Dennis Miller worked at Eau Claire’s Uniroyal tire plant for fifteen years. The plant, a major employer in the river town, closed in June 1992, putting more than 1,000 people out of work and shaking one of the city’s economic bedrocks. The reverberations of that event echo to this day.
When Miller was approached by two local documentary filmmakers asking to share his story, he said yes. The film, “When Rubber Hit the Road,” released in February, was backed by Wisconsin Humanities, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to “build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs” through educational and cultural programs.
For more than fifty years, Wisconsin Humanities, formerly the Wisconsin Humanities Council, has helped people in Wisconsin to remember our shared history and culture and build the bridges to help us understand who we are, where we’ve been, and where we might go together. The group’s eight-person staff serves every Congressional district in the state through grants and programming partnerships with communities, libraries, historical societies, museums, and other nonprofits.
Now that mission is in grave jeopardy, due to the Trump Administration’s assault on its chief funder, the National Endowment for the Humanities. On April 2, in the middle of the night, Wisconsin Humanities executive director Dena Wortzel got word that all federal funding had evaporated, effective immediately. Federal funding accounts for 89 percent of Wisconsin Humanities’ annual budget of roughly $1.2 million. The rest comes from the state and private donations.
Even though Congress allocated current-year funds in mid-March, the termination letter that Wortzel received states that its grant is eliminated in its entirety. That grant includes $400,000 for fiscal year 2024 that will no longer reach Wisconsin communities, unless Congress acts to reverse the order.
What will the end of Wisconsin Humanities mean?
Last year, the group funded 220 grant-related events with more than 80,000 participants. One recent grant went to the Headwaters Council for the Performing Arts in Eagle River, Wisconsin, to fund a single performance based on the songs from World War II. This mushroomed into collaborations with multiple community organizations, including library exhibits, veterans’ writings, and art pieces.
Wisconsin Humanities also helped sponsor a community powered project in Spooner, Wisconsin, to help local community leaders to identify ways to support teens. Projects have included a community clean-up initiative, a park repair, and a collaboration between teens and community leaders to repurpose a building for a youth center.
“We wouldn’t have come up with it on our own,” said Angela Bodzislaw, a local librarian involved in this undertaking, “because we wouldn’t have had the time (or skills) to do it.” The program is now in its third year and self-sustaining.
In addition to its own programs, Wisconsin Humanities provides financial support for related programming across the state. It partners with Wisconsin Public Radio and its “Wisconsin Life,” radio program, airing radio essays that celebrate what makes Wisconsin unique, with approximately 340,000 listeners each week.
Wisconsin Humanities also supports the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and the Wisconsin poet laureate. Wisconsin historian and author Jerry Apps, who’s worked with the group on a variety of projects, explained why it matters.
“My dad used to say, ‘There’s a tremendous difference between having information and knowing something,’” Apps said. “Humanities get to the ‘know.’ ‘Knowing’ gets to the depths of who we are.”
If the humanities teach us anything, it is the power of what we can do together. Action is needed now to safeguard one of the foundations of Wisconsin’s community.
What can you do?
Call your representatives in Congress, asking them to support the National Endowment for the Humanities and Wisconsin Humanities. Congress.gov allows you to type in your zip code to find contact information for your representative.
Go to WisconsinHumanities.org and make a donation to show your support.
Talk up Wisconsin Humanities with friends, family, and neighbors.
Miller, for his part, is grateful to have told his story through “When Rubber Hits the Road.”
“The humanities are a form of expression of love,” he said. “And love doesn’t divide, it multiplies.”
This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine.