NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE
HUMANITIES
OFFICE OF CHALLENGE GRANTS
1100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20506
Room 420
Email: CHALLENGE@NEH.GOV
Phone: (202) 606-8309
FAX:
-8579
WWW.NEH.GOV
SAMPLE PROPOSAL
This narrative portion from an NEH Challenge Grant is provided as an example of a funded
proposal. It will give you a sense of how a successful application may be crafted. It is only an
example, not a template. Every successful application is different, and each applicant is urged to
prepare a proposal that reflects the institution’s unique programs and aspirations. Prospective
applicants are also strongly encouraged to consult with staff in the NEH Office of Challenge
Grants well before the application deadline.
Project:
Bridging Communities: Conversations and
Collaborations in the Humanities
Institution:
Pennsylvania State University
Amount of Final Award:
$500,000
Formatting of sample proposals may vary from that suggested by program guidelines. Applicants
should consult the Challenge Grant application guidelines at www.neh.gov for instructions.
2
BRIDGING COMMUNITIES: CONVERSATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS IN THE
HUMANITIES
NEH Challenge Grant
submitted by
Dr. Laura Knoppers
Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities and Professor of English, College of the Liberal
Arts, Penn State University, University Park, PA
and
Dr. Yvonne Gaudelius
Associate Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities and Associate Professor of Art Education
and Women’s Studies, College of Arts & Architecture, Penn State University, University Park, PA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEH Cover Sheet [Not included in sample]
Table of Contents
Abstract
Challenge Grant Budget [Not included in sample]
Institutional Fact Summary [Not included in sample]
Institutional Financial Summary [Not included in sample]
Narrative
Page
I. Significance of Humanities Activities
A. Introduction and Background
B. Impact of Previous Challenge Grant
C. Current Humanities Programming
1. Resident Scholars and Artists
2. Interdisciplinary Groups
3. Graduate Student Summer Residencies
4. Individual Faculty Grants
1
1
3
6
7
8
11
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II. Impact of New Challenge Grant Funds
A. Impact on the Penn State Community
1. Enhanced and Diversified Scope for Interdisciplinary Groups
2. Endowed Lecture Series and Symposium on Annual Theme
B. Impact on Civic and Educational Communities
1. Linkage with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council
2. Summer Seminars for Public School Teachers
3. Outreach Programming with Penn State’s Palmer Museum of
Art and the Matson Museum of Anthropology
13
13
13
14
17
17
18
20
III. Appropriateness of Resources and Plans
Leadership, Staffing, and Space
21
22
IV. Feasibility of Fund Raising
23
V. Conclusion
25
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APPENDICES [Not included in sample]
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
Appendix G
Appendix H
Appendix I
Appendix J
Appendix K
Appendix L
Appendix M
Budgets: Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Colleges of the Liberal Arts and Arts &
Architecture, Penn State
IAH Executive Council and Advisory Board, 2001-2002
Curricula Vitae, IAH Director and Associate Director
Penn State Board of Trustees and Mission Statement
IAH Competition Guidelines, 2001-2002
Faculty funded in Individual Grants Competitions, 2001-2002
Faculty and Graduate Student Residency Recipients, 2002-2003
Interdisciplinary Groups, 2002-2003
Examples of humanities research funded by endowments
Senior faculty hired with endowment funds
Summary of recent NEH grants and other relevant external funding
Letters of Commitment and Support
Faculty members and staff principally involved in Challenge Grant
5
ABSTRACT
In 1985, Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts was the recipient of an NEH Challenge Grant.
The goal of this first Challenge Grant was to increase the strength, visibility, and significance of the
humanities at a land-grant institution where the humanities had not historically been the focus of interest.
With the leverage of these initial endowment funds, the College was very successful in building a critical
mass of outstanding faculty in the core humanities disciplines, in enhancing research in the humanities,
and in increasing the visibility of the humanities within the university as well as in the broader academic
community.
Building on the successes of this initiative, Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities
(IAH), in partnership with the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Arts and Architecture, is
applying for an NEH Challenge Grant of $500,000. In this partnership, the Institute both nurtures new
communities and acts as a bridge between existing communities across Penn State at University Park and
on its campuses across the Commonwealth. Currently, the Institute runs faculty and graduate student
residency programs; a program of individual faculty grants; and a program of support for
Interdisciplinary Groups, in addition to co-sponsoring visiting speakers, performances, and exhibitions
with other units across the two partner Colleges.
At present, IAH programs focus on support for Penn State faculty and graduate students. A
second Challenge Grant will enable us to bring the most distinguished scholars into the Penn State
community through enhanced and diversified support for Interdisciplinary Groups, through an Endowed
Lecture Series, and through an annual spring Symposium. At the same time, the Endowment will enable
us to build new links with public school teachers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through
outreach programs in partnership with such public venues in the arts and humanities as Penn State’s
Palmer Museum of Art, the Matson Museum of Anthropology, the Rock Ethics Institute, and the Civil
War Era Institute, as well as in alliance with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
Our proposed programming will unfold in the context of cooperation and sharing of crucial
development resources by two colleges and of strong support by the University administration. Penn
State’s remarkably successful “Grand Destiny” capital campaign has raised $1.2 billion towards a $1.3
billion goal. The progress of this campaign, taken with our demonstrated success in previous fund
raising campaigns, amply demonstrates our ability to raise matching funds (4:1) for a new NEH
Challenge grant.
6
NARRATIVE
I. Significance of Humanities Activities
A. Introduction and Background
In 1985, Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts was the recipient of an NEH Challenge Grant.
The goal of this first Challenge Grant was to increase the strength, visibility, and significance of the
humanities at a land-grant institution where the humanities had not historically been the focus of interest.
With the leverage of these initial endowment funds, the College was very successful in building a critical
mass of outstanding faculty in the core humanities disciplines, in enhancing research in the humanities,
and in increasing the visibility of the humanities within the university as well as in the broader academic
community. Building on the successes of this initial grant, Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and
Humanities (IAH), in partnership with the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Arts and
Architecture, is applying for an NEH Challenge Grant of $500,000. In this partnership, the Institute both
nurtures new communities and acts as a bridge between existing communities across Penn State at
University Park and on its nineteen campuses. At present, the Institute
(http://www.research.psu.edu/iah/) runs faculty and graduate student residency programs; a program of
individual faculty grants; and a program of support for Interdisciplinary Groups, in addition to cosponsoring visiting speakers, performances, and exhibitions with other units across the two partner
Colleges. This second Challenge Grant will enable the Institute to enhance and extend its important
bridging function: a) within Penn State by enhanced and diversified funding for Interdisciplinary Groups;
b) within the broader academic community as a new Endowed Lecture Series and an annual Symposium
bring nationally and internationally renowned scholars into interaction with Penn State faculty and
students; and c) within the regional community through programs of civic and educational outreach.
