In December 2021, Humanities Texas awarded over $2.3M in emergency funding to 263 Texas cultural and educational nonprofits affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and the City of Sundown Library is a recipient. Our 2021 Relief Grants were made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan. Relief Grant recipients include museums, libraries, preservation organizations and heritage and cultural centers in 145 towns and cities across the state. These organizations administer humanities programs that have significant impact within their communities. Of the recipients, two-thirds had annual budgets of less than $300,000. Nearly half of the grants went to organizations in communities of 50,000 people or fewer.

This was Humanities Texas's second round of COVID-19 pandemic relief grants, the first of which we awarded through the CARES Act in spring 2020. Relief Grants were available for both general operating support and humanities programming. City of Sundown Director A'ndrea McAdams has plans to use a larger building for socially-distanced summer reading programs. Funding will enable the library to pay general operating costs, retain staff, shift in-person programming to online, and make resources available to those who depend on them for education and connection.