“Just as we need an infrastructure of roads and bridges, we need an infrastructure of ideas. In a splintered world, bridging cultures may be our most difficult challenge… It is the creativity and cultural understanding that the humanities instill which make America an enduring role model around the globe. Our humanities organizations are a national asset that we shortchange at our peril.”
Jim Leach, Chairman NEH

“… it’s also about the capacity of ... the humanities to connect us to one another. In a nation as big as ours, as diverse as ours, as full as debate and consternation as it sometimes is, what the people we honor here today remind us of is that kernel of ourselves that connects to everyone else and allows us to get out of ourselves, to see through somebody else’s eyes, to step in their shoes. And what more vital ingredient is there for our democracy than that?”
Excerpt from Remarks by the President Obama Awarding
the 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal

Quotes from CHC constituents (2010):

I think the future of small not-for-profit heritage organizations in Connecticut lies in creative partnerships sponsored by CHC.

Fulfilling our mission depends on CHC funding for programming, exhibitions and staffing.

We would be devastated.

Without your support, the momentum would be gone and so would the community engagement.

Basically, loss of CHC support would be the death knell of good state history, especially for the small and medium size players.

Progress on our organizational development would not have happened without CHC… The Heritage Revitalization Fund has allowed us to step up from just getting along and weathering the storm to being proactive about our future.

The role of CHC staff cannot be overstated. Their evaluation and advice has been critical. If their availability were reduced or eliminated, every humanities organization in the state would suffer.

We would sorely miss CHC. It has provided us the opportunity for public outreach that has allowed us to reach a wider audience and to try innovative programming.

Without CHC’s leadership, the great strides in bringing professional standards to small and mid-sized heritage groups will halt and go backwards.

I worry that our ability to offer current scholarship and quality interpretation will wither.

Connecticut’s historical organizations would not survive nor be able to carry out their missions without CHC funding and the professional development CHC offers.

No other organization supports cultural/heritage/humanities programming and cultural/heritage tourism at a state level and statewide. It delivers a huge return on investment.

The CHC has a history of achieving dramatic change and improvement in the way heritage programs are conceived and delivered to audiences in the state. It is not life-saving work, but it is life-changing work.

One last factoid: According to a regional study conducted by REACH ADVISORS, in the last presidential primary, just under 19% of Connecticut’s eligible voters showed up. But over 70% of “museum advocates” voted! We vote. We vote a lot.