Keeping the humanities alive in 2025

Above: An AHA grant funded artist interviews and talks at Dothan’s Wiregrass Museum of Art.

January 21, 2026 — Last May, a literacy group brought an award-winning children’s author (and hundreds of her books) to Birmingham elementary schools — fostering a love for reading and learning in local students.

Last August, the Alabama Genealogical Society’s summer seminar in Gadsden gathered folks from around the state to learn how to research their family history — and connect their own stories to Alabama’s.

And in December, a church in Mobile launched an effort to publicly document the history of Alabama’s Presbyterian women — highlighting their contributions to our state’s culture and literature.

What do these community projects have in common? They were among 36 statewide recipients of grant funding from the Alabama Humanities Alliance in 2025.

“Our AHA grant award was vital to the success of our festival and strengthened our museum’s ability to serve our community through arts and cultural programming,” says Kelly McKenzie, of the Monroe County Heritage Museum, which received an AHA grant for its 2025 Monroeville Literary Festival.

“This funding allowed us to offer meaningful, engaging experiences that would not have been possible otherwise — especially in a rural area with limited access to arts resources. Without AHA support, many of our initiatives would simply not reach the scope or quality our audiences deserve.”

 

Meet AHA’s 2025 grantees.

Grantmaking in a challenging year

AHA’s grantmaking declined sharply in 2025, due to an unexpected loss of federal funding that occurred in April. Following a nearly two-month pause, support from individual and institutional donors helped AHA bring back its Mini Grants for the rest of the year.

In total across 2025, AHA awarded just over $83,000 in Mini Grants to fund 36 public projects. In contrast, with level funding in 2024, AHA was able to fund 65 public programs across the state, providing $380,000 in Mini, Major, and Media Grants combined.

“For more than 50 years, AHA’s grantmaking has been the backbone of our work across Alabama,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “These grants support locally developed public programs that help Alabamians discover more about our shared past, and consider our present and future, together. It pained us to have less funding available this past year for grantmaking. We know it hurt local nonprofits and cultural institutions statewide who rely on us for this type of support.”

Indeed, AHA remains the primary source of funding for humanities-based public programming in the state. In a 2024 survey of our grant recipients, 90% said their public programming would not have been possible without AHA’s support.

AHA grant recipients include community cornerstones and education-based nonprofits, such as libraries, museums, historic sites and historic societies, universities, arts and culture organizations, literary organizations, chambers of commerce, and more. Artists, filmmakers, and other creatives often rely on AHA Media Grants, too, for producing Alabama-focused documentaries, podcasts, and other digital media.

“While we wish our capacity had been greater in 2025,” says Holmes, “we are beyond grateful to our donors who helped us survive 2025 and helped us keep supporting humanities-rich public programming in as many communities as possible.”

AHA-funded local programming in 2025 included oral history projects; literary and film festivals; literacy programs; folklife celebrations; religious studies; moderated conversations on art, music, and books; explorations of Alabama’s natural history and civil rights legacy; and local storytelling via documentaries, podcasts, and more.

AHA’s Mini Grants, which offer up to $2,500 for humanities-rich programming across the state, are once again available in 2026; Major Grants (up to $10,000) and Media Grants (up to $15,000) remain suspended, as AHA seeks to secure sustainable, long-term funding for these opportunities.

2025 grant-funded project examples

Alabama Coal Miners Digital Archive
The University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa
This project gives Alabama coal miners the chance to share their memories — and artifacts — as part of a project to preserve our state’s coal mining history. Organized by the University of Alabama’s Department of History, this project will also give miners the chance to scan, and preserve, artifacts like photos, letters, mining lamps, helmets, lunch buckets, and more.

Alabama Folk Podcast, Season Four
Alabama Folklife Association | Statewide (Mobile)
Alabama Folk explores Alabama’s many cultures and traditions and engages statewide audiences in Alabama folklife. The podcast features deep interviews with Alabama artists who carry on traditions passed down through the generations or shared in community. Season Four showcases artists diverse in experience, artform, and geography.

Deep Roots, Strong Souls: Anniston’s Black Heritage Documentary
Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County | Anniston
The history of Anniston runs deep, but often overlooked are the contributions of Anniston’s Black population in the growth of the city. The goal of this project is to create a documentary utilizing Library resources (photos, oral histories, research materials) and have an experienced videographer, Neal “Buddy” Vickers, create a documentary on the subject to be shown at the Library as a program during February 2026 for Black History Month.

InChoir: Conversations about Choral Music, the Arts, and Life- Season Three
Troy University | Troy
The podcast, “InChoir: Conversations about Choral Music, the Arts and Life,” goes directly to choral composers to learn how they explore sound, universal texts, and shared human experiences in their choral compositions — to hear the “stories behind their songs.” AHA funding assists in the production of Season 3 and helps expand our outreach in social media and print publications within the Music Education and/or Choral Music fields in Alabama and beyond.

The Invisible Hand of Diplomacy: Shaping Our World
Global Ties Alabama | Huntsville
Celebrating 60 years of service, Global Ties Alabama partners with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training to bring an engaging U.S. diplomatic exhibit to Alabama. The exhibit highlights key diplomatic moments in U.S. history, while a complementary “Century of Service” presentation by a seasoned Foreign Service Officer delves into the personal — often unheard — stories of diplomats, revealing the power of human connection in shaping our world.

Lunch & Learn Series on History of Hartselle and Morgan County
Hartselle Historical Society | Hartselle
The Hartselle Historical Society’s 2026 Lunch & Learn Series will bring in knowledgeable local historians to speak about the people, places, and events that have shaped this community. Presenters will include archivists, curators and directors of historical repositories, local educators and historians, businessmen, and members of founding families who will weave a picture of Hartselle’s history from before its official incorporation to the present.

Monroeville Literary Festival – 2025
Monroe County Heritage Museum | Monroeville
The Monroeville Literary Festival is a two-day event hosted by the Monroe County Heritage Museum. The 2025 festival features honorees Cassandra King and Suzanne Hudson. Visitors from across the state and beyond attend the event, notonly to meet authors and hear their stories, but also for the real Monroeville experience of walking in the footsteps of Monroeville’s famous authors. Visitors attend lectures, book reviews, workshops, and book signings.

Learn more about all our 2025 grant recipients.

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home.