Episode Forty-Six - Jill Baker

In April of this year, Humanities Montana, an organization that has provided support and funding for countless cultural activities throughout Montana since the 1980s, was informed that it would lose its funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which makes up 90 percent of its budget, which only amounts to about one million dollars annually. The direct impact of this budget cut was the immediate cancellation of all of the programs Humanities had on its schedule, including those under the Montana Speakers Bureau. This severely impacted the organization’s efforts to bring programs into schools and libraries all over the state. Jill Baker grew up on the Hiline and got her degree at the University of Montana. She has been the executive director of Humanities Montana for two years.