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities at first glance appears to resemble many humanities
institutes around the country. However, what is unique about the IAH is its collaborative partnership
7
with the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of the Liberal Arts. A.G. Roeber, Head and
Professor of History and Religious Studies, writes that “the profile of both the humanities and the arts on
this campus has been sharpened very distinctly by the Institute’s close integration of its own purposes
with those of the leading scholars in the two colleges” (see Appendix L). Programs made possible by
this collaboration bring together scholars from fields as diverse as History, Classics, Biblical Studies,
Architecture, Art History, Architecture, and English, all of which disciplines will be represented through
our Resident Scholars and Artists who will be housed in the Institute in 2002-2003. Similarly, through
our graduate summer residency program, this year the IAH will house students from French, English,
Landscape Architecture, and Art History.
We are, of course, aware of the fact that the NEH Endowment does not fund the creative or the
performing arts, and we will continue to provide such support from other funds. One of the things a
Challenge Grant will enable us to do, however, is to create interpretive and critical frameworks for
analyzing works of art in addition to strengthening work in the traditional humanities disciplines. Such
an effort brings the arts and humanities into fruitful conversation with each other, an initiative
strengthened by our close collaboration with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, particularly in its
“Humanities in the Arts Initiative.”
Just as our collaborative relationship with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council works to
develop a community of public humanities throughout the Commonwealth, the IAH, in partnership with
the two Colleges, brings together a community of scholars at Penn State. Claire Katz, Assistant Professor
of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, writes that “The Institute stands alone on this campus as a resource for
scholars in the humanities, particularly younger scholars like me. Moreover, the mission of the Institute,
namely, to support and bring together scholars from different colleges, is an excellent one, particularly on
a campus where the colleges and the scholars in them often function independently of each other” (see
Appendix L). Our highly successful and very competitive programs such as the interdisciplinary groups
and the residencies draw faculty and graduate students from across departmental and college lines, both
8
furthering individual research and providing a rich climate of interaction and critical discussion. Recent
IAH grant recipient Daniel Purdy, Associate Professor of German, states: “The real importance of the
Institute’s support . . . is psychological and not just financial. . . academic work is a lonely business under
any circumstances. Without the built-in audience the Institute provides, I would not have a forum in
which I could test my arguments, before sending them off to journals and conference selection
committees” (see Appendix L).
At present, IAH programs focus on support for Penn State faculty and graduate students. A
second Challenge Grant will enable us to bring the most distinguished scholars into the Penn State
community through enhanced and diversified support for Interdisciplinary Groups, through an Endowed
Lecture Series, and through an annual spring Symposium. At the same time, the Endowment will enable
us to build new links with public school teachers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through
outreach programs in partnership with such public venues in the arts and humanities as Penn State’s
Palmer Museum of Art, the Matson Museum of Anthropology, the Rock Ethics Institute, and the Civil
War Era Institute, as well as in alliance with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
All Institute programs are developed in collaboration and conversation between the Institute
Director, the Associate Director, and the Advisory Board, with input from the deans, department heads,
and faculty in the two Colleges. Vincent Colapietro, Professor of Philosophy, comments: “From my
experience as a member of the [IAH] Advisory Board, the processes of decision-making are themselves
occasions for interdisciplinary dialogue in which important substantive questions are broached, not
merely ones in which narrow procedural matters are decided” (see Appendix L). Institute programs are
developed out of a shared mission of work in the humanities and a shared belief—despite our different
disciplines and perspectives—in the importance and public nature of the humanities. Throughout this
grant, we describe programs of support—existing and proposed—for a variety of groups: what these
groups have in common is the Institute, which acts as bridge to bring into fruitful interaction both
individual scholars and disciplinary groups of scholars with other such communities.
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B. Impact of Previous Challenge Grant
The goal of the first $1 million Challenge Grant and the 3:1 non-Federal match was to strengthen
and make more visible the humanities at a large land-grant university where the sciences and engineering
had been historically the prevailing emphases. The role played by the NEH grant in achieving this goal
cannot be overestimated. This award was the essential first step in focusing University-wide attention on
the humanities and in making it possible for core humanities departments to reach the level of excellence
at which they now stand.
With NEH support, the College of the Liberal Arts created a number of named and endowed
professorships and faculty chairs, which then served as prestigious “magnets” with which the College
was able to successfully hire very distinguished senior faculty (see Appendix J for details on positions
created and faculty hired). Liberal Arts also established a modest base of support for faculty and
graduate student research in the humanities, which has been an important factor in increasing
competitiveness for external research funds. In essence, the College of the Liberal Arts has significantly
strengthened many core academic units, and they have, in turn, played a pivotal role in the strategic
advance of the humanities, in the College and, indeed, at Penn State as a whole. While the first
Challenge Grant provided the funds for Penn State to bring in distinguished new senior faculty, the
Institute provides the kind of community that allows such active and high-profile faculty to flourish.
Faculty in named or chaired professorships funded by the first Challenge Grant include Londa
Schiebinger, Sparks Professor of History and Women’s Studies, whose publications in the field of the
history of science include the influential books The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern
Science (Harvard University Press, 1989) and Has Feminism Changed Science? (Harvard University
Press, 1999). The interdisciplinary group which Schiebinger co-directs—and which has been supported
by the IAH—recently received a $300,000 award from the National Science Foundation for a research
and training project, Mainstreaming Gender Analysis in Science and Technology Studies. Professor
10
Schiebinger writes that “funding from the Institute has been crucial to the continued development of our
interdisciplinary initiative, Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture,” going on to observe: “I have
been impressed with how much the Institute has been able to do across departments and the two colleges
with its current modest funds . . . Penn State is a big place and the Institute functions as a nub of
intellectual activity where faculty from diverse disciplines can come into contact with each other and
benefit intellectually from the perspectives and insights of other like-minded faculty” (see Appendix L).
