The New Hampshire Humanities Council is a private non-profit organization that strengthens New Hampshire by
providing free public humanities programs in its communities. While the Humanities Council's mission is specific
to New Hampshire, we are not part of the state government. We are part of a national network of Humanities Councils
affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. We rely on individual, corporate, and foundation support
for our diverse programs, which foster reflection, discussion, and civil debate where people live, work, study, and
play.
The humanities are those fields of inquiry that explore the heart of the human experience. They help us experience
and remember the power of ideas in a world where family, community, and career are in a constant state of flux.
The humanities include but are not limited to literature, history, languages, ethics, philosophy, comparative
religion and culture, and the interpretation of the arts.
The New Hampshire Humanities Council nurtures the joy of learning and inspires community engagement by bringing life-enhancing ideas from the humanities to the people of New Hampshire.
The mission of the New Hampshire Humanities Council is to offer essential opportunities for discovery, self-reflection, and lifelong learning by fostering civil discourse and bringing ideas from the humanities to the people of New Hampshire. We connect people with ideas.
The New Hampshire Humanities Council awards grants and develops and sponsors free public programs such as book discussions, workshops, seminars, and conferences led by scholars in literature, history, languages, ethics, philosophy, comparative religion and culture, and the interpretation of the arts. The NHHC works in partnership with our state’s schools and cultural institutions to improve the quality of life for New Hampshire citizens.
The NHHC’s vision, mission, goals and actions are informed by a set of core values that affirm its best traditions and embody its aspirations for the future. The NHHC’s core values are the unfettered pursuit of knowledge, understanding and self-awareness; integrity; quality; community and diversity; connection to culture, history, and place; cooperation; the importance of inspiration; accessibility; and a belief that education is essential to the vitality of each individual and of our communities, our state, and our nation.
The NHHC promotes the fundamental value of the unfettered pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and self-awareness. The form and content of NHHC programs will be consistent with the value of free and open inquiry, employing approaches that embody open-mindedness, tolerance, objectivity, impartiality, reason, and reflection. NHHC programs will encompass a wide range of issues, will not advocate a particular point of view, will provoke thought, and will encourage the active exploration of a variety of perspectives.
The NHHC strives to assure integrity in all of its decisions, actions, and programs. Integrity is a guiding value not only in its programming -- in which the NHHC encourages exploration of moral and ethical questions -- but in relationships within the NHHC and with its many stakeholders.
The NHHC is committed to delivering programming of the highest quality, characterized by effective and engaging methods of presentation and learning, high standards for content, and honest assessment of effectiveness. NHHC programs emphasize participation, the development of civil discourse skills, and interdisciplinary approaches where appropriate.
The NHHC is dedicated to forming and sustaining community, including communities of interest and affiliation and communities defined by physical proximity, such as neighborhoods and towns. To instill lifelong habits of civic and social responsibility and to overcome social isolation, the NHHC encourages engagement in the life of the community, respect for diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints, and active participation in civil discourse.
The NHHC promotes the understanding of New Hampshire’s culture, history, and sense of place. The NHHC also strives to broaden its constituents’ knowledge, perspectives and understanding of the human community throughout history and around the globe.
The NHHC seeks to form strong and lasting bonds of cooperation with its many constituencies and stakeholders, including program participants, scholars, program partners, funders, the media, and the state’s cultural and educational institutions.
The NHHC believes in the importance of inspiration and strives to feed the human spirit by encouraging intellectual curiosity and creativity.
The NHHC strives to make its programs accessible to all, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or location. It is particularly mindful of extending humanities programs to the least advantaged, including those who are most isolated from society and those who face a barrier to knowledge as a result of illiteracy.
The NHHC believes that education is essential to the vitality of each individual, our communities, our state, and our nation. The NHHC is committed to working with K-12 educators in support of excellence in the teaching of the humanities in New Hampshire schools.
Public Programs and Special Series:
- What Is New Hampshire Reading?: a statewide reading program that brings people together to
discuss books and ideas at our town libraries, bookstores, and cafes. Learn more.
- Connections: a literacy program for adult new readers. Learn more.
- Literature and Medicine: a health-care-facility-based reading and discussion series that builds collegiality and team cohesion, increases empathy and communication skills, investigates tradition-bound roles that hinder best practices, and refreshes people working in the healthcare environment. Learn more.
- Special Programs conducted by the Humanities Council including our two-year project, Shifting Ground: Religion and Public Life in America. Learn more.
