Utah Humanities

The mission of Utah Humanities (UH) revolves around offering first-hand, engaging humanities experiences. Our events are direct, personal opportunities to identify with literature, understand local and national heritage, and share viewpoints in civil conversations, all of which serve to strengthen the fabric of our personal and community relationships. We offer connection, context, and courage. We work with partners to extend our reach and deepen our work. In fact, everything we do at Utah Humanities is in collaboration with other organizations. Aligning with cultural, educational, professional, and service organizations is essential to fulfilling our mission, and partnering with us can result in measurable community improvement. Our statewide work at UH is divided into thematic Centers, each of which has a specific humanities focus and associated programs. It is through our Centers that we partner with Utah organizations to improve communities through the humanities. The Centers are the Center for the Book, the Center for Community Heritage, the Center for Educational Access, and the Center for Local Initiatives.

Utah Humanities awards modest grants to nonprofit organizations for public humanities programs. Grants are designed to support projects that strengthen communities by actively engaging partners and audiences in the humanities. We are a proud supporter of local communities, grassroots activities, tradition, and innovation. Our grants provide invaluable financial support to help bring educational programs, interpretive exhibits and activities, local history projects, oral history projects, media projects, and more to locations across the state of Utah.

Since 1994, Utah Humanities has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to bring Museum on Main Street (MoMS) exhibitions to communities throughout Utah. Together with local host partners, we have collaborated on ten exhibition tours through more than 50 communities and reached more than a million people in Utah with this programming. In 2023-2024, UH is touring the MoMS exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural America. Crossroads will travel to eight communities in Utah: North Summit Unite in partnership with Summit County History Department (Coalville); Wasatch County Library (Heber); Utah State University - Eastern (Price); Silver Reef Museum (Leeds); Brigham City Museum of Art & History (Brigham City); John Wesley Powell River History Museum (Green River); MT Hurst Foundation in partnership with Utah State University - Blanding (Blanding); Granary Arts in partnership with Snow College Library (Ephraim). The next Museum on Main Street exhibit will be Voices and Votes in 2026, as part of the national America250 celebration.