Museum Grants for African American History and Culture

Deadline: 15-Nov-24

Applications are now open for the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC) Program to build the capacity of African American museums and supports the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums.

The program supports projects that nurture museum professionals, build institutional capacity, and increase access to museum and archival collections at African American museums and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Projects that build the capacity of African American museums should be designed to also meet the needs of their community. They may involve:

• increasing the number of museum professionals working at African American museums to enable the museum to expand and enhance their programming and exhibitions;
• fostering collaborations within the community, to include schools, institutions of higher education, and other cultural organizations;
• enhancing leadership and interpersonal skills, organizational operations, and professional management;
• providing for enhanced care, conservation, and expanded access to collections, including special collections housed within university libraries and archives at HBCUs; or
• creating organizational sustainability by developing emergency planning documents that address preparedness and response.

They encourage museum professionals and institutions to share and adopt best practices and innovations by creating skill-building and capacity-expanding programs that focus on investing in all levels of existing and future museum staff.

Projects that support the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums focus on enhancing the pipeline from student to museum leader by:

• hosting paid internships at African American museums that provide fair compensation for the level of work requested and the geographic locality;
• creating mentorship and/or apprenticeship opportunities for emerging and mid career staff to connect with, learn from and engage with senior leaders and founders in the African American museum community; or
• reinvesting in current museum staff to create learning and growth opportunities that build hard and soft skills and enhance expertise in museum-related subjects and areas of need.

Goals and Objectives

• Goal 1: Build the capacity of African American museums and their ability to serve their communities.
  • Objective 1.1 Develop, enhance, or expand public programs, exhibitions, and/or school programs.
  • Objective 1.2 Enhance museum operations and professional management.
  • Objective 1.3 Improve and expand access to collections.
  • Objective 1.4 Foster partnerships and collaborations among museums and institutions of higher education, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• Goal 2: Support the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums.
  • Objective 2.1 Develop and implement internship, fellowship, and mentoring programs structured to support emerging museum professionals entering the museum field.
  • Objective 2.2 Develop and implement equitable and inclusive staff recruitment and retention programs.
  • Objective 2.3 Create learning and growth opportunities designed to build skills, enhance knowledge, and provide opportunities to share expertise.

Funding Information

• Total amount of funding IMLS expects to award through this announcement: $6,000,000
• Expected amount of individual awards
  • Small Projects: $5,000 – $100,000
  • Large Projects: $100,001 – $500,000
• Anticipated number of awards: 35

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for an award under the AAHC 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 whose primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is African American life, art, history, and/or culture, encompassing: the period of slavery; the era of Reconstruction; the Harlem renaissance; the civil rights movement; or other periods of the African American diaspora; and:
    • uses a professional staff;
    • is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes;
    • owns or uses tangible objects, including 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.