2015 Conservation Assessment Program Application Available
Heritage
Preservation is pleased to announce the availability of Conservation Assessment
Program (CAP) application until the program deadline of December 1, 2014. The
2015 program year marks the 25th anniversary of CAP, and the
admittance of our 3000th museum!
In honor
of our 25th anniversary, we are soliciting stories from previous CAP
recipients, as well as the assessors to help us better understand the impact
CAP has had in the field of museum conservation and preservation. To thank
museums for contributing their stories and to encourage further conservation
efforts, two museums will be chosen to receive a $1,000.00 gift certificate for
conservation supplies, and one assessor will be thanked for their contributions
to the field with $500.00 to go towards professional development. The
application is short and should not take long to fill out.
CAP is
funded through a cooperative agreement with the Institute of Museum &
Library Services, and is administered by Heritage Preservation. The program
provides technical assistance to small to mid-sized museums to hire a
professional conservator, approved by Heritage Preservation, for a two-day site
visit. The CAP assessor uses the site
visit to examine the museum’s collections, environmental conditions, and
sites. The assessor then spends three
days writing a report recommending priorities to improve collections care. The assessment reports submitted by
professional conservators can assist the museum in developing strategies for
improved collections care, long-range planning, and fund-raising for
collections care.
Funds
are awarded based on the museum’s budget, so the cost to the museum varies. All
museums are awarded a collections assessor.
Museums with buildings older than 50 years receive additional funds for
an architectural assessor to identify priorities for care of the
building(s). In the case of institutions
such as zoos, aquariums, nature centers, botanical gardens, and arboreta, CAP
can fund a specialist to assess the living collections as well as the
non-living collections.
Since
CAP is limited to a two-day site visit, museums with small to mid-sized
collections are most appropriate for this program. Larger institutions are encouraged to contact
IMLS for information on the Museums for
America (MFA) grant. MFA grants fund
a variety of conservation projects, including general conservation surveys that
can accommodate a more extensive site visit by a professional conservator.
Geared
toward smaller institutions, the CAP application process is simple, and awards
are made to eligible applicants as funding permits. The 2015 CAP application will be open until
Monday, December 1, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. The online application can be accessed
at http://cap.heritagepreservation.org.
A link to this website, as well as to a fillable PDF can be found at http://www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP/application.html#apply2
To
receive further information, visit our website at: http://www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP/FAQs.html
Or, contact
us at:
Conservation
Assessment Program
Heritage
Preservation
1012 14th Street, NW
Suite 1200
Washington, D.C.
20005
202-233-0800