A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has received a $50,000 commitment to create a partnership to continue a KUAR public radio show dedicated to humanities and literary arts in the South. 

The Arkansas Humanities Council signed a memorandum of understanding to award J. Bradley Minnick, associate professor in the Department of English, $10,000 a year for the next five years to continue the “Arts & Letters” radio program. 

“We want to highlight the intellectual work of the South, specifically the Arkansas and Mid-South region to share our rich tradition, history, and cultural production in our community,” Minnick said.

Minnick is the executive producer and host of “Arts & Letters,” which airs at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Fridays of the month on KUAR to an audience of 8,000 to 12,000 listeners and is available for download as a podcast on artsandlettersradio.org, NPR, NPR One, Player FM, and iTunes.

Now in its fourth season, “Arts & Letters” has aired more than 30 episodes. Episodes cover a wide range of arts and humanities topics from the Arkansas Alligator Gar to the search for Bozo’s missing handprint in downtown Little Rock to the history of the Arkansas Gazette newspaper.

The program also highlights the musical talents of central Arkansas and regional artists, who share their music. Minnick completes special four-minute episodes “Arts & Letters Shorts,” which highlight contributing musicians.

In the upcoming season, viewers can look forward to an episode on spirit possession in the Arkansas Delta region as well a program about the Arkansas Press book “True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley.”