Institute of Museum and Library Services – 2021 Museum Grants for African American History and Culture

Deadline: 16-Nov-20

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced a call for proposals for the 2021 Museum Grants for African American History and Culture.

The goals of the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture program (AAHC program) are to build the capacity of African American museums and support the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums.

The AAHC 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). IMLS welcomes applications from museums of all sizes and geographic areas whose primary purpose, as reflected in their mission, is African American art, life, history, and culture.

Funding Information

• Your total request for federal funding, including all direct and indirect costs, must be between $5,000 and $250,000.
• If your total request for federal funding is between $5,000 and $50,000, then no cost-share is required. If your request for federal funding is between $50,001 and $250,000, at least 1:1 cost share from nonfederal sources is required.

Activities

• Projects designed to build the capacity of African American museums may involve increasing the number of museum professionals working at African American museums to enable the museum to expand educational programs, engage the community, enhance organizational operations and resiliency, or provide for enhanced care of collections. IMLS encourages museum professionals and institutions to share and adopt best practices and innovations by creating skill-building and capacityexpanding programs that are applicable across all levels of museum staff to ensure the highest standards in all aspects of museum practices and operations. You may apply for support of projects including, but not limited to, the following activities:
• • Cataloging, inventorying, documenting, and registering collections
  • Digitization of collections designed to enhance outreach, expand access, or improve collections management
  • Developing collection plans, interpretive plans, or strategic plans using consultants, researchers, and other sources of professional expertise
  • Implementing recommendations or action plans from planning activities
  • Exhibition development, design, and fabrication
  • Interpretive and educational programs, product development, and delivery
  • Design and printing of educational resources including training manuals, toolkits, and curricula that support educational programs and exhibitions
  • Creating environments, approaches, and tools for increased community collaboration, learning, debate, and dialogue
  • Audience research and evaluation, including utilizing an evaluation consultant to help develop achievable performance goals and measurable outcomes
  • Gathering and incorporating collections information and relevant artifacts from stakeholders such as community members and scholars in order to capture and share multiple and dynamic perspectives on museum collections
• Projects to support the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums may involve hosting paid internships at African American museums; creating mentorship 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; creating learning and growth opportunities for museum staff to build skills, enhance knowledge and expertise in museum-related subjects and areas of need. You may apply for support of projects including, but not limited to, the following activities:
  • Fostering partnerships among museums and institutions of higher education to address challenges facing the African American museum community
  • Providing professional development opportunities for museum staff, leadership, and volunteers
  • Developing and offering workshops and training for museum staff, leadership, and volunteers
  • Creating and supporting internships and fellowships, including recruitment, supervision, mentoring, and training for interns and fellows and understanding the importance and role of cohorts of interns and fellows
  • Focusing professional development to support museum staff in areas such as digital technology, evaluation and assessment, and collections stewardship

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for an award under this AAHC Notice of Funding Opportunity of IMS, you must be an organization that meets all three of the following criteria:

• You must be either a unit of State, local, or tribal government or be a private, nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code;
• You 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.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328732