One other example of distinguished faculty hiring made possible by the first NEH Challenge
Grant is Dr. Baruch Halpern, Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies. Dr. Halpern has authored or
edited eight books on ancient Near Eastern history and culture, ancient Israelite history, society,
archaeology, and religion. These publications include The First Historians: the Hebrew Bible and
History (Harper & Row, 1988); David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Eerdmanns,
2001); and (with Deborah Hobson), Law, Politics, and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World
(Sheffield, 1993). Most recently, Dr. Halpern was awarded a prestigious Mellon Sawyer Seminar
Fellowship for Contact and Cultural Transmission in the “Axial Age” Mediterranean.
In 2002-2003,
the Institute will be housing the postdoctoral fellow and providing meeting space, as well as budgetary
oversight for the Mellon Sawyer Seminar.
Covering a broad range of the humanities, the endowment funds from the first Challenge Grant
have supported many of the best faculty in the humanities at Penn State. Examples of faculty research in
the humanities supported over the past two years through funds raised for endowments that were created
through our first Challenge Grant and through the response of alumni and friends of the humanities are
included in Appendix I.
The first Challenge Grant was also an essential factor in more than doubling annual gifts to
Liberal Arts initiatives in the post-award years. Before the fund raising campaign for the 1985
Challenge, donations to this college averaged $500,000 annually. Immediately after the first Challenge
Grant period, average annual receipts rose to almost $1.5 million, and now, in 2001-02, total $9 million
11
annually. This steady increase in donations has allowed the College of the Liberal Arts to create
endowments supporting, among other units, the Rock Ethics Institute
[http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/ethics/], the Civil War Era Center
[http://www3.la.psu.edu/histrlst/inst/welcome.html], and the Center for Language Acquisition
[http://language.la.psu.edu/].
C. Current Humanities Programming
The success of Penn State’s first Challenge Grant has led to increased internal funding and
strengthened collaborations between the College of the Liberal Arts, the College of Arts and
Architecture, and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. While the first Challenge Grant made
possible significant new hires in a number of departments within Liberal Arts, the Institute creates the
opportunities that bring these scholars into interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. It is thus
important that the Institute is spearheading this second Challenge Grant. At the same time, some of the
traditional humanities disciplines such as Art History and Musicology are housed within the College of
Arts and Architecture at Penn State. Hence, in this initiative, the Institute acts as a bridge between
individuals and groups within and between its two partner Colleges.
The IAH is administered by a Director and an Associate Director who report to an Executive
Council consisting of the Deans of the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of the Liberal
Arts. Meetings between the Directors and the Deans occur at least once a semester. Additionally, the
Director and Associate Director work closely with an Advisory Board of ten faculty members who
represent a range of disciplinary interests and ranks across the two colleges and an ex-officio Research
Dean from each college (see Appendix B). Members of the Advisory Board are chosen by the Director
and Associate Director in consultation with the Deans. The Board operates on a rotational system. At the
end of each academic year, five board members complete their terms and are replaced by five new
members.
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The Board is critical in the decision making process for the programs run by the IAH. Either the
full Board or a subcommittee, consisting of at least half the Board, reads and evaluates all the proposals
for each competition. Bonj Szczygiel, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, writes that “it has
been a particular pleasure serving on the Institute’s Advisory Board this year. . . .The Board should, and
does, reflect the interdisciplinary nature of funded projects and personal exchanges. The ebb and flow of
faculty and student work through the Institute brings about a continually stimulating environment—a
significant resource within Penn State University” (see Appendix L).
Base funding for the Institute comes from the Office of the Vice President for Research at Penn
State. With this current internal funding, the Institute runs four programs that build community across
departmental and college boundaries. These are: (1) Resident Scholars and Artists Program, (2)
support for Interdisciplinary Groups, (3) Graduate Student Summer Residencies, and (4) Individual
Faculty Grants. The first three programs are linked together through an overarching annual IAH theme,
which is discussed and chosen by the Advisory Board. For 2002-2003, the Institute theme is Boundaries,
including exploration of placing, crossing, or contesting boundaries of nationhood, geography, race,
gender, and discipline. The IAH faculty and graduate student residencies programs are co-sponsored
with the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of the Liberal Arts.
The programs run by the IAH are fiercely competitive and attract the best faculty and graduate
students from across the two Colleges. These competitions are widely advertised and workshops are held
that serve to answer questions and provide guidance on the applications procedures for each competition.
In any given competition, priority is given to funding groups and individuals who have not received
funding in the recent past.
1) Our Resident Scholars and Artists program brings together in Ihlseng Cottage a community
drawn from the finest scholars in the arts and humanities at Penn State. Recent residency recipient Dan
Willis, Associate Professor of Architecture, writes that “as an architect, I believe that our physical
surroundings can have a significant impact on the quality of our lives and work. By gathering this small
13
“family” of scholars in the hospitable environment of Ihlseng Cottage, the IAH has enhanced the chances
that informal creative exchanges will become a regular by-product of this [residency] program” (See
Appendix L).
The yearly competition for Resident Scholars and Artists provides up to eight successful
applicants with one semester of research time free from teaching, a modest stipend for research
expenditures, and the allocation of office space and other facilities at Ihlseng Cottage. For the 2002-03
period, we received nineteen applications, from which the Advisory Board selected six recipients, based
upon their proposed research projects and a letter of evaluation by their department head (see list of
recipients, Appendix G). Linking of the projects to the annual Institute theme of Boundaries was also
considered a strength, albeit not a requirement for the residencies. Faculty funded for 2002-2003
include:
Amy Greenberg, Associate Professor of History, for a monograph on how practices of gender
and race shaped debates over American expansionism in the nineteenth century.
Amitava Kumar, Associate Professor of English, for an account of a journey into both the
written literature and the psychology of the relations between India and Pakistan.
William Petersen, Professor of Religious Studies and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean
Studies, for the completion of an editorial project involving comparison and
transcription of multiple variant texts to provide a definitive edition of the
Diatessaron, one of the oldest witnesses to the text of the New Testament.
Catherine Wanner, Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies, for a monograph on
the emergence of Baptist communities in Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine that will
offer insight into the spatial dimensions of identities, the dynamics of diaspora
versus ethnic group formation, and the growing deterritorialization of cultural
practice.
This residency program is unique in providing both time and a space on campus. Amy Greenberg,
Associate Professor of History, writes: “Before the advent of the Scholars in Residence program, I would
have had to leave the University in order to find residential support for my work. External fellowships,
however, are highly competitive . . . [and] as the mother of a young toddler, leaving the area for an
extended amount of time is not feasible. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities makes high level
research possible in the area” (see Appendix L).
