Grants for America’s Media Makers support projects in the humanities that explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world. The Division of Public Programs supports the development of humanities content and interactivity that excite, inform, and stir thoughtful reflection upon culture, identity, and history in creative and new ways. Grants for America’s Media Makers should encourage dialogue, discussion, and civic engagement, and they should foster learning among people of all ages. To that end, the Division of Public Programs urges applicants to consider more than one format for presenting humanities ideas to the public.NEH offers two categories of grants for media projects: Development Grants and Production Grants.

Development grants enable media producers to collaborate with scholars to develop humanities content and format and to prepare programs for production. These grants cover a wide range of activities that include, but are not limited to, meetings and individual consultations with scholars, research, preliminary interviews, preparation of program scripts, designs for interactivity and digital distribution, and the creation of partnerships for outreach activities and public engagement with the humanities. Development grants should culminate in the refinement of a project’s humanities ideas, a script, or a design document for (or a prototype of) digital media components or projects.

Before applying, applicants must have a solid command of the major humanities scholarship on their subject, have clarified the ideas that the project will consider, and have consulted with a team of scholarly advisers to work out the intellectual issues that the program will explore. Applicants must also have made preliminary decisions about the format and storyline and located essential materials for the program(s). Finally, they must have recruited the appropriate media professionals, especially the producer, writer, or interactive designer.

Production grants support the preparation of a program for distribution. Applicants must submit a script for a radio or television program, or a prototype or storyboard for a digital media project, that demonstrates a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship related to a subject. NEH also supports Chairman’s Special Award projects. These projects are more complex and of national visibility that would be of compelling interest to the general public, show exceptional promise for examining important humanities ideas in new ways, and reach large audiences. These goals can often be accomplished through combining a variety of program formats, forming creative collaborations among diverse institutions, and expanding the scope and reach of the project. The Chairman’s Special Award is offered at the production stage, but not at the development stage. See application guidelines for Production Grants.

Applications may be submitted for any phase of a project. Applicants are not required to obtain a development grant before applying for a production grant. Applicants may not, however, submit multiple applications for the same project at the same deadline. An applicant must choose whether to apply for development or production of a particular project. If an application for a project is already under review, another application for the same project cannot be accepted

Radio projects may feature documentary programs or historical dramatizations and involve single programs, limited series, or segments within an existing, ongoing program vehicle. They may also develop new humanities content to augment existing radio programming or add greater historical background or humanities analysis to the subjects of existing programs. They may be intended for regional or national distribution. 

Television projects may be documentary programs or historical dramatizations that address significant figures, events, or developments in the humanities and draw their content from humanities scholarship. They must be intended for national distribution. 

Digital technology projects may expand the content of a radio or television program. Alternatively, they may be components of a larger, non-broadcast project or be projects in their own right. 

Deadline: August 26, 2009. For more information and details please visit their website.

To view other available grants please click here.

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