Temple Foundation and Holt, Rinehart & Winston have supported the Humanities Texas Outstanding Teaching Awards program, and The Trull Foundation has provided funds for teacher workshops.

More recently, the council completed two successful capital campaigns, raising more than $5 million for the purchase and restoration of the Byrne-Reed House and an additional $5 million to establish an endowment to support operations and programs.

Cognizant that the quality of classroom teaching is a critical factor in student achievement, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst initiated the expansion of Humanities Texas’s teacher professional development programs with state funding in 2009. This represented the council’s first-ever state legislative appropriation, which the council continues to receive.

Texas Humanities Resource Center

The Texas Humanities Resource Center (THRC) was established in 1978 as a unit of The University of Texas at Arlington Library. It relocated to Austin in 1986 and operated as an independent nonprofit corporation until 1992, when it merged with the Texas council. Functioning as a division of the organization, the THRC organized and circulated exhibitions, audiovisual programs, and print materials for use by cultural and educational communities in Texas and beyond.

In 1996, the THRC launched a major initiative to use electronic resources to improve humanities teaching in Texas schools. Humanities Interactive, an online exhibition and educational space, received initial financial support from The Meadows Foundation, the Houston Endowment, and the NEH. The THRC also co-sponsored summer workshops for K–12 teachers with colleges and universities throughout Texas from 1997 to 2003.

In 2003, resources developed by the THRC were fully integrated into Humanities Texas’s general operations as part of its traveling exhibitions program. Humanities Texas continues to create and circulate exhibitions and other humanities resources. These exhibitions meet the needs of venues across Texas, from traditional art and history museums to schools, libraries, and community centers. These exhibitions have been displayed more than 3,000 times at venues throughout the state and nation.

Publications

From 1977 to 2001, the council published a semiannual magazine called The Texas Humanist (1977–1986), later retitled the Texas Journal of Ideas, History and Culture. Each issue focused on a theme, often drawing material from council projects. Single issues examined topics including the environment, health care, Latino literature, the pursuit of community, American pluralism, and religion in American life. The magazine highlighted important developments in the humanities, reviewed new books, films, and exhibitions, and reported on specific projects. The Journal enjoyed a circulation of more than 10,000 subscribers.

Throughout the years, the state council also published a semi-regular newsletter called Humanities: The Newsletter of the Texas Council for the Humanities. In fall 2007, the council switched to a monthly electronic newsletter. This newsletter, which now boasts more than 12,000 subscribers, includes substantive articles and updates on programs and activities across the state.

Grants

Humanities Texas grants enable communities throughout the state to develop programs of local interest promoting history, culture, and education.

Since 1974, the council has awarded more than 5,000 grants in 405 Texas communities supporting a wide range of public humanities programs, including lectures, oral history projects, exhibitions, teacher institutes, reading programs, and documentary films.

Humanities Texas has also launched a number of special grant initiatives, with assistance from the NEH, to support Texas cultural and educational organizations during critical times. During the COVID pandemic, the council awarded 461 emergency grants totaling more than $3.4 million to Texas cultural and educational institutions to sustain their operations and adjust programming during a profoundly challenging time. The council also awarded fast-track emergency grants following Winter Storm Uri (2021) and Hurricanes Harvey (2017), Dolly (2008), Gustav (2008), Ike (2008), and Rita (2006).

Humanities Texas is currently partnering with Uvalde’s El Progreso Memorial Library on a project responding to the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in 2022.

Changing Locations

The first office of the Texas Committee for the Humanities was on the campus of The University of Texas at Arlington, which provided office space and some support services. The organization moved to Austin in June 1980 to be closer to other statewide organizations and to the state government. In the late 1980s, Humanities Texas moved to 3809A South Second Street, a small condominium office project in South Austin. A 1990 grant from The Meadows Foundation in the amount of $50,000 provided funds for a down payment, and the council retired the mortgage in 1997.

In 2005, Humanities Texas began searching for a centrally located office that would provide both visibility within the community and a venue for programs. Size, location, and price were important considerations, but the council also sought a historic building that would reflect Humanities Texas’s emphasis on history, culture, and education. In December 2006, the council purchased and moved to the Byrne-Reed House, a century-old mansion that had been wrapped in a 1970s stucco façade for nearly forty years.

Humanities Texas completed the restoration of the Byrne-Reed House to its original grandeur in August 2010. The elegant public spaces on the first floor provide a grand setting for council events and those of other organizations. These rooms are also used for seminars, conferences, and workshops for Texas teachers, and the large basement houses a workshop and the traveling exhibitions that circulate to schools, libraries, and museums throughout Texas and the nation.

Teacher Professional Development Program

The success of the Texas educational system depends on nurturing qualified teachers and keeping them in the classroom. Humanities Texas has addressed these challenges by supporting the work of the state’s social studies and language arts teachers through a range of educational initiatives. Throughout the year, Humanities Texas conducts in-person and online programs offering teachers the opportunity to work closely with leading scholars, exploring topics at the heart of the state’s social studies and language arts curricula. Teachers have the opportunity to attend dynamic lectures, participate in faculty-led workshops, and explore the resources of the state’s major cultural institutions. Participant evaluations are consistently superlative, with many teachers reporting that Humanities Texas programs provide the best professional development experience of their careers.

As noted above, Humanities Texas dramatically expanded its teacher programming with state support in 2010. Before then, the council had held no more than two residential teacher institutes in a single year. Since 2010, the council has held more than three hundred in-person and online programs serving more than 8,100 Texas teachers representing nearly two-thirds of the state’s school districts. Humanities Texas is now recognized as the state’s leading provider of professional development for teachers of English and social studies subjects at the secondary level. No other organization provides programs with such consistently high quality on such a scale.

Another notable feature of these teacher programs is the focus on serving teachers in the greatest need of training and support—early-career teachers and those who work in historically low-performing schools or underprivileged communities. Between 2016 and 2020, 83 percent of participants taught in Title I schools, 51 percent were in their first five years of teaching, and 35 percent taught in schools with a state accountability rating of C or lower.

Leadership

Federal law allows the Texas governor to appoint up to six individuals to Humanities Texas’s volunteer board. The other members—representatives of the state’s academic and public sectors—are elected by the board as vacancies occur. Non-gubernatorial members serve terms of three years, with the possibility of each being re-elected to a second three-year term.

Sandra L. Myres served as the organization’s executive director from 1973 to 1975. Executive Director Emeritus James F. Veninga served from 1975 until 1997. Richard T. Hull served from 1997 to 1999, Monte Youngs served from 1999 to 2002, and Michael L. Gillette served from 2003 to 2019. Eric Lupfer became executive director in August 2019.