Kansas City is rich in cultural assets, says National Endowment for the Humanities chair

Chair Shelly Lowe, the first Native American and only second woman to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, toured Kansas City’s museums and libraries this week.
Shelly Lowe is chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency of the United States government created in 1965.

Chair Lowe spent the past several days visiting many of Kansas City’s cultural institutions, including the Black Archives of Mid-America, the American Jazz Museum and the National World War 1 Museum and Memorial.

“I've been very amazed and delighted by all of the cultural assets I've had a chance to visit,” she said on KCUR’s Up To Date Friday.

Lowe, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is the first Native American to head the organization. She was nominated to the position by President Joe Biden in 2021 and confirmed by the Senate in 2022.