Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative 2027-2029: Up to $100,000 for Arts-Based History and Civics Projects

Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative 2027-2029: Up to $100,000 for Arts-Based History and Civics Projects

The Library of Congress is inviting organizations to propose educational projects that use music and other creative-arts materials from its digital collections to teach history, civics, and democracy. The Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative (LHI) New Awards for 2027-2029 is a good fit for an established education, cultural, library, arts, civic, or community organization that can turn primary-source material into practical learning experiences for middle and high school educators and students.

This is a focused program, not a general arts grant. A successful project must make Library of Congress materials central to the learning design. The notice is especially interested in inquiry-driven analysis of primary sources, civic skill-building, and projects that respond to a demonstrated educational need. Eligible work may include programming, curriculum and tool development, convening partner organizations, or research with substantial practitioner involvement.

The Library expects to make up to six cooperative-agreement awards, with a maximum of $100,000 for the initial 12-month budget period from January 1 through December 31, 2027. The Library may continue an award for up to two additional years without a new competition, subject to funding, priorities, satisfactory performance, and an approvable proposal. The total for one award cannot exceed $300,000 over the possible three-year cycle. The application deadline is 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 18, 2026.

Key details

The Grants.gov listing is the official place to find the current notice, supporting documents, amendment, and questions and answers. The Library’s Lewis-Houghton program page provides program context and links back to the current opportunity. Read the amended notice before relying on any summary, because the application is emailed to the Library rather than submitted through the Grants.gov application interface.

What the initiative funds

The LHI program sits within the Library’s Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program. TPS helps educators and learners work with digitized Library materials in ways that build literacy, critical thinking, content knowledge, and original research skills. LHI narrows that broad purpose to creative-arts-driven learning connected to history, civics, or democracy.

The proposal must use rights-free materials from the Library’s music or creative-arts digital collections. The notice names a wide range of possible sources, including music, dance, theater, visual arts, folk arts, film, photography, book arts, and literary manuscripts. The arts materials should not be decorative examples added after the curriculum is designed. Students and educators should analyze, interpret, compare, create with, or otherwise learn through the Library sources.

The notice identifies four eligible approaches. An organization may propose one or combine several:

• Deliver educational programming to secondary educators and learners.
• Create and distribute teaching materials or tools for specific history, civics, or democracy content.
• Convene similar organizations to develop shared strategies for teaching with Library materials related to music or the arts.
• Conduct research with significant practitioner involvement into the effect of incorporating Library music or creative-arts collections into educational initiatives.

The project can serve people inside or outside formal classrooms, but it needs a clearly defined audience and educational need. A proposal should explain who will use the work, how many learners or educators it expects to reach, what they will do with the primary sources, and why the proposed approach is likely to help.

Who can apply

The applicant must be an organization or public body rather than an individual. The notice allows public and private organizations, including nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Examples include colleges and universities, professional associations, library systems, cultural institutions, K-12 schools, after-school programs, literacy organizations, clubs, civic and community groups, public or private agencies, and Indian tribes or tribal organizations. Collaborative partnerships can also apply when the lead organization fits the notice’s rules.

The applicant must have a record of serving populations relevant to LHI. That record may involve music, visual or performing arts, poetry, media studies, social studies, history, teaching artists, cultural work, community-engaged civics, librarianship, museum education, or related work at the intersection of arts and civic learning. The practical test is whether the organization can show credible experience with the people it proposes to serve and with the type of educational product it wants to create.

There are several boundaries that can disqualify an otherwise promising idea. The applicant must be based in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. The project must also take place within that same U.S. scope. Individuals cannot apply, other federal agencies cannot apply, and an organization that has already received direct Lewis-Houghton funding from the Library of Congress cannot apply for this new-awards notice.

Successful applicants must have a completed SAM.gov registration before the Library makes an award. Registration is free, but the notice warns that it can take several weeks. An organization that waits until after selection to start registration may create an avoidable award problem, so check the entity record and begin any needed renewal or registration work immediately.

What a strong project should show

The strongest concept will connect four pieces without forcing any of them: a real learning need, a specific set of Library sources, a workable teaching or research method, and a route to adoption beyond the applicant’s own team.