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While working on individual research projects is central to the residencies, the fact that all of the
scholars and artists will share the space of Ihlseng Cottage makes possible a diverse community of
interdisciplinary exchange. Amitava Kumar, Associate Professor of English, remarks that “I especially
appreciate being given the chance to learn from scholars in the other fields, some of whom I will be
sharing office space with in the Ihlseng Cottage” (See Appendix L).
2) Our current program for Interdisciplinary Groups supports activities organized by these
groups, such as lecture/workshop series, symposia with resultant publications, graduate seminars with an
activist outreach component, and exhibitions. Regarding the Committee for Early Modern Studies, a
group which received IAH funding for 2002-2004, Brian Curran, Assistant Professor of Art History,
comments: “I was especially happy that the Institute has chosen to support the Committee for Early
Modern Studies and its ambitious program for the next two years. My involvement in this
interdisciplinary and inter-college group has been one of the highlights of my time at Penn State” (see
Appendix L).
In our spring 2002 Interdisciplinary Groups competition, proposals were received from ten
groups, including the disciplines of History, Philosophy, Art History, Women’s Studies, English,
Spanish, Italian, French, German, Communication Arts and Sciences, Comparative Literature, Landscape
Architecture, Musicology, and Theater. Taken as a whole, these groups involved nearly 100 faculty and
50 graduate students from across the university. The activities that they proposed ranged from monthly
lectures or workshops which the groups would organize and run, to weekly film series open to the public,
to research involving undergraduate and graduate students in service learning in the community. Links
with the Institute’s annual theme were encouraged albeit not required. In the process leading up to the
competition, the IAH played a vital role in helping groups reach out to faculty in other departments and
other colleges.
Typically the groups have two to four co-directors and advisory boards of eight to ten faculty.
The means through which these co-directors and boards are chosen varies, ranging from selection within
15
the group to nomination by the departments and units involved. Some groups, such as the Women’s SelfRepresentation Project, meet on a monthly basis, whether to host a visiting speaker or in planning and
workshop sessions. Alternatively, the Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture group is organized
around a series of visiting lectures held in conjunction with a graduate seminar. While the format of their
meetings varies, what these groups have in common is that they are all ongoing communities that reach
across departmental and college lines, one of the criteria for selection (for a complete list of faculty
participants, see Appendix H).
The Interdisciplinary Group competition is run annually. Groups are able to apply for funding
for up to $10,000 per year for a maximum two-year period and are strongly encouraged to leverage IAH
support to seek outside funding. In the Spring 2002 competition, the Advisory Board, in consultation
with the IAH Director and the Associate Director, selected five groups (out of the ten applications) for
funding, including:
Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture (SMTC)
This inter-college group (http://faculty.la.psu.edu/ssps/smtc.html), which was incubated
through funding raised in connection with the first Challenge grant, explores the history,
rhetoric, philosophy, and broader culture of science, medicine, and technology from a range
of cross-disciplinary perspectives. These faculty have worked together for a number of years
sponsoring lectures and conferences and guiding graduate students with interdisciplinary
interests.
Based on the foundations established by modest internal support and the success of the
College in bringing people together in a highly productive environment, the SMTC
conceptualized a new program, submitted a proposal for external funding and was recently
awarded $300,000 from the National Science Foundation’s STS program for a research and
graduate training project, Mainstreaming Gender Analysis in Science and Technology
Studies. A highlight of the grant is the availability of dissertation fellowships and
postdoctoral support. Most recently, this group received IAH support for a speaker series, a
coordinated graduate seminar, and a one-time international workshop on gender in science,
medicine, and technology.
Committee for Early Modern Studies (CEMS)
This faculty group (http://www3.la.psu.edu/histrlst/inst/earlymod.htm), also initially
supported through Challenge grant related funding, is drawn from History, Art History,
English, French, Comparative Literature, Women’s Studies, German, Spanish, and Music.
CEMS received support for programming on annual themes important for the early modern
period (1500-1800). In spring 2001, the Committee for Early Modern Studies launched a
new three-semester theme, Land, Property, and Space in the Early Modern World. Crossdisciplinary perspectives on this topic have been presented in public lectures by invited
16
speakers such as David Woodward, Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin and
John Walter, Reader in History, Cambridge University.
Faculty members from the two above groups have also been successful in obtaining funding
from NEH for two 2002 summer institutes for college teachers. One Institute, titled Space
and Society in the Past: Landscape, Power, and Identity in the Early Modern Atlantic World,
is directed by Drs. Dan Beaver (history) and Garrett Sullivan (English). The second
Institute, titled Medicine, Literature, and Culture, is directed by Drs. Anne Hawkins of the
Hershey department of medical humanities and Susan Squier, Brill Professor in our
department of English.
Women’s Self-Representation in Visual Arts and Writing
This group not only looks at the individual woman as artist or writer but goes on to examine
a feminized representation of self in visual art and literary creation. Bringing a critical
perspective and theoretical lens to bear on the creative arts, the program draws together
faculty from a range of disciplines, including Women’s Studies, Art History, Art, African
and African-American Studies, English, French, and Communication.
The impact of Interdisciplinary Groups funded by IAH reaches well beyond the Penn State community.
Of the NEH Summer Institute coordinated by his group, Garrett Sullivan, Associate Professor of English,
writes: “when the NEH Institute’s participants return to their classrooms in the fall, they will be bearers
not only of new insights garnered during a summer’s work, but also of the legacy of CEMS –and, I am
suggesting, of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, which has made and continues to make efforts
such as ours possible” (see Appendix L).
3) Graduate Student Summer Residencies, another program housed in the IAH, provides the
opportunity for up to four advanced Penn State graduate students to spend the summer term before their
final year of study doing focused work on their dissertations or final creative projects in an
interdisciplinary community setting. In addition to a modest stipend, students are given an office in
Ihlseng Cottage and the use of the cottage facilities during the summer months. Corinne Mann-Morlet,
PhD student in French, writes that her 2002 summer residency “will not only allow me the opportunity to
progress significantly in the research and writing of my dissertation over the summer session . . . it will
also avail to me many opportunities to share intellectual exchanges with my fellow graduate students
within an interdisciplinary context” (see Appendix L).
