In April, the Trump administration canceled all federal grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities under the guise of “government efficiency.” Vermont Humanities, a longtime partner of the Applied Cartooning Lab, quickly put out a call to action, alerting our community to the severe impacts these cuts will have.
“Humanities Make Us Whole” is the Applied Cartooning Lab’s zine-based response to the cuts. The zine is free to download and print by clicking the download button below. It includes a fold-out poster with prompts to explore how humanities impact your life, how you can support the humanities despite ongoing threats, and what the future of the humanities might look like. It was cartooned by Noah Jodice, the 2025-26 Applied Cartooning Fellow.
Recent sightings of the “Humanities Make us Whole” zine have been reported at the 2025 Vermont Book Awards, Dartmouth College’s Leslie Center for the Humanities, and the Norwich Bookshop.
Know of a place this zine should be? A good friend that should read it? An elected official who has turned a blind eye to literature, philosophy, history, languages, and the arts? Print some copies and spread the word about how the humanities connect us to one another and enrich our communities.
Have some dough to donate? Here in Vermont, the state humanities council has $50,000 of matching funds on the line. After federal cuts were announced, The Mellon Foundation stepped in with $15 million of emergency funding for Humanities Councils, with $200,000 headed to Vermont Humanities. An additional $50,000 is available in matching grants, meaning that any donations to VT Humanities will help unlock that additional funding.
