Grant application deadline approaches

The South Dakota Humanities Council is now accepting grant applications for Research and Discussion Programs. Applications are postmark due to the SDHC office by Friday, Jan. 27, 2006. The optional preliminary deadline that allows for staff review of the proposal is Jan. 13. Programs must start no earlier than April 15, 2006.

Please find all of the grant requirements online at http://sdhc.sdstate.org or call the council at 605-688-6113 with questions. Research grants are funded at $2,500, while discussion programs generally funded at $3,000, with a few projects funded for more than $5,000.

The focus for grant programs in 2006 includes 2010 South Dakota, a new category that combines arts, humanities and economic development in an effort to draw cultural tourists, as well as programs for Youth-at-Risk, Literacy and South Dakota's American Indians. SDHC also provides resources from the Resource Center Catalog for programs dealing with these topics.

The South Dakota Humanities Council is an independent, non-profit cor-poration supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the South Dakota Humanities Foundation, corporate sponsors, individuals and other sources.

The council's mission is to support and promote public programming and provide grant funding for programs in traditional humanities disciplines, which include archaeology, history, literature, philosophy, comparative religion, and numerous other subjects of interest to general audiences.