The Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation recently announced the 2009 guidelines for the American Heritage Preservation Program. This joint venture is a new public-private partnership that will fund the preservation of endangered arts, humanities, and science collections that are held in small and medium sized museums, archives, and libraries. Anne-Imelda M. Radice, IMLS Director, stated, “”It is through the preservation and care of our collective heritage that America’s communities stay vital, These grants are intended to assist institutions, as our nation’s stewards of cultural collections, with activities that ensure the safekeeping and care of these precious artifacts and with sharing the impact of these activities with their communities.”
The partnership builds on Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, IMLS’s multi-year initiative to raise public awareness and inspire action on the care of America’s collections. That initiative implements recommendations of an IMLS-supported study, A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America’s Collections, which found that nearly 190 million objects in U.S. collections are in immediate danger of deterioration and need restoration or conservation.
For questions about museum projects, please contact Christine Henry, Senior Program Officer, at 202-653-4674 to discuss questions. For questions about library or archival projects, please contact Susan Malbin, Senior Program Officer, at 202-653-4768.
The deadline for application is September 15, 2008. IMLS and Bank of America will notify applicants of final decisions in January 2009, with projects to begin no earlier than February 1, 2009.
http://www.imls.gov/collections/grants/boa.htm