History Alive! features scholars from around the state who portray historical figures at venues including museums, schools, libraries, community centers, and fairs and festivals. From Eleanor Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin to Minnie Pearl and Julia Child, these living history performances provide a passport through time for student and adult audiences throughout the Mountain State.
The West Virginia Folklife Program is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, presentation, and support of West Virginia’s vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions. West Virginia Folklife is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Folk & Traditional Arts Program. The West Virginia Folklife Program employs West Virginia’s first state folklorist to carry out this work.
The Little Lectures are informal programs featuring respected speakers on a variety of topics. All programs are presented on Sunday afternoons beginning at 2:00 p.m. and are presented at our headquarters located at 1310 Kanawha Boulevard, East, in Charleston. Admission is $10 per person and includes refreshments after the presentation.
The Board of Directors of the West Virginia Humanities Council established the annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities to honor the leadership of Betsy Keadle McCreight, who died in 1985. McCreight was a founding board member, serving the Council as treasurer, vice president, and president.
Our traveling exhibits focus on West Virginia topics and subjects of broader interest to people in the Mountain State. Past exhibits include Born of Rebellion: West Virginia Statehood, John Brown at Harpers Ferry, and John Henry: The Steel Drivin’ Man. We also regularly sponsor and coordinate tours of Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibits through the Museum on Main Street program.
With special funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Humanities Council is partnering with West Virginia military veterans to produce a six-part web series titled West Virginia Standing Together: The Humanities and the Experience of War.
The West Virginia Humanities Council is a charter sponsor of the West Virginia Book Festival along with the Kanawha County Public Library and Charleston Newspapers. The festival, established in 2001, was held annually until funding concerns at the library in 2013 necessitated a two-year hiatus. The festival returns this year to the Charleston Civic Center October 23-24.
The West Virginia Classics series, a collaborative publishing venture of the Humanities Council and West Virginia University Press, brings back the state's classic books in handsome new editions with new introductions by contemporary scholars. The series helps new generations of readers discover out-of-print texts not available from other sources that reveal the culture and diversity of West Virginia.
