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History
In 1965 the 89th Congress of the United States passed the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act (Public Law 209). This act established a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Congress encouraged both endowments to decentralize at least a portion of their funding. By 1972, the NEH decided that nonprofit citizen committees afforded the best opportunity for promoting the humanities in the individual states.
In May 1972 the NEH invited four Texans to a two-day conference in Washington to be briefed on NEH's state program. These individuals were Thomas B. Brewer, vice chancellor of Texas Christian University; Levi A. Olan, Dallas rabbi and former member of the University of Texas Board of Regents; Emmet Field, vice president of academic affairs at the University of Houston; and David M. Vigness, chair of the department of history at Texas Tech University. The group then held meetings in Dallas to discuss initiating such a program in Texas. Through the leadership of Thomas Brewer, the "Texas Committee for the Humanities" applied for and received a $20,000 planning grant from the NEH, and operations began on January 1, 1973.
The board next conducted a series of regional conferences. Since the NEH required all state humanities committees to focus on the relationship between the humanities and public policy issues, the group was renamed the Texas Committee for the Humanities and Public Policy. On June 15, 1973, the Committee requested from the NEH funds to support administration, program 
development, and grants to local projects. A $170,000, 18-month grant was approved, effective October 1, 1973. The Committee's board employed a director, Sandra L. Myres, a member of the history faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington. The Committee awarded its first grant in January 1974 to KUT 90.5 FM, Austin, for a series of weekly 2-hour radio programs focusing on the Texas Constitutional Revision Convention. Articles of Association were signed on March 18, 1976, and remained in effect until September 5, 1985, when the Texas Committee for the Humanities was incorporated under the laws of Texas. The Internal Revenue Service granted tax-exempt status on August 25, 1976.
The first office of the Texas Committee for the Humanities was on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington, which provided office space and some support services. The organization moved to Austin in June 1980 to be closer to other statewide organizations and to state government.
Name and program changes
In its 1976 legislation reauthorizing the NEH, Congress, encouraged committees to undertake traditional humanities projects as well as those relating to public policy. Since that time, the council has funded numerous projects in traditional humanities fields including U.S. and Texas history, literature, and culture. In recognition of this shift, the organization was renamed the Texas Committee for the Humanities in 1978. In 1996, the organization was renamed the Texas Council for the Humanities (TCH), to reflect the increasing use of the word "council" rather than "committee" by the Congress and other state programs. On January 1, 2004, the council changed its name once again, this time to Humanities Texas. In consideration of its 30th anniversary, the council desired a name more reflective of its inclusive, accessible approach to supporting public humanities programs around the state.
Funding
State humanities councils experienced modest increases in annual funding from the federal government from their beginning through the early 1980s. In 1986, however, TCH revenues were cut almost in half when federal funding dropped significantly and private sector support--weakened by the collapse of the Texas economy--diminished at the same time. Some major initiatives had to be curtailed, postponed, or eliminated. Funds were gradually restored by the early 1990 and held stable through 1995. As a result of the 1994 national elections, many federal programs came under close scrutiny and attack by the new Congress, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. By 1996, the annual budget for the NEH had dropped from $178 to $110 million. State humanities councils, however, experienced more modest cuts, with TCH losing approximately 6% of its federal funding.
As an independent nonprofit corporation working in cooperation with the NEH, the council can solicit funding from the private sector. In addition to donations from its friends organization, the council has received support for particular projects from foundations and corporations. For example, The Shell Oil Companies Foundation and the Hoblitzelle Foundation provided major funding for organization's Sesquicentennial project, "The Texas Experience." Brown Foundation funding helped launch the publication of the council's magazine. The Temple Foundation and Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., have supported the Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities Awards program, and the Trull Foundation has provided funds for workshops for teachers. The council continues to seek grants from foundations and corporations and to broaden its ever-increasing circle of friends.
Texas Humanities Resource Center
The Humanities Resource Center was established in 1978 as a unit of the University of Texas at Arlington Library. It relocated to Austin and operated as an independent nonprofit corporation from 1986 to 1992, when it merged with the state humanities council. Functioning as a division of the council, the TCHRC organized and circulated exhibits, audiovisual programs, and print materials, for use by cultural and educational communities in Texas and beyond.
In 1996 the TCHRC launched a major initiative to use electronic resources to improve humanities teaching in Texas schools. Humanities Interactive, an online exhibits and educational space, received initial financial support from the Meadows Foundation, the Houston Endowment, and the NEH. TCHRC also co-sponsored summer workshops for K-12 teachers with colleges and universities throughout Texas from 1997 to 2003.
By 2003, the Resource Center had held more than 2,860 programs in 247 communities in Texas, collected and created more than 75 exhibits on 56 different subjects, and developed a rental library of more than 400 films, videos, and slide programs. In 2003, the materials developed by the TCHRC were fully integrated within Humanities Texas’s general operations. Humanities Texas continues to create and circulate traveling exhibits and other humanities resources and to maintain Humanities Interactive, which makes these resources available to millions of viewers worldwide.
Texas Journal of Ideas, History and Culture
From 1977 to 2001, the council published a semiannual magazine called Texas Journal of Ideas, History and Culture, which expanded its outreach by offering a "window" to the public humanities--within and beyond Texas. Each issue focused on a theme, often drawing material from council projects. Single issues examined the environment, health care, Latino literature, the pursuit of community, American pluralism, and religion in American life. The magazine highlighted important developments in the humanities, reviewed new books, films, and exhibits, and reported on specific projects. The Journal enjoyed a circulation of more than 10,000. The magazine's title for its first 10 years was The Texas Humanist.
Location
In the late 1980s, Humanities Texas moved to 3809A South Second Street, a small condominium office project in South Austin. A 1990 grant from the Meadows Foundation in the amount of $50,000 provided funds for a down payment, and the council retired the mortgage in 1997. In 2006, Humanities Texas purchased and moved to 1410 Rio Grande, a historic building more centrally located in downtown Austin. Once restored, the building will accomodate public programs, events, and humanities festivities of all kinds.
Leadership
Federal law allows the Texas governor to appoint 6 individuals to the volunteer board for 2-year terms. The other members, representatives of the academic and public sectors, are elected by the board as vacancies occur. Non-gubernatorial members serve terms of three years, with the possibility of being re-elected to a second 3-year term.
Sandra L. Myres served as executive director from 1973 to 1975. Executive Director emeritus James F. Veninga served from 1975 until 1997. Richard T. Hull served from 1997 to 1999, and Monte Youngs from 1999 until 2002. In 2003, Michael L. Gillette became executive director.