Start with the population. “Students need more civics” is too broad. A more useful need statement might identify a particular secondary audience, a difficult historical or civic concept, a gap in teacher preparation, or a community that lacks accessible arts-based primary-source materials. Support the need with local participation data, prior evaluation, teacher feedback, research, or documented experience. The notice asks applicants to show that the proposed solution responds to a recognized need.

Then make the source plan concrete. Identify the Library collections and representative items that will anchor the work. Explain what learners will notice, question, compare, or create from those items. A panel should be able to see why the project needs these Library sources and why the sources are central to the learning goals. The notice specifically evaluates the quality and extent of the proposed use of Library primary sources, including whether source analysis helps build understanding of the curriculum’s key concepts.

Finally, connect activities to reach and durability. Explain who will test the materials, how feedback will change the product, which existing networks will distribute it, and how the work will continue after the award. LHI expects funded materials to be shared online, maintained for at least five years after the performance period, and disseminated through partner or subsidiary networks. A distribution plan is therefore part of the project design, not an afterthought.

Application process and required materials

The amended notice states that the complete application must be submitted by email to [email protected] by 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 18, 2026. The email subject must include the opportunity number 030ADV26R0050. The Library will not accept proposals submitted through Grants.gov, even though the current notice and its templates are posted there.

Applicants must download and complete the Proposal Narrative Template and include the narrative as a Word or PDF attachment. The application also needs a Budget Plan using the instructions in the supporting documents. The required standard SF-424 Application for Federal Domestic Assistance must be downloaded from Grants.gov, completed, and included with the emailed package. The notice says the SF-424 should use CFDA 42.011 and the title “Library of Congress Grants.”

Use the required file naming convention: [NOFO#] - [Applicant Short Name] - [Document Name]. Do not submit zipped or locked files. The Library email system has a 20 MB limit, and some files may grow by 30% to 40% during server conversion. If the package is too large, the notice allows multiple clearly labeled emails, such as “1 of 2 emails” and “2 of 2 emails,” with the opportunity number in each subject line. Do not send files through OneDrive, Box, or another third-party website.

Before sending, check that every required form is present, that the narrative and budget agree, and that the email address is exactly [email protected]. Late, incomplete, ineligible, or misrouted applications will not be reviewed.

Timeline and questions

The first award period is scheduled to run from January 1 through December 31, 2027. The Library listed an informational webinar for August 25 and another for September 9, 2026. General questions were due by September 7, and technical questions were due by September 10. Those question deadlines have passed or are passing as of the current listing date, so an applicant should not assume that a late question will receive an answer. Check the Grants.gov record for the latest Q&A document and any amendment before submission.

The Library plans to convene review panels made up of subject-matter experts in education, creative-arts programming, museum and library studies, and grants management. Applicants whose proposals are not selected should generally receive written notice by email within 60 days of the final agency decision. Selected applicants may be asked to revise project scope or budget before the award is made.

Continuation is not automatic. The Library may extend an award for up to two more years without competition, but only at its discretion and subject to available funds, program priorities, satisfactory performance, and a fundable continuation proposal. Treat the first year as a complete project with its own outcomes rather than promising that the most important work will happen later.

Budget and deliverables

The maximum for the first 12-month budget period is $100,000, but the Library says the actual award may be lower. The full three-year amount cannot exceed $300,000 if the award is continued. A sensible budget should therefore show how the project can deliver meaningful first-year results within the requested amount.

Expected activities include designing and implementing the project, creating programming or materials with Library sources, gathering feedback from users and Library staff, and collecting formal or informal information about project success. Awardees must secure permissions for third-party content, make funded copyrightable materials available under an open public license, and label the materials as open educational resources. New source code created under the award must also be openly licensed for educational or noncommercial use.

Accessibility is a substantive requirement. Digital content, software, websites, and other materials provided to the Library must meet applicable ADA and accessibility standards. Build accessibility into the work plan, content production, testing, and budget. Also remember the notice’s unusual restriction: awardees must not use generative AI to create or produce project materials. Ordinary spelling or grammar functions and widely embedded AI-assisted word-processing features are treated differently in the notice, but the applicant should read the current language carefully and establish a compliance process before production begins.

