IMLS: 21st Century Museum Professionals CFDA 45.307

Museum professionals need high levels of knowledge and expertise as they help create public value for the communities they serve. The purpose of the 21st Century Museum Professionals Grants program is to increase the capacity of museums by improving the knowledge and skills of museum professionals in multiple institutions. Applications are due March 15, 2012.

These grants are intended to reach broad groups of museum professionals throughout a city, county, state, region, or the nation. Grants fund a wide range of activities, including the development and implementation of classes, seminars, and workshops; resources to support leadership development; collection, assessment, development, and/or dissemination of information that leads to better museum operations; activities that strengthen the use of contemporary technology tools to deliver programs and services; support for the enhancement of pre-professional training programs; and organizational support for the development of internship and fellowship programs. IMLS also welcomes proposals that promote the skills necessary to develop 21st Century communities, citizens, and workers and that encourage broad community access and participation.

IMLS Site Announcment

Document Type: Modifications to Previous Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number: 21MP-FY12
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Posted Date: Jan 09, 2012
Creation Date: Jan 09, 2012
Original Closing Date for Applications: Mar 15, 2012
Current Closing Date for Applications: Mar 15, 2012
Archive Date: Apr 14, 2012
Funding Instrument Type: Grant

Category of Funding Activity: Arts (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Humanities (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)

Category Explanation:
Expected Number of Awards: 10
Estimated Total Program Funding:
Award Ceiling: $250,000
Award Floor: $15,000
CFDA Number(s): 45.307 -- 21st Century Museum Professionals
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: Yes

Museums that fulfill the eligibility criteria for museums may apply. Public or private not-forprofit agencies, organizations or associations that engage in activities designed to advance museums and the museum profession may also apply. In addition, institutions of higher education, including public and nonprofit universities are eligible.

Grants.gov Announcment >>Read more >>

IMLS: Museums for American CFDA 45.301

Museums for America is the Institute’s largest grant program for museums, supporting projects and ongoing activities that build museums’ capacity to serve their communities.Museums for America grants strengthen a museum’s ability to serve the public more effectively by supporting high-priority activities that advance the institution’s mission and strategic goals. Museums for America grants are designed to be flexible: funds can be used for a wide variety of projects, including: ongoing museum work, research and other behind-the-scenes activities, planning, new programs, purchase of equipment or services, and activities that will support the efforts of museums to upgrade and integrate new technologies. Grants are awarded in the following categories:Engaging Communities (Education, Exhibitions, and Interpretation); Building Institutional Capacity (Management, Policy, and Training); and Collections Stewardship. Applications are due November 1, 2010.

Document Type: Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number: MFA-FY11
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Posted Date: Aug 30, 2010
Creation Date: Aug 30, 2010
Original Closing Date for Applications: Nov 01, 2010
Current Closing Date for Applications: Nov 01, 2010
Archive Date: Dec 01, 2010
Funding Instrument Type: Grant

Category of Funding Activity: Arts (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Humanities (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)

Category Explanation:
Expected Number of Awards: 150
Estimated Total Program Funding: $17,000,000
Award Ceiling: $150,000
Award Floor: $5,000
CFDA Number(s): 45.301 -- Museums for America
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: Yes

Eligible Applicants
Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Additional Information on Eligibility:
All types of museums, large and small, are eligible for funding. Eligible museums include aquariums, arboretums and botanical gardens, art museums, youth museums, general museums, historic houses and sites, history museums, nature centers, natural history and anthropology museums, planetariums, science and technology centers, specialized museums, and zoological parks. Federally operated and for-profit museums may not apply for IMLS funds.

An eligible applicant must be: either a unit of state or local government or a private not-for-profit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code; located in one of the fifty states of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated states of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau; and a museum that, using a professional staff, (1) is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes; (2) owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; (3) cares for these objects; and (4) exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities which it owns or operates. An organization uses a professional staff if it employs at least one professional staff member, or the fulltime equivalent, whether paid or unpaid primarily engaged in the acquisition, care, or exhibition to the public of objects owned or used by the institution. An organization “exhibits objects to the general public” if such exhibition is a primary purpose of the institution. Further, an organization which exhibits objects to the general public for at least 120 days a year shall be deemed to exhibit objects to the general public on a regular basis. An organization which exhibits objects by appointment may meet the requirement to exhibit objects to the general public on a regular basis, if it can establish, in light of the facts under all the relevant circumstances, that this method of exhibition does not unreasonably restrict the accessibility of the institution's exhibits to the general public.

