The High Desert Museum has been awarded two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities — totaling $240,337 — to support storytelling and educational resources in Central Oregon.

One grant, for $140,795, supports a video story-gathering initiative that will bring together 30 long-form interviews from residents living in Central Oregon’s High Desert region, ranging from ranchers to Tribal members.

The interviews will cover how climate change is impacting this region’s landscape and ways of life. Historical records and scientific data will be used to provide a broad overview of the situation facing residents. The project is expected to take two years and will appear as an online resource.

The second grant, for $99,542, will be used to create a dynamic and interactive web experience for online visitors. The site will include comprehensive storytelling to raise awareness about the High Desert. A prototype will be made and then a website.

The grants were championed by U.S. senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

“We’re grateful to the (National Endowment for the Humanities) and Senators Wyden and Merkley for supporting these innovative projects,” said Dana Whitelaw, the museum’s executive director. “The High Desert is home to unique landscapes, cultures and wildlife, and while it is vast, its stories and issues are not always widely shared.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that supports museums, historic sites, universities, libraries and other cultural institutions across the United States. Since 1965 the agency has issued $6 billion in assistance. The support given to the High Desert Museum was part of a $22.6 million funding effort announced Tuesday for 219 humanities projects nationwide.

The only other project to receive funding in Oregon was a $60,000 grant to University of Oregon associate professor Julie Weise to research and write a book about the experiences of guest workers in the middle of the 20th century, with a focus on Mexicans in the United States, Spaniards in France and Malawians in South Africa.