Deadline: 30 October 2019
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has announced a call for proposals for the 2020 U.S. Ambassadors Funds for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) Small Grants Program that aims to preserve cultural sites, cultural objects and collections, forms of traditional cultural expression.
AFCP gives top priority to project activities that are appropriate and in keeping with international standards for the preservation of cultural heritage. These activities may involve:
- CULTURAL SITES. This might include (but is not limited to) historic buildings and sites, monuments, and archaeological sites:
- Restoration of a historic building;
- Preservation of an archaeological site;
- Documentation of sites in a region for preservation purposes.
- CULTURAL OBJECTS AND COLLECTIONS from a museum, site, or similar institution includes archaeological and ethnographic objects, paintings, sculpture, manuscripts, and general museum conservation activities:
- Conservation treatment of an object or collection of objects;
- Needs assessment of a collection with respect to its condition and strategies for improving its state of conservation;
- Inventory of a collection for conservation and protection purposes;
- The creation of safe environments for storage or display of collections;
- Specialized training in the care and preservation of collections.
- FORMS OF TRADITIONAL CULTURAL EXPRESSION includes traditional music, dance, indigenous languages, and crafts:
- Documenting and audiovisual recording of traditional music, indigenous languages and dance forms for preservation and broad dissemination;
- Support for training in the preservation of traditional applied arts or crafts that are threatened by extinction.
Funding Information
The minimum award amount is $10,000 and the maximum is $200,000. AFCP does not require but welcomes cost sharing, contributions and other forms of cost participation.
Eligibility Criteria
- The following entities are eligible to apply:
- Reputable and accountable nongovernmental organizations, museums, ministries of culture, or similar institutions and organizations that are able to demonstrate that they have the requisite experience and capacity to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage.
- AFCP does not award grants to commercial entities and individuals.
AFCP does not support the following:
- Preservation or purchase of privately or commercially owned cultural objects, collections, or real property;
- Preservation of natural heritage (physical, biological, and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils, etc.;
- Preservation of hominid or human remains;
- Preservation of news media (newspaper, newsreels, etc.);
- Preservation of published materials (books, periodicals, etc.);
- Development of curricula or educational materials for classroom use;
- Archaeological excavations or surveys for research purposes;
- Historical research, except in cases where historical research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
- Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums;
- Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example);
- Commissions of new works of art or performances for commemorative or economic development purposes;
- Creation of new or the modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances;
- Creation of replicas or conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist;
- Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another;
- Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason;
- Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a larger, clearly defined conservation or documentation effort;
- Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies;
- Cash reserves, endowments or revolving funds; funds must be expended within the award period and may not be used to create an endowment or revolving fund;
- Costs of fund-raising campaigns;
- Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs or fees;
- Costs of work performed prior to announcement of the award;
- International travel, except in cases where travel is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
- Travel or study outside of the host country for professional development;
- Individual projects costing less than US $10,000;
- Independent U.S. projects oversees.
An item with a religious connection may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item is nominated solely on the basis of architectural, artistic, historical or other cultural (not religious) criteria.
How to Apply
Applicants should submit their application form in English and Ukrainian or Russian via email at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit https://ua.usembassy.gov/education-culture/u-s-ambassadors-fund/#collapse1