Please note that an organization which does not have as a primary purpose the exhibition of objects to the general public but which can demonstrate that it exhibits objects to the general public on a regular basis as a significant, separate, distinct, and continuing portion of its activities, and that it otherwise meets the museum eligibility requirements, may be determined to be eligible as a museum under these guidelines.

A museum located within a parent organization that is a state or local government or multipurpose non-profit entity, such as a municipality, university, historical society, foundation, or a cultural center, may apply on its own behalf, if the museum: (1) is able to independently fulfill all the eligibility requirements listed above; (2) functions as a discrete unit within the parent organization; (3) has its own fully segregated and itemized operating budget; and (4) has the authority to make the application on its own. When any of the last three conditions cannot be met, a museum may apply through its parent organization.

Prospective applicants that cannot fulfill all of these requirements should contact IMLS to discuss their eligibility before applying. IMLS may require additional supporting documentation from the applicant to determine the museum’s autonomy. Each eligible applicant within a single parent organization should clearly delineate its own programs and operations in the application narrative. A parent organization that controls multiple museums that are not autonomous but which are otherwise eligible may submit only one application per grant program; the application may be submitted by the parent organization on behalf of one or more of the eligible museums.

Link to Full Announcement >>Read more >>

NEH America's Historical and Cultural Organizations: Implementation Grants CFDA 45.164

America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations grants support projects in the humanities that explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world. The Division of Public Programs supports the development of humanities content and interactivity that excite, inform, and stir thoughtful reflection upon culture, identity, and history in creative and new ways. Grants for America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations should encourage dialogue, discussion, and civic engagement, and they should foster learning among people of all ages. Applications are due by August 26, 2009.

To that end, the Division of Public Programs urges applicants to consider more than one format for presenting humanities ideas to the public. Implementation grants support the final preparation of a project for presentation to the public. Applicants must submit a full walkthrough for an exhibition, or a prototype or storyboard for a digital project, that demonstrates a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship that relate to the subject. Applicants for implementation grants should have already done most of the planning for their projects, including the identification of the key humanities themes, relevant scholarship, and program formats. For exhibitions, implementation grants can support the final stages of design development, but these grants are primarily intended for installation. Applicants are not required to obtain a planning grant before applying for an implementation grant. Applicants may not, however, submit multiple applications for the same project at the same deadline. If an application for a project is already under review, another application for the same project cannot be accepted. See application guidelines for Planning Grants.

The goals of Interpreting America’s Historic Places are to enhance lifelong learning in American history by connecting significant events, people, ideas, stories, and traditions with specific places; foster the development of interpretive programs for the public that address central events, themes, and issues in American history; and encourage consultation with humanities scholars and history organizations in the development of heritage tourism destinations.

Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects should interpret a place that played a significant role in American history; enrich the visitor experience at one or more historic places by interpreting these places in light of broader themes in American history; make use of the specific features of one or more historic places—the site, its location, buildings, or other natural or built features—as integral parts of the proposed interpretation; build on sound humanities scholarship; involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and implementation; approach the subject thematically, analytically, and interpretively through an appropriate variety of perspectives; interest broad audiences; and employ appealing and accessible program formats that will actively engage the public in learning.

To ensure that the humanities ideas are well conceived, projects must use a team of scholars who represent major fields relevant to the subject matter and offer diverse perspectives and approaches. Projects may also include other participants with experience and knowledge appropriate to the project’s formats or technical requirements.


