The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is pleased to announce that 178 museums across the country will receive a total of $19,550,456 in Museums for America (MFA) grants. These museums, chosen from 510 applicants, represent 39 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Grants will support high-priority activities that advance the missions and strategic goals of these museums, helping them to serve the public more effectively.
“This year’s MFA grant recipients are truly an exciting and diverse group of museums, representing the remarkable ways that large and small institutions are serving communities. Funded projects support digitization and collections management plans, enhanced accessibility, environmental literacy, and much more. The work of these institutions will educate and inspire citizens of all ages,” said Acting Director Marsha L. Semmel. “IMLS is pleased to support museums as they engage their communities through programming tailored to their specific needs, and this round of MFA grants furthers this work.”
Awarded in three categories (engaging communities, building institutional capacity, and collections stewardship), MFA grants fund projects such as educational programs and exhibits, staff and volunteer training, research, planning, technological upgrades, and equipment purchases.
The Historical Society of Delaware will, over a two-year period, make 65% of its collection catalog available to the public. The society will accomplish this goal by hiring a full-time project manager with education and experience in special collections cataloging and two full-time data entry catalogers to assist the permanent library staff in upgrading and adding 30,000 records to the online catalog.
The Phillips Collection’s online collections database project will support the museum’s ongoing work to photograph and digitize images of the objects in its permanent collection, thereby increasing the number of images available for scholarly research, informal learning opportunities, and publication. This project is part of a larger initiative to make all of the museum’s primary resources—the permanent collection and the library and archival holdings—accessible to a worldwide audience via a user-friendly search tool on the museum’s Web site. The Phillips Collection will photograph and digitize approximately 870 works of art from the permanent collection, making 100% of the collection digitally accessible.
Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) will develop and implement “Museums and Libraries Are for Families,” a community engagement project designed to help diversify current audiences and expand underserved populations’ access to and engagement with BCM. The program will tackle the three most significant barriers to underserved populations’ museum participation: comfort, affordability, and familiarity. Family events at Boston Center for Youth and Families and local library branches, as well as facilitated family field trips to BCM, will increase visitor comfort with the institution. Discounts to the museum, available at Boston Public Library locations, will improve affordability. Libraries will also have supplemental materials, such as downloadable exhibit guides in six languages.
"Digitizing the Cambridge Historical Society Photograph Collection"
The Cambridge Historical Society will digitize its photograph collection. A digital library will be created consisting of approximately 2,000 high-resolution scans. These images will then be copied and stored in multiple locations. Low-resolution copies of the photos will be made available to the public through the use of the Historical Society’s Web site and Flickr. This project will allow the original photographs to be stored off site in a more secure storage facility. Furthermore, the society’s materials will be made available to a much wider audience.
"Creating Access to Images of the Textile Industry"
The American Textile History Museum (ATHM) is engaged in a multiphase program, the Chace Project, to make its collections accessible to the broadest possible audience. The museum will accession/register, catalogue, and scan 1,000 prints, 3,000 photographs, and 68 paintings over two years. The images depict textile mills, textile processes and machinery, workers, awards, fashion and design, etc., from the seventeenth century through the twentieth century. The project will improve the museum’s intellectual control of and access to the Osborne Library’s collections of prints, photographs, and paintings.
"Nevada Museum of Art: Art & Environment Digitization Project"
The Nevada Museum of Art will begin the Art & Environment Digitization Project, a two-year project to digitally capture 1,318 objects in the Altered Landscape Photography Collection and the Center for Art + Environment (CA+E) Archive Collections, two of the museum’s most heavily requested collections. This integrated online resource will provide free access to a searchable database and significantly improve the museum’s capacity to serve researchers, educators, and artists locally, nationally, and internationally. The museum will establish a computer workstation in the CA+E Library for onsite researchers. This grant will allow the museum to hire temporary employees and photography services and equipment needed to complete the project.
Project Title: "Art of the Hudson Valley and Beyond: The Collections of the Hudson Valley Visual Arts Consortium"
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, a member of the Hudson Valley Visual Arts Consortium, will use its grant to support “Art of the Hudson Valley and Beyond: The Digital Collections of the Hudson Valley Visual Arts Consortium.” An easy-to-search, Web-accessible database will feature images and information for more than 13,000 objects from the collections of the museum and four other Ulster County, New York, visual arts organizations that form the consortium—the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, and the Women’s Studio Workshop. The consortium Web site will be hosted by the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC), which is also located in Ulster County. The Web site will be accessible through its own portal and through a Hudson River Valley Heritage Web site (www.hrvh.org).
"New-York Historical Society Children's History Gallery and Library"
The New-York Historical Society will support the development and production of interactive exhibition elements and complementary curriculum materials for a new Children’s Gallery & Library, a designated educational space planned to open in November 2011. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funds will support the content development, design, and printing of curriculum materials for four educational formats—teacher workshops, student programs, family programs, and after school programs—that will complement the sixteen media interactives planned for the Children’s Gallery & Library.
"American Museum of Natural History Libraries and Archives Risk Assessment"
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) will conduct a risk assessment of the library and archive holdings throughout the institution. The primary goal of the project is to prioritize the needs of the collections in an objective and relational way, significantly strengthening the collection and providing the basis for strategic preservation planning. The assessment will result in more efficient risk mitigation strategies and provide the foundation for a long-term plan for the most effective allocation of museum resources. In addition, the final project report will serve as a model for other institutions with library and archive holdings.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
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