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Students for this program are nominated by the graduate officers in their departments and
selected by a subcommittee made up of members of the Advisory Board on the basis of a proposal that
they submit and letters of recommendation. This year’s competition drew nominations from Music, Art
History, Visual Arts, Landscape Architecture, English, Comparative Literature, French and Speech
Communication. Work that is cross-disciplinary in subject, materials, or methodology is especially
encouraged in this program. Recent residency recipient, Vidhya Swaminathan, PhD student in English,
is pleased that “the community of scholars affiliated with the Institute encourages and rewards work that
crosses disciplinary boundaries in order to form a more complete understanding of the topic,” noting that
her own work on the rhetoric of the slave trade in eighteenth-century Britain “incorporates analyses from
history, political science, economics, and literary studies” (see Appendix L).
4) The IAH Individual Faculty Grant Program is intended to support the research, performance,
and creative projects of individual faculty members in the College of Arts and Architecture and the
College of the Liberal Arts. Proposals should have the potential to make a significant contribution to the
applicant’s field and to enhance the applicant’s professional career and the visibility of the art and
humanities at Penn State. These awards support materials, travel for research/creative activity, research
assistance, and release time. This competition, held twice per year, awards a maximum of $4,000. All
applications include a summary of the project, an itemized budget, a curriculum vitae, and a letter of
evaluation from the department head. Applications for this competition are reviewed by a subcommittee
of the Advisory Board in consultation with the Director and the Associate Director of the IAH.
IAH Individual Faculty Grants support a variety of research and creative projects. Mrinalini
Sinha, Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies, states that “the IAHS grant proved very
timely for my project . . . . I expect the results of this [new] research to strengthen the overall argument of
my book about the global arena for the emergence of a new discourse of British imperialism and Indian
nationalism in the interwar period” (see Appendix L). The Institute also encourages grant recipients to
leverage their IAH support in applications for outside funding. Marica Tacconi, Assistant Professor of
18
Musicology, credits the research sponsored by her Institute grant with helping her attain the prestigious
Villa I Tatti Fellowship from the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, writing:
“This work will build upon the research I initiated last summer [with Institute funds], a fact that I am sure
was evident to the members of the Fellowship selection committee” (see Appendix L).
All faculty members who receive funding through this program are invited to give a public
lecture about their Institute funded work as a part of the well-attended IAH luncheon series. Since the
projects being presented are works-in-progress, these talks provide a rich opportunity for hearing about
the development of a faculty member’s ideas. Clem Hawes, Associate Professor of English writes, “the
engaged questioning provided by my audience at the IAH lecture was a delight. The most useful thing
about this entire exercise was that I was forced to explain my ideas to a well-educated audience with no
special expertise in the eighteenth century . . . the IAH talk was . . . a refreshing illustration, for me, of
the continuing vitality of the Humanities as a general public culture” (see Appendix L).
II. Impact of New Challenge Grant Funds
A. Impact on the Penn State Community
Our present IAH programming provides a strong foundation upon which the time is now right to
build. Endowment funds from a new NEH Challenge Grant and matching non-Federal contributions will
enable the Institute, in partnership with the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Arts and
Architecture, to take existing programs such as Residencies and Interdisciplinary Groups to the next level
and to introduce other programs such as an endowed lecture series, an annual symposium, and civic and
educational outreach initiatives. In each of these endeavors, the Institute will serve as a bridge between
the communities that it helps to create, nurture, and sustain.
1) Enhanced and Diversified Scope for Interdisciplinary Groups
Interdisciplinary groups that draw upon faculty and students from a wide range of units provide
an ideal setting to begin and sustain cross-disciplinary conversations.
With increased funding from a
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second Challenge Grant, we will offer a second level of “seed” funding to new and emerging groups and
make the funding available to more established groups more commensurate with the demand.
One of the challenges that groups face is that they often begin with one or two faculty within a
single department. These new groups are not competitive with more established, widely representative
groups and yet they need initial support in order to expand. One group not funded in our spring 2002
competition, for example, proposed a “Mixed Blood” lecture series that would bring in scholars as well
as creative writers on the topic of writing, race, and identity in 20th-century America. This group,
however promising, was drawn almost exclusively from one department (English) and hence did not yet
have the interdisciplinary reach of some of the other groups. However, “seed” money that would allow
them to bring in several speakers and make contact with other units would clearly have been of great
benefit to this fledging group.
Our proposed second-tier of “seed” funding (up to $3,000 per group per year) will nurture and
develop new groups such as the Mixed Blood group described above, enabling them to build connections
with faculty and graduate students in other units. This diversification of our current Interdisciplinary
group funding will be particularly valuable for younger faculty or faculty new to Penn State. We are
proposing to give “seed” support to up to five groups each year, and hence are allocating $15,000 in
endowment funding for this initiative.
In addition to the second-tier of “seed” funding for new groups, funds made available by a
Second Challenge Grant will enable the IAH, working together with the two partner Colleges, to respond
more adequately to the tremendous interest and enthusiasm generated by the Interdisciplinary Group
program. Within the constraints of its present budget, the Board has been forced to make difficult
choices between compelling projects, all of which are worthy of funding. In spring 2002, fewer than
half of the groups who applied for support received funding, and of the dollar amount, IAH was able to
provide less than one-quarter of the funds requested. Hence, while this program will remain competitive,
endowment funding will enable us to take advantage of the opportunities for community-building
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provided by these collaborative, interdisciplinary groups. We are proposing to use $20,000 in new
money to fund an additional two ongoing groups.
2) Endowed Lecture Series and Symposium on Annual Theme
Under Interdisciplinary Groups, the Institute stimulates and supports programming coordinated
by other groups, broadly related to an overarching IAH theme. By inaugurating an endowed lecture
series and an annual symposium, we will give larger coherence to these individual explorations. The
IAH lecture series and symposium hence become bridges that connect the activities of the individual
groups, creating a vital public forum on the humanities.
Endowed Lecture Series
Endowment funds will make possible a series of lecture and workshops designed to bring in
nationally and internationally distinguished visitors on an annual theme of multi-disciplinary and multicultural importance. This high-profile lecture series, sponsored by the Institute, will be distinctive in that
suggestions for speakers will be developed in conversation with the two colleges. Scholars will be
selected by a sub-committee from the Advisory Board, which, given its cross-disciplinary make-up, will
result in speakers who have very broad appeal.
This new endowed lecture program will bring in four speakers a year, each of whom will visit
campus for a two to three day period, enabling extended interaction with Penn State faculty and graduate
students.
