The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) this month announced grants for 186 museum projects totaling over $25 million. The museums were selected from 707 applications almost $98 million and were awarded through the highly competitive Museums for America and National Leadership Grants for Museums programs. Institutions receiving the awards are matching them with over $35 million in non-federal funds.
The Museums for America grants support projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to address its key needs or challenges for better service to its community. The National Leadership Grants for Museums support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public.
This year’s grants support a wide range of projects including:
- a neighborhood learning initiative by a children’s museum developed in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) that will include a preschool, school fieldtrips, afterschool learning opportunities, college scholarships, and workforce development opportunities;
- a project to digitize and preserve a university museum’s video recordings of 282 Holocaust survivors;
- an aquarium STEM project, to be developed with scientists, to create classroom kits that enable children to conduct research on sea otters or ocean acidification;
- a major research and development project to address conservation of modern inkjet prints—which are more sensitive to water damage than traditional prints—in museum collections;
- a history museum project that enables individuals to tell the history of their communities by adding content to a statewide digital museum; and
- a multimedia project called Story Hub that makes it possible for young visitors to children’s museums to record a video “story” of their visits, helping them understand their experiences.
A complete list of museums with funded projects and their contacts by state and city can be found here. For more information about Museums for America, click here. For information about National Leadership Grants for Museums, click here.