Overview
The NEH provides grants for high-quality humanities projects to cultural institutions such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations, and to individual scholars. The agency is also a base supporter of a network of private, nonprofit affiliates, the 56 humanities councils in the United States. These grants are given in order to strengthen teaching and learning in the humanities in schools and colleges across the nation, facilitate research and original scholarship, provide opportunities for lifelong learning, preserve and provide access to cultural and educational resources and to strengthen the institutional base of the humanities.
The Endowment is directed by a chairman, who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, for a term of four years. Advising the chairman is the National Council on the Humanities, a board of 26 distinguished private citizens who are also appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The National Council members serve staggered six-year terms.
On June 3, 2009, President Obama announced that he intended to nominate former Iowa congressman Jim Leach, a Republican, to be the next chairman of the NEH; the Senate confirmed his appointment in August 2009. Leach began his four-year term as the NEH Chairman on August 12, 2009.
Read more about this topic: National Endowment For The Humanities