In addition to a public lecture, visiting scholars will discuss their research in a more informal
workshop setting in which there will be a great deal of conversation between Penn State faculty and
graduate students and the visitor. To prepare for such visits, the Institute will put together a small packet
of readings by the speaker for participants. In addition, there will be an informal session to give graduate
students an opportunity to discuss their own research with the visitor.
To explore a theme such as Boundaries, we will invite speakers such as Edward Said, University
Professor of English, Columbia University; Griselda Pollock, Professor of the Social and Critical
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Histories of Art at the University of Leeds; Donna Haraway, Professor, History of Consciousness and
Women's Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz; Trinh T. Minha-Ha, Professor of Women's
Studies, Film, and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley; and Homi K. Bhabha, Chester D. Tripp
Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, University of Chicago Professor of English Literature
and Cultural Theory. All of these scholars explore different understandings of boundaries, generating
new insights into this theme throughout the year’s lectures. For this program, we will allocate $24,000
per year, averaging $6,000 to cover costs (travel, honorarium, lodging, meals) for each of the four
speakers.
Annual Symposium
Culminating the lecture series exploration of a theme such as Boundaries, we will offer an
annual spring symposium that will bring to the Penn State campus internationally renowned visiting
scholars. While the audience for the lecture series will largely be drawn from Penn State and the local
community, we envision a broader reach for the symposium and will publicize the event widely among
colleges and universities throughout the Northeast. By bringing in high-profile speakers on a focused
aspect of our annual theme (e.g. Gender Boundaries) and by featuring at the same time distinguished
Penn State faculty working on the same topic, we will ensure broad interest and participation from a
dispersed academic and non-academic audience. While Friday night will begin with a keynote public
lecture, the Saturday program will group paired speakers who will give different perspectives on a given
specific topic, e.g. engendering the body; women and public/private spaces; and representations of
gender. The day’s program will conclude with a roundtable discussion featuring all of the speakers that
will give audience members further opportunities to ask questions and offer their own perspectives.
One successful model we will follow is a fall 2000 Symposium sponsored by the College of the
Liberal Arts and organized by the Committee for Early Modern Studies as the culmination of a threesemester program of lectures and workshops on the topic of Monstrous Bodies/Political Monstrosities in
the Early Modern Period. The Friday night and Saturday symposium was attended by over 100 faculty
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and graduate students from across the university and from other universities and colleges in the
Northeast. Featured visiting speakers included Peter Burke, Reader in Cultural History and Fellow at
Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge; Barbara Stafford, Distinguished Professor of Art History,
University of Chicago; David Cressy, Professor of British History, Ohio State University; and Timothy
Hampton, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley. Essays
based on the presentations in the lecture series and symposium have been collected in a volume edited by
Joan Landes, Professor of Women’s Studies and History and Laura Knoppers, Professor of English, that
is currently under consideration by Cornell University Press.
Given the support that the Challenge Grant will provide, our Institute symposium will be held
with no registration fee, making the event more accessible to faculty from a number of universities and
colleges, to graduate students, and to community members. The symposium will be publicized through
the IAH website, newsletter, listserv announcements, and a flyer that will be mailed to universities and
colleges throughout the Northeast. In addition, we will work with the Public Information offices of both
colleges to advertise the symposium. For this program, we will allocate $35,000 in new funds.
B. Impact on Civic and Educational Communities
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities also acts as a bridge to communities outside of
University walls—whether to public schools or to the regional communities more broadly.
Outreach is a significant part of Penn State’s mission in part because our main campus is located in the
geographic center of Pennsylvania, a primarily rural area located at substantial distance from any large
city. Through the very sophisticated and remarkably varied technological resources available through the
university, the Institute can serve as a conduit through which advanced work in the arts and humanities
can reach public school teachers, civic groups, and citizens of the Commonwealth. In this area, we are
already collaborating with John Harwood, Senior Director, Center for Education Technology Services,
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who writes: “My unit has the resources to support the activities you propose, and we want to work
closely with you to find the best ways to integrate technology into your initiatives” (see Appendix L).
1. Linkage with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council “Humanities and the Arts Initiative.”
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the College of Arts and
Architecture and the College of the Liberal Arts, has forged new ties with the Pennsylvania Humanities
Council. The IAH Director participates in the Jefferson Day Humanities Advocacy Weekend in
Washington D.C., in a delegation that in Spring 2002 included two representatives from the Pennsylvania
Humanities Council. In addition to telephone conversations, collaborations will occur through planned
annual visits of Joe Kelley, Executive Director of the PHC, to the University Park campus and through
the designation of Yvonne Gaudelius, IAH Associate Director, as liaison with the PHC, specifically on
the promotion of the Humanities and the Arts Initiative in central Pennsylvania.
Under this Humanities in the Arts Initiative, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council funds projects
that integrate the humanities in content and in method in the discussion of an artifact, event, or text.
Humanities discussions explore the value of the arts in and for themselves and also as a means for special
insight into contemporary culture, including social and political issues. Examples of previous grant
recipients include the Holocaust Museum and Resource Center of the Scranton-Lackawanna Jewish
Federation, for a program entitled “Visas for Life: Moral Courage During the Holocaust, and Bethlehem
Area Public Library for its “Centennial Puppet Play” chronicling the library’s history and its role in the
history of the city. This initiative is especially interested in projects which reach under-served
populations, including residents of small towns, rural regions, or inner-city areas where there is limited
access to cultural programming.
While the PHC’s Humanities and the Arts Initiative has been active in the Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh areas, little has been done in central Pennsylvania. The location of Penn State’s University
Park campus, in the rural heart of the state, in addition to the nineteen campuses located throughout the
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Commonwealth, make this collaboration between the IAH and Pennsylvania Humanities Council
particularly valuable. On this partnership, Joe Kelley, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania
Humanities Council, writes that “we . . . applaud the proposed collaboration between the Institute and the
PHC to achieve one specific, tangible benefit: to promote the Humanities and the Arts initiative in central
Pennsylvania. This focused collaboration will provide public access to humanities excellence in the
region—while advancing, significantly, council-university cooperation” (see Appendix L).
Under this outreach collaboration with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, we will send six
Penn State faculty each year on a visit to a regional museum, school, club, or other group in the
Commonwealth that has expressed interest in the PHC program. The Institute will widely publicize this
opportunity and make names and projects available to the PHC for dissemination. Each participating
faculty member will be given a $500 stipend plus expenses. For this outreach collaboration with the
Pennsylvania Humanities Council, we will designate $6,000 in funding made available by the second
Challenge Grant.