Document Type: Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number: 20090826-GI
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Posted Date: Jun 22, 2009
Creation Date: Jun 22, 2009
Original Closing Date for Applications: Aug 26, 2009
Current Closing Date for Applications: Aug 26, 2009
Archive Date: Sep 25, 2009
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Category of Funding Activity: Humanities (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Category Explanation: Expected Number of Awards:
Estimated Total Program Funding:
Award Ceiling: $1,000,000
Award Floor: $0
CFDA Number(s): 45.164 -- Promotion of the Humanities_Public Programs
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: No

http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/AHCO_ImplementationGuidelines.html


>>Read more >>

NEH Interpreting America's Historic Places: Planning Grants CFDA 45.164

As part of the NEH’s We the People program, Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history and culture, including those that advance knowledge of how the founding principles of the United States have shaped and been shaped by American history and culture for more than two hundred years. Interpreting America’s Historic Places planning grants support planning that leads to the interpretation of a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. The place taken as a whole must be significant to American history, and the project must convey its historic importance to visitors. Applications are due by January 28, 2009.


The audience for Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects is the general public. (For other public humanities projects that may not focus so closely on historic places, refer to the planning grant guidelines for America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations.) The goals of Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants are to enhance lifelong learning in American history by connecting nationally significant events, people, ideas, stories, and traditions with specific places; foster the development of interpretive programs for the public that address central events, themes, and issues in American history; and encourage consultation with humanities scholars and history organizations in the development of heritage tourism destinations.

Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects should interpret a place that played a significant role in American history; enrich the visitor experience at one or more historic places by interpreting these places in light of broader themes in American history; make use of the specific features of one or more historic places—the site, its location, buildings, or other natural or built features—as integral parts of the proposed interpretation; be based on sound humanities scholarship; involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and implementation; approach the subject thematically, analytically, and interpretively through an appropriate variety of perspectives; interest broad audiences; and employ appealing and accessible program formats that will actively engage the public in learning.

Document Type: Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number: 20090128-BP
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Posted Date: Dec 02, 2008
Creation Date: Dec 02, 2008
Original Closing Date for Applications: Jan 28, 2009
Current Closing Date for Applications: Jan 28, 2009
Archive Date: Feb 27, 2009
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Category of Funding Activity: Humanities (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Category Explanation:
Expected Number of Awards:
Estimated Total Program Funding:
Award Ceiling: $75,000
Award Floor: $0
CFDA Number(s): 45.164 -- Promotion of the Humanities_Public Programs
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: No


Complete grant announcement for IAHP Planning Grant
>>Read more >>

NEH Interpreting America's Historic Places: Implementation Grants CFDA 45.164

As part of the NEH’s We the People program, Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history and culture, including those that advance knowledge of how the founding principles of the United States have shaped and been shaped by American history and culture for more than two hundred years. Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects may interpret a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. The place taken as a whole must be significant to American history, and the project must convey its historic importance to visitors. Applications are due by January 28, 2009.


The audience for Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects is the general public. (For other public humanities projects that may not focus so closely on historic places, refer to the implementation grant guidelines for America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations.) The goals of Interpreting America’s Historic Places are to enhance lifelong learning in American history by connecting nationally significant events, people, ideas, stories, and traditions with specific places; foster the development of interpretive programs for the public that address central events, themes, and issues in American history; and encourage consultation with humanities scholars and history organizations in the development of heritage tourism destinations.

Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects should interpret a place that played a significant role in American history; enrich the visitor experience at one or more historic places by interpreting these places in light of broader themes in American history; make use of the specific features of one or more historic places—the site, its location, buildings, or other natural or built features—as integral parts of the proposed interpretation; build on sound humanities scholarship; involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and implementation; approach the subject thematically, analytically, and interpretively through an appropriate variety of perspectives; interest broad audiences; and employ appealing and accessible program formats that will actively engage the public in learning.

Document Type: Grants Notice
Funding Opportunity Number: 20090128-BR
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Posted Date: Dec 02, 2008
Creation Date: Dec 02, 2008
Original Closing Date for Applications: Jan 28, 2009
Current Closing Date for Applications: Jan 28, 2009
Archive Date: Feb 27, 2009
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Category of Funding Activity: Humanities (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Category Explanation:
Expected Number of Awards:
Estimated Total Program Funding:
Award Ceiling: $1,000,000
Award Floor: $0
CFDA Number(s): 45.164 -- Promotion of the Humanities_Public Programs
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: No


Complete grant announcement for IAHP Implementation Grant
>>Read more >>