(upbeat music) - Utah Humanities is celebrating its 50th anniversary and collecting stories about how the humanities have had an impact on Utahans from all walks of life.

And here with more information is Executive Director Jodi Graham.

Hi, Jodi.

Thank you so much for being here and for all the work you've done with the Utah Humanities, 50 years now.

Not that you've been (Jodi laughing) here that long.

- It would be great if I could say I've been there that long, but no, thank you.

It is, it's our 50th anniversary.

We are super excited to celebrate half of a century of great humanities work all throughout the state.

Thank you.

- I know and you've been offering free programming around this state for so long.

- Yes.

- What would you say are some of the highlights of things you've offered or just examples?

- Sure.

Well, we started out in our earliest days as just making grants.

That's all we did.

Our whole purpose was to get money from the National Endowment for the Humanities out into the states.

Every state has a humanities council and we are Utah's.

And even back in those early days, we funded organizations like the Sundance Institute and we funded the Utah Opera Company.

We funded Ballet West.

And these are not for performances, but for conversations that happened around the performances.

And we still offer grants today, but we also offer our own programming.

We have a bunch of different areas that we cover from history to literature to community conversations.

Everything that has to do with being human, (laughing) essentially is what we do.

- Right.

And I know you've partnered with so many people over the years.

- We have.

And partnership is the heart of what we do.

- Yeah.

- Because we are a small organization, but we serve the entire state.

The only way we can get everywhere is to have partners all over the state.

The partners are the heart of what we do.

- Yeah.

And tell me about the family reunion you've got coming up.

- Okay, so this is great.

So we are having a 50th anniversary family reunion on August 2nd for anyone and everyone who has had any work or interaction with Utah Humanities, it'll be fun, it'll be casual.

We just want everyone to get together and reconnect.

- Wonderful.

Again, thank you for everything you do.

- Thanks, thank you, Mary.

- And if you'd like to know more about the Utah Humanities that is celebrating 50 years this year, they'll have a lot coming up.

So go to the website and find out more and how you can submit your story, utahhumanities.org.

That's utahhumanities.org.

(upbeat music) I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

(upbeat music continues) - Local events, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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