Help the Chicago Humanities Festival Stay Accessible!

Help the Chicago Humanities Festival Stay Accessible!

Partner with Chicago Humanities Festival and Make It Better and see your gift doubled! Donate now!

For nearly 30 years, the Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) has brought audiences across the city together with some of the most powerful voices of our time in conversation and dialogue aimed at improving our city and communities. Working to promote, support, and expand the public humanities, CHF has hosted more than 3,000 programs, performances, and exhibitions; developed strong connections with Chicago’s educational and cultural communities; and grown from the first festival of its kind in the country to a model and inspiration for others.

CHF is dedicated to presenting a diversity of ideas through live events, inspiring personal and collective action in Chicago and beyond. Our carefully curated festivals and year-round programming provide opportunities for individuals to engage with others and reflect on their own ideas, assumptions, and beliefs within the context of civic life.

CHF is committed to eliminating barriers to participation related to age, income, race, and physical ability. To this end, we carefully and actively consider the programs we present, the partners we engage with, the prices of our programs (with most under $20, and discounts or free tickets for students and teachers), and the accommodations and resources we offer to our audiences. We know these considerations make a difference — for example, in 2013 we received 49 accessibility requests. We retooled our efforts and made sure offering accommodations became a priority, and our most recent completed season saw 1,072 requests. This accessibility is a cornerstone of our work.

Working closely with our staff, we seek to find solutions that strengthen our reach and engage broader audiences. We can’t do this without the support of donors like you.

Chicago Humanities Festival

Access extends beyond the time and place of the festival. Programs are given a second life through recordings made available on YouTube and iTunes. We have more than 7 million views on our dedicated YouTube channel, which features nearly 500 program recordings and has more than 27,000 subscribers. The Chicago Humanities Festival is also proud to bring our programs into Chicago Public Schools, featuring authors, artists, and other inspirational speakers. We are committed to giving free books to students who attend — our fall program alone saw more than 900 books handed out!

Your gift will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $10,000. Make a gift today and join us as we work year-round to bring important voices to audiences across our city.

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