Educational Programs that Improve K - 12 Learning:
- In-depth Study for Teachers at our Summer Institutes
- Teacher Workshops for Enrichment and Curriculum Development
- Author & Scholar Visits to NH Classrooms
- Technology Day Workshops
Learn more about our programs for teachers.
Grants to Partner Organizations:
Humanites To Go! Catalog
The Humanities Council partners with local, state, and national organizations, including schools, libraries, and historical
societies, and religious, civic, and cultural groups to offer hundreds of programs through our Humanities to Go catalog.
These lectures and series are available through a one-page application form. The Humanities to Go catalog
allows organizations to bring many of New Hampshire's best humanities scholars to speak on a wide variety of topics. These events are like college seminars offered free to the people of New Hampshire.
Our Humanities to Go catalog was updated and expanded in 2006. Contact us at 603-224-4071 to obtain a copy. Learn more about Humanities to Go.
Mini-Grants and Project Grants
The Humanities Council sets aside a portion of its resources to award competitive grants for public humanities projects proposed
by community and civic organizations in collaboration with humanities scholars. Mini-grants are considered monthly for projects
up to $1500. Project Grants are awarded quarterly for ideas of larger scope and cost. Funded grants range from memoir reading
and writing workshops for seniors to Civil War history forums to jazz appreciation series. Learn more about our grant programs.
Our office hours are 8:30- 5:00 Monday - Friday.
Directions to our office:
From the North
From the South
From the East
From the West
New Hampshire Humanities Council
19 Pillsbury Street
Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603-224-4071 Fax: 603-224-4072
From the North: Take 93 South to exit 12N in Concord.
You are now on South Main Street, proceed for approx. 1 mile. Go past S & W Sports and as you start up a the knoll, you will see a large brick building. Take the left after that building onto Pillsbury Street. We are the second brick building on the left. We are on the first floor.
From the South: Take 93 North to exit 12N in Concord.
You are now on South Main Street, proceed for approx. 1 mile. Go past S & W Sports and as you start up a the knoll, you will see a large brick building. Take the left after that building onto Pillsbury Street. We are the second brick building on the left. We are on the first floor.
From the East: Take Route 4 West to Concord. Take 393 South to 93 South to exit 12N.
You are now on South Main Street, proceed for approx. 1 mile. Go past S & W Sports and as you start up a the knoll, you will see a large brick building. Take the left after that building onto Pillsbury Street. We are the second brick building on the left. We are on the first floor.
From the West:Take I-89 South to Concord. Take 93 North to exit 12N.
You are now on South Main Street, proceed for approx. 1 mile. Go past the S & W Sports and as you start up a the knoll, you will see a large brick building. Take the left after that building onto Pillsbury Street. We are the second brick building on the left. We are on the first floor.
The Humanities Council is pleased to welcome Rick Agran to our staff as the Council’s new Grants Officer. As Grants Officer, Rick will administer the Council’s competitive major and mini grants and coordinate the Humanities to Go speaker’s bureau along with the What is New Hampshire Reading book discussion program.
Rick will work with organizations applying for Council grants and he’ll coordinate the roster of scholars who present Humanities to Go and book discussion programs. Rick will oversee the creation of a newly revised and expanded Humanities to Go catalog in 2008.
Contact Rick with question about any of these programs at
224-4071 x14.
Rick previously served as the founding Chair of Liberal Arts and acting Chair of Art Education at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where he also taught fine artists to write and lectured broadly in the humanities.
Rick is a native of Brookline, New Hampshire and now lives on the edge of the White Mountains. He is interested in the intersections between image-making in art and poetry. He has also taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the University of New Hampshire, and Heartwood College of Art. For six years he lead book discussions as a scholar for the Humanities Council.
Rick is also a poet and a writer who authored two books: a picture book for children called Pumpkin Shivaree (Handprint Books, 2003) and a collection of poems entitled Crow Milk (Oyster River Press, 1997). He’s an arts and entertainment contributor to The Wire in Portsmouth and Artscope in Boston.
Rick co-edited Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets. His poems have also appeared in Aroostok Review, Wind in the Timothy, Centripetal, the Cimarron Review, Northern New England Review, Lowell Review, and other magazines. He’s at work on a second collection of poems tenatively entitled A Short History of Longing.
Rick earned an MA in English from the University of New Hampshire where he studied with Mekeel McBride and U.S. Poet Laureate, Charles Simic. He also received an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College where he studied with Mark Doty, Kate Johnson-Phillips, Thomas Lux, and Marie Howe. Rick is on the Arts in Education roster for the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts as Poet in the Schools.
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