2. Summer Seminars for Public School Teachers
With new endowment funding, the Institute will also serve as an important bridge between the
College of Liberal Arts, the College of Arts and Architecture, and regional educational communities. In
a summer program, modeled broadly on NEH Summer Seminars for school teachers, the IAH will offer a
one-week intensive seminar for public school teachers on important issues and themes in the humanities
that will also engage teachers in the most recent developments in the scholarly research in their fields.
The teachers will be able to exchange viewpoints and gather information to utilize in their classes and
will also be encouraged to provide us with suggestions on how we could improve our outreach programs
so as to deliver the maximum benefit to the regional educational community. In November 1999,
Governor Tom Ridge signed into law Pennsylvania’s Act 48, which requires that all Pennsylvania public
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school teachers participate in ongoing professional education. Given this, the summer program will be
designed to meet Act 48 requirements and offer credit for the teachers enrolled.
One example of such a seminar already in place at Penn State is the “Arts Festival: Visual
Culture and Art Education,” now entering its third summer. This course, co-taught by Dr. Brent Wilson
and Dr. Marjorie Wilson, professors of Art Education, is offered as an outreach initiative of the College
of Arts and Architecture. Organized around State College’s annual Arts Festival, the course is held as a
one week intensive seminar each July. This festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from
around the country in addition to international participants. By participating in a course in conjunction
with the festival, teachers from around the Commonwealth have the opportunity to develop a broader
context within which to discuss and appreciate the works of art that the festival offers. As recent
participant Martha Blaisdell, a teacher of grades seven through twelve in the Claysburgh-Kimmel School
District remarked, “this is a great way to teach students how to look at art differently and look at the
world differently.”
Another model for the IAH summer seminar is the Penn State Civil War Center’s “Politics and
Culture in the Civil War Era,” to be held at the University Park campus on June 24-28, 2002. Co-taught
by five Penn State faculty, drawn from History and English, this course focuses on the middle decades of
the nineteenth century, a period that featured unparalleled cultural and political change. The course
provides teachers with credit under Act 48, new materials and methods for implementing the National
Standards, and an emphasis on the practical implementation of course material in the classroom. On our
proposal to develop a similar IAH course, Bill Blair, Director of the Civil War Era Institute, writes: “I
would welcome the opportunity to work closely with the Institute . . . to build on initiatives that we have
under way with an interdisciplinary group and at least two programs for public school teachers” (see
Appendix L).
Summer courses sponsored by the IAH will be distinctive in drawing widely on faculty across
the humanities disciplines. Faculty interested in teaching summer seminars for teachers under the aegis
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of the Institute of the Arts and Humanities will apply in an annual competition, to be reviewed by the
IAH Advisory Board, for which they will submit a proposal consisting of a course description, syllabus,
description of technology or instructional materials needed, and a letter of support from their department
heads. Co-taught seminars, involving faculty from different units in the Colleges of Arts and
Architecture and of the Liberal Arts, will be especially encouraged. Faculty will receive a stipend of
$1,000 for their work in the week-long course.
Registration for the course will be under Continuing Education and each participant will earn 3
graduate credits as a non-degree student. To ensure wide participation and accessibility to the IAH
course, no registration fee with be charged and teachers will be provided with five nights
accommodations in the University Residence hall and a stipend of $500 toward other expenses. For this
educational outreach initiative, we will allocate $15,000 in endowment funds.
3. Outreach with Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art and the Matson Museum of
Anthropology
The Institute, in consultation with the Colleges of the Liberal Arts and Arts and Architecture, has also
begun to partner with the Palmer Museum of Art and the Madsen Museum of Anthropology in programs
of educational and civic outreach. For example, in conjunction with Lewis & Clark: The Unheard
Voices, a symposium co-sponsored by the IAH that will be held at Penn State in October 2002, the
Palmer Museum of Art and Matson Museum of Anthropology will present a workshop for K-12
educators that examines the material and artistic traditions of Native Americans from pre-European
contact to the present day.
This day-long workshop, organized by Dana Carlisle Kletchka, Museum Educator at the Palmer
Museum of Art, and Claire McHale Milner, Curator, Matson Museum of Anthropology, will include an
examination of the history and material culture of Native Americans encountered by Lewis and Clark in
the early 19th century; an introduction to the changes in the material culture and artistic traditions of
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Native Americans as a result of interaction with Europeans and Americans; current views of Native
American culture, including stereotypes ingrained in images from our daily lives and a contemporary
response to the Lewis and Clark journey in the form of an installation piece by Native American artist
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Teachers will also be given information packets with images, articles,
references, and other materials that will serve as future classroom resources.
In a letter thanking the Institute for its support of this workshop, Dana Carlisle Kletchka,
Museum Educator at the Palmer Museum of Art, writes that “according to a local curriculum coordinator
for the State College Area School District, this information will benefit teachers who wish to attend the
installation at the museum as well as those who seek current material for their Native American units of
instruction . . . Educators who attend the workshop will receive Act 48 credits towards their statemandates professional development requirements” (see Appendix L).
Co-sponsored programs such as these serve outreach and community goals to which the IAH is
committed, but full advantage cannot be taken of such partnerships without increased budgetary
resources. With new Challenge Grant funds, the IAH will sponsor two F-48 weekend workshops a year,
following the model of the Lewis-and-Clark workshop and structured around temporary or permanent
exhibitions at the Palmer Museum of Art or the Matson Museum of Anthropology. For this collaborative
outreach initiative, we will allocate $6,000 in new Challenge Grant funds.
III. Appropriateness of Resources and Plans
As the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, in alliance with the two colleges, moves into a new stage of
building and bridging communities, we will strengthen ties already forged and develop conversations and
collaborations already begun. The Pennsylvania State University has significantly increased its support
for the humanities in the past few decades, as evidenced by the work on and successful completion of the
earlier Challenge Grant and of other fund-raising endeavors. Susan Welch and Richard Durst, the Deans,
respectively, of the Colleges of the Liberal Arts and Arts and Architecture, have offered their
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encouragement and significant resources for this grant proposal, and have made raising the matching
non-Federal dollars a top development priority (see Appendix L).
