Preservation Access Grants for Small Museums

Those who attended the conference last week may remember that a representative from the National Endowment for the Humanities discussed Preservation Access Grants for small institutions during the lightning sessions at lunch on Monday. These are great opportunities for smaller museums, especially since they don't require a large staff to manage. Learn more at http://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation/preservation-and-access-grants-map.

The next deadline is May 1, 2014! 

Here are some highlights from the website:
"Since 2000, NEH has made over 1,700 awards for Preservation Assistance Grants (commonly known as PAGs) to libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities that want to improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections.  In all 50 states, and in Puerto Rico, PAG awards have enabled many small and mid-sized cultural repositories to hire consultants to do a preservation assessment; purchase preservation supplies, including shelving and archival folders; and acquire environmental monitoring equipment.  PAGs also support cultural heritage institutions develop disaster or environmental monitoring plans, or train their staffs in the care and storage of humanities collections or the best practices for cataloging and arranging and describing collections." 

What do these grants fund?
"Preservation Assistance Grants provide up to $6,000 of funding for the following activities:  preservation assessments, purchase of preservation supplies and equipment, development of environmental monitoring and disaster plans, and education and training.  We encourage small and mid-sized cultural heritage institutions with significant humanities collections to consider applying, and especially those that have never before received an NEH grant.  This year, we have a special encouragement for presidentially-designated institutions (historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities) and Native American tribes with significant humanities collections.  If you have an idea for a project that you think might fit the criteria of the Preservation Assistance Grant, or if you simply want to find out more about the program, please contact us at: preservation@neh.gov or by phone at: 202-606-8570. Guidelines for the program are available here."

Let us know if you apply or have received one! Good luck :)