Mass Humanities

CONTACT:

66 Bridge Street
Northampton, MA 01060
413-584-8440
www.masshumanities.org

David Tebaldi, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

In 1974 the National Endowment for the Humanities instituted a “State-Based Program”, giving each state its own “Humanities Council”, to promote humanities research and education, and teach what they are—what are their values and significance in modern America, and how we might support and use them to enrich our lives. 2009 will mark the 35th anniversary of Mass Humanities. They have awarded over $10 million in grants for programs statewide, in history, philosophy, literature, and related disciplines like religious studies, jurisprudence, archaeology, and linguistics. Mass Humanities’s current program theme is “Liberty and Justice for All”, exploring the interplay between these fundamental democratic values. Their “Clemente Course” has offered tuition-free, college-credit humanities courses to over 250 economically and educationally disadvantaged adults. Originally the “humanities” or the studia humanitatis (“studies of humanity”) were intensely practical, promoting the cultivation and perfection of body, mind, and spirit, to become more fully and effectively what we are as human beings. They were the core of Classical liberal education. In fact, humanitas was how the Romans translated the Greek philanthropia—loving what it is to be human! Thus the Catalogue for Philanthropy and Mass Humanities have a common mission, which we pursue in complementary and mutually-reinforcing ways. Please join us.

(2008: CULTURE: Education: Informal)