Leadership, Staffing, and Space
The Director and Associate Director of the IAH are senior faculty members in the College of the Liberal
Arts and the College of Arts and Architecture, respectively. They are distinguished scholars in their
fields of research and experienced educators. Both appointments are for three-year terms, with the
possibility of renewal for an additional three years. All IAH programs are developed and implemented
by both directors in consultation with the Board and with the deans of the two colleges.
The Institute has one full-time staff person, who handles the budget and oversees publicity,
programming, grant competitions, and day-to-day operations. The Institute also has two graduate
assistants whose primary responsibilities lie in working on the newsletter, website, and other publicity.
In addition to these resources, the IAH can draw upon the resources of the two colleges as needed. For
example, we receive technology support from the College of the Liberal Arts and we have complete
access to fully staffed grants and development offices in our two partner colleges. In addition, each
college has a public information office and outreach staff with whom we consult and collaborate as we
create our IAH programming. We are further able to draw on the resources of the two colleges in
scheduling sizable lecture halls for events such as our series of luncheon talks by IAH funded faculty and
other public lectures.
The Institute occupies a historic and recently refurbished three-story Victorian house, Ilhseng
Cottage, that sits adjacent to Penn State’s main library near the center of the University Park campus.
Within the cottage, the space is a welcoming hub of intellectual activity situated in a comfortable firstfloor conference room, kitchenette, sitting room, and offices for the Director, Associate Director, and
Staff Assistant. The second and third floors contain six spacious offices, used by resident scholars and
artists and short-term visiting scholars. Through these programs, different faculty, postdoctoral fellows,
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and graduate students are in residence in the offices each semester, thereby constantly changing the
group of scholars who are housed in the Cottage and maintaining a lively and dynamic IAH community.
In addition, the IAH community is enriched by faculty funded through external programs such as
the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowships Foundation and the Mellon Sawyer Seminar program. In
2001-2003, the IAH is fortunate to host a two-year Woodrow Wilson postdoctoral fellow as a part of our
community. Dr. Margaret Werry received her PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University
in June 2001, after completing her dissertation on “Tourism, gender, and ethnicity in the performance of
New Zealand nationalism, 1889-1914.” Of her time thus far in the Institute, Werry writes: “I have
enjoyed the collegial encouragement and interest of scholars involved with the Institute, from across the
Humanities and Arts . . . . For junior scholars like myself, whose work is located between disciplines, this
kind of support, mentorship, and inspiration is invaluable” (see Appendix L).
In 2002-2003, we will also host a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar postdoctoral
fellow and two funded graduate student fellows. These fellows will be working with one of our faculty
members, Dr. Baruch Halpern, Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, and collaborators from Brown
University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on a fully funded Sawyer Seminar project investigating
Contact and Cultural Transmission in the “Axial Age” Mediterranean.
IV. Feasibility of Fund Raising
The College of the Liberal Arts, the College of Arts and Architecture, and Penn State University
have an extensive infrastructure for all fund raising activities and a demonstrated capacity for a
successful response to a Challenge Grant. Fund-raising activities are carried out at two levels: within
each college and university-wide through a central Office of University Development. The latter has a
staff of seventy development professionals working on all aspects of donor research, proposal
development, planned giving, donor relations, and annual fund management. The college development
staffs in Liberal Arts and in Arts and Architecture have direct access to the resources of the University
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office, including a sophisticated, computerized University-wide Prospect Tracking System that records
and manages all contacts and relationships among donors, prospective donors, and staff.
The staff in the offices of Liberal Arts and of Arts and Architecture develop active prospects
from approximately 15,000 identified individuals. From these active prospects, actual donors are
developed through intensive and personalized "cultivation." Among successful strategies employed in
this cultivation phase are (1) personal visits by the Directors of Development, and (2) efforts to reconnect
individuals to the colleges through an invitation to campus a) to meet with faculty, students, and the
Deans of the two Colleges; b) to meet with departments heads or lead faculty in the donors’ area of
interest; or c) to attend a cultural or popular athletic event.
The colleges also have dedicated and hard-working Development Councils comprised of
prominent alumni and friends. In addition to making "leadership" gifts to the colleges in order to
stimulate giving on the part of other potential donors, the role of Council members is to assist in defining
the strategy for the college campaigns, and to work with faculty and development staff to identify and
cultivate new donor prospects. Against this background, the humanities continue to be a major focus of
fund raising for the colleges and their respective Development Councils.
A system to track the stewardship of gifts received has been implemented with significant
success. The system endeavors to have donors meet with students whom they have supported, speak with
faculty whose research depends on their endowment, or attend events sponsored by programs that have
benefited from their philanthropy. The stewardship system has vastly improved the means for the
colleges to thank and recognize donors at all levels through a variety of personalized contacts. As a
result, many donors have given second and even third gifts, and many more have been identified as
having the capability of making additional gifts in response to a potential Challenge Grant.
Within Penn State’s current seven-year Grand Destiny campaign, the College of the Liberal Arts
had an initial goal of $28 million. Only two years into the campaign, it was apparent that the goal should
be raised to $33 million. Just after the midpoint of the campaign, the goal was raised again to $50
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million. As of April 2002, this College has raised just over $48 million. The College of Arts and
Architecture has achieved similar success, having twice succeeded in meeting initial targets and is now
approaching its current $45 million target. Likewise, financial contributions and in-kind donations of art
objects ($7.5 million in the Grand Destiny campaign) have enabled the College of Arts and Architecture
to develop a new Center for American Arts and Culture. The creation of a curatorial position in
American art in the Palmer Museum of Art has resulted in the successful recruiting of a new staff
member who will have a central focus in this new initiative and will provide substantial effort in
interactions, conferences, and symposia supporting this NEH proposal. Clearly, the two colleges, in
coordination with IAH, have the infrastructure and the commitment to raise the required Challenge Grant
match.
V. Conclusion
Building on the successful humanities hiring and research initiatives made possible by Penn State’s first
Challenge Grant, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, in partnership with the College of the Liberal
Arts and the College of Arts and Architecture, serves as an important bridge between the diverse
communities that its programs nurture, support, and sustain. The success of the previous NEH Challenge
Grant and the continued strong support for the IAH clearly demonstrate that we can raise the 4:1 match
for the current request.
The new programming that we are proposing in this NEH Challenge Grant application will be
instrumental in ensuring that the humanities continue to flourish at Penn State and that we will be able to
expand the reach of the IAH and build on fruitful relationships with non-university educational and civic
communities.