This report highlights six NEH-funded projects designed to support rural American communities through the humanities. The projects featured in this report demonstrate the diversity of the agency’s work and the many strategies for engaging rural communities throughout the country. These projects are just a few examples of how NEH funding fuels innovation, increases communication, and strengthens communities. They also represent the NEH’s commitment to documenting the American experience through the rich stories of rural populations. Some initiatives, like the North Dakota Digital Newspaper Project, use advanced archiving technology and digitization to preserve historical information while others, like A New Harvest, use history to engage Americans in a dialogue about the future of rural America.

The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™  has assembled a list of planning and design terms to help  community members understand the terms used in design charrettes by architects, planners, and designers. This glossary is helpful not only for participants at a workshop or charrette, but also forunderstanding the vocabulary used by the design field.  

This report examines how improving existing infrastructure and capitalizing on historic cultural resources can revitalize a rural community’s economy. The report features Silver City, New Mexico as an example of a Main Street that became vibrant with activity and culture after being vacant and dilapidated after flooding. The report also highlights Lindsborg, Kansas, a small town that capitalized on its heritage rooted in Swedish culture to revitalize its economy.

This report defines asset-based economic development, and provides several case studies in which industry and industrial clusters, as well as human capital have benefited the economies of rural communities—retaining and creating jobs, and increasing income and the local tax base—while also enhancing the community’s quality  of life and sense of place.