21st Century Museum Professionals Program – US

Deadline: 15-Nov-24

The 21st Century Museum Professional (21MP) Grant Program is inviting applications to support projects that offer professional development to the current museum workforce, train and recruit future museum professionals, and identify and share effective practices in museum workforce education and training.

This program’s purpose is to develop and enhance a diverse workforce of museum professionals to anticipate and serve the needs of museums and their local communities. Critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity are essential 21st century skills that are vital to success in a global economy. Museums are trusted institutions that are well equipped to build those skills.

IMLS recognizes the important role of strong local and regional networks in providing peer to-peer learning, training, and mentoring opportunities for the museum workforce. Partnerships among museums, museum-serving organizations, and institutions of higher education are vital to expanding career pathways for broad groups of museum professionals throughout a city, county, state, region, or the nation. The 21MP Program encourages applications from museum associations, museum studies programs at institutions of higher education, and museums that serve as essential parts of the professional learning and training environment.

They expect successful 21MP projects to:

• reflect a thorough understanding of relevant theory and effective practice in workforce training and professional development for the museum field;
• involve partnerships that build career pathways and strengthen professional networks beyond a single institution;
• employ inclusive and equitable recruitment and selection strategies to reach your primary audiences; and
• engage museum staff, leadership, or volunteers at any stage of career development.

Goals and Objectives

• Goal 1: Support the professional development of the current museum workforce.
  • Objective 1.1 Develop new or enhanced professional development and training programs for the museum workforce.
  • Objective 1.2 Support assessment and evaluation of training and professional development programs to identify and share effective practices.
• Goal 2: Recruit and train future museum professionals.
  • Objective 2.1 Expand pathways into the museum field by adapting higher education programs to be more responsive to the needs of the 21st century museum workforce.
  • Objective 2.2 Recruit future museum professionals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds through paid internships, mentoring, and fellowship opportunities.
  • Objective 2.3 Support assessment and evaluation of recruitment, training, and higher education programs to identify and share effective practices.

Funding Information

• Total amount of funding IMLS expects to award through this announcement: $2,000,000
• Expected amount of individual awards: $100,000 – $500,000
• Anticipated number of awards: 8

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for an award under the 21MP program, your organization must meet all three of the following eligibility criteria. Your organization must be:
  • a unit of State, local, or Tribal government; or
  • a private, nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended (you will need to include proof of this if applicable to your organization).
• Your organization must be located in:
  • one of the 50 States of the United States of America,
  • the District of Columbia,
  • the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
  • the U.S. Virgin Islands,
  • Guam,
  • American Samoa,
  • the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,
  • the Republic of the Marshall Islands,
  • the Federated States of Micronesia; or
  • the Republic of Palau.
• Your organization must qualify as one of the following:
  • A museum that:
    • uses a professional staff;
    • is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes;
    • owns or uses tangible objects, and/or living collections;
    • cares for these objects; and
    • exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities that it owns or operates.
• A museum located within a parent organization that is a State, local, or Tribal government or multipurpose nonprofit entity, such as a, university, historical society, foundation, or cultural center, may apply on its own behalf if the museum:
  • can independently fulfill all the eligibility requirements listed in the above three criteria;
  • functions as a discrete unit within the parent organization;
  • has its own fully segregated and itemized operating budget; and
  • has the authority to make the application on its own.
• When any of the last three conditions cannot be met, a museum may only apply through its parent organization.
• They may determine that a nonprofit organization affiliated with a museum is eligible for this program if:
  • its sole mission is to support the specified museum;
  • it has the ability to administer the project; and
  • it can ensure compliance with the terms of this Notice of Funding Opportunity and the applicable law, including the IMLS Assurances and Certifications.
• They require that you provide an agreement from the museum that details the activities the applicant and museum will perform and binds the museum to the statements and assurances in the application.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.