How reviewers are likely to assess fit

The notice gives a detailed set of evaluation criteria. Reviewers will look at the organization’s specialized knowledge, its history of creating comparable curricula or tools, the soundness of the project method, the quality of the proposed use of Library resources, the educational need and likely impact, operational capability, dissemination networks, past activities, and the budget.

That list suggests several preparation questions:

• Can the organization point to recent, relevant products and show how people used them?
• Does the proposed team include both content expertise and practical experience with the target learners or educators?
• Is the method detailed enough to show what will be built, tested, revised, and delivered during 2027?
• Are Library sources doing real instructional work, rather than appearing in a resource list?
• Does the impact plan measure participation, learning, adoption, or use in a way that fits the project?
• Can existing partners distribute and adapt the materials after the award?
• Does the budget buy the activities and reach promised in the narrative?

Use evidence instead of adjectives. A claim that a curriculum is innovative is less persuasive than a short description of what it changes, who tested it, what the feedback showed, and where it has already been adopted. Similarly, a large partner list does not replace a clear explanation of what each partner will do.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most serious mistake is sending the application to the wrong system. The listing is on Grants.gov, but the amended notice explicitly says that applications must be emailed to the Library and that Grants.gov submissions will not be accepted. Another common error is treating the $100,000 ceiling as a guaranteed award or assuming that a three-year continuation is promised. Both figures are maximums subject to the Library’s decision, available funds, review, and performance.

Avoid describing a general arts workshop without a clear history, civics, or democracy learning purpose. Avoid naming Library sources without showing how learners will analyze them. Do not rely on third-party images, recordings, or text without a permissions plan. Do not leave accessibility until the end of production, and do not overlook the open-license and five-year public-access expectations.

Administrative details matter here. Confirm SAM.gov status early, use U.S. dollars, follow the file naming format, stay under the email size limit, attach the SF-424, and check every amendment and Q&A document. If the project team is collaborating, remember that the notice says an applicant may submit only one application from the same project team and does not allow teaming arrangements in the sense described by the notice. Define roles clearly inside one eligible applicant organization or partnership structure.

FAQ

Is this a scholarship or an individual fellowship?

No. It is an organizational cooperative-agreement opportunity. Individuals cannot apply, and the applicant must be an eligible organization, agency, state, tribe, or tribal organization with a relevant service record.

Can a for-profit organization apply?

Yes. The amended notice includes public and private organizations, including for-profit and nonprofit organizations, provided the organization meets the other eligibility rules and can show a record of serving relevant learner populations.

Does the project have to focus on music?

No. Music is central to the initiative’s history, but the notice also names dance, theater, visual arts, folk arts, film, photography, book arts, literary manuscripts, and other creative-arts collections. The project must use rights-free Library materials and make their analysis central to the learning or research design.

Can an existing Lewis-Houghton grantee apply?

Not if the organization has received Lewis-Houghton funding directly from the Library of Congress. The current new-awards notice excludes those applicants.

Is matching funding required?

No. Voluntary cost share is not expected and will not be used as a factor in merit review. If an applicant includes voluntary cost share, it must still comply with the applicable rules.

How long will the award last?

The initial budget period is 12 months, from January 1 through December 31, 2027. The Library may continue an award for up to two additional years without competition, but continuation is discretionary and the total award cannot exceed $300,000 over the possible three-year period.

Where should questions go?

The notice names [email protected] for general questions and technical assistance, with deadlines stated in Section B. Review the current Grants.gov Q&A and notice before sending a question, because the published question windows are limited.

Official links and next steps

Start with the official Grants.gov opportunity record, then open the amended August 19, 2026 notice and the latest Q&A from its supporting documents. Review the Library of Congress Lewis-Houghton program page for background and examples of the wider program.

An organization considering this opportunity should take five immediate steps: confirm that it has not received direct LHI funding, verify its U.S. eligibility and SAM.gov status, identify a specific learner or educator need, map that need to rights-free Library sources, and build a first-year work plan and budget that can stand alone. Then run a submission checklist against the amended notice, ensure the email package is complete and correctly named, and send it to the Library before 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 18, 2026.