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Humanities Tennessee is a nonprofit that fosters community and civility in Tennessee through public programs encouraging ideas, stories, history, arts, and culture. This year, the organization lost all its federal funding in April, causing uncertainty on whether the organization could continue, much less produce its beloved Southern Festival of Books. However, thanks to passionate donors, a fundraising drive with Ann Patchett and Parnassus, and a new partnership with Vanderbilt University, the festival and annual Authors in the Round dinner can continue uniting lovers of the written word. We chatted with Tim Henderson, Executive Director of Humanities Tennessee, about the nonprofit, its supporters, and the sense of community its programs and events bring. - Destiny Mizell
DAILY DUTIES: As the executive director of Humanities Tennessee, I am fortunate to work with a creative, deliberate, and passionate staff to imagine and administer public humanities programs throughout the state.
IN ACTION: Humanities Tennessee has always had, at its center, the mission of fostering stronger communities and greater civility in Tennessee. Right now, we’re seeking to realize this mission through a roster of programs that focus on literary arts, especially, and the literary community statewide, as well as a new initiative called the Shared Futures Lab that encourages Tennesseans to think together about creating more deliberate, more imaginative, and more prosperous futures for ourselves and our communities.
IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY: In many ways, the year so far has encouraged us to rethink how we do what we do. We’ve had to think deeply about our partnerships and our commitments to folks across the state, and in many ways, we are building on relationships and trust of half a century while trying to maintain a “startup” mentality.
YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME: It is nearly inexpressible to consider the many ways HT has seen supporters of this work step up in meaningful ways over the past few months. The base of this support has been genuinely diverse: thousands of individuals, large and small institutions, national private philanthropies. I think it demonstrates the value we realize when people engage in the history, stories, arts, and culture of the places around us.
CAN’T WAIT: Honestly, this year, I am most looking forward to seeing people [at the Southern Festival of Books and Authors in the Round]! At the heart of everything HT does, and has done for more than 50 years, is the significance of our communities. The community around Authors in the Round — led by this year’s co-chairs, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams — has responded in a very big way already, and a broad community of support for the Southern Festival of Books has shown up to say how much that program means to them. We are looking forward to seeing folks in person and interacting with each other over the course of the festival/AIR weekend.
TOGETHER WE CAN: HT was chartered half a century ago to rely on public/private partnerships. It seems as important now as it was to Congress then, establishing the cultural endowments as independent agencies, that We the People own our stories — our history and our culture — and even modest public support of these pursuits is an effective way to achieve that.