Heading Humanities

“In high school the teachers were good across all disciplines. … For a small-town kid, books opened up the world. I’ll always be grateful to all these people who gave so much to develop my mind and help me grow.”
“But the Indiana connection didn’t really happen until I was    at IU in Bloomington.”
Surrounded by students from other states — some of whom looked down on Hoosier history and traditions — made Hanlin want to stand up for Indiana.
An Indiana history course added fuel to his fire.
“You start learning about all the people who have contributed to this place,” he said. “I really got an appreciation for that. … As someone who is proud of where he comes from, I also see the challenges we face.”
Graduating from IU with a degree in journalism and Spanish, he landed a job with Indiana Historical Society as an editorial assistant. At that time, the IHS was deeply involved in publishing, putting out several books a year as well as a quarterly magazine.
While Hanlin was involved in editing much of that material for 11 years, he sensed a shift in the historical society’s priorities, especially a move away from publishing. So in 2004 he joined some friends at FlashPoint, a human resources and leadership consulting firm.
Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in non-profit management from IUPUI and became involved in Indianapolis-area organizations ranging from Meals on Wheels to the Indianapolis Men’s Chorus. He also found himself on the board of Indiana Humanities as a volunteer.
Previously known as the Indiana Humanities Council, the non-profit allocates funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other sources, providing grants and programming to support the humanities in Indiana.
The organization, said Hanlin, “has taken on a variety of different (focuses) over the years. It’s had a hard time getting its footing, answering the question, 'How do we define ourselves?'”
As a board member, Hanlin was doing his volunteer part to take Indiana Humanities to the next level.
Then in May he was asked to take on a new role.
Nancy Conner, who had served the organization for 34 years, was planning to retire at the end of June.
Hanlin was approached with a proposition: How about if he resigned from his volunteer role on the board and joined the staff as Conner’s successor?
He leapt at the chance and his excitement about his new opportunity is contagious.
“We’re trying to do programming across the state,” he said. “My job is to get some of that money out at the community level in the form of grants.”
Currently, the organization has two grant programs.
Humanities Initiative Grants provide up to $2,000 on a dollar-for-dollar match basis to organizations such as libraries and schools for programs aimed at promoting the humanities.
The other program partners with Indiana Landmarks Foundation for grants of up to $2,500 for historic preservation education projects.
Hanlin added, “I also oversee a program called Novel Conversations. The program offers books to reading groups across the state. In our library we have about 600 titles with 10 to 15 copies of each title. The leaders of the reading groups can go online and choose a book, and we’ll ship copies for all the members free of charge via interlibrary loan. When they’re done reading and discussing, of course, the groups ship the books back. It’s a popular program — at last count we had 224 groups participating.”
“We do programming to promote reading, literature, and historical societies,” he added. “We want to encourage Hoosiers to think, read and talk and develop conversations.”
Among those programs this year was a series of events aimed at linking literature and nature.
For instance, one fireside event at the Loblolly Marsh Nature Preserve drew between 25 and 30 people early this fall for a walk through the wetland accompanied by readings of the work of Gene Stratton-Porter by a professor from Indiana University-Kokomo. After the readings, the group gathered around a campfire to discuss how nature impacts our lives.
“Each couple of years we come up with a theme,” said Hanlin.
For 2017 and 2018, the theme is “Quantum Leap” and will focus on the intersection of science and the humanities. One part of the program will be a statewide reading and series of lectures and discussions of “Frankenstein.”
“How can we use its themes to help us make ethical decisions about science and technology?”
It’s a question George Hanlin wants Hoosiers to talk about and read about and think about.