FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009
IMLS Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, jmjoseth@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
167 Institutions Awarded More Than $19 Million
in Museums for America Grants
Washington, DC—The Institute of Museum
and Library Services (IMLS) today announced $19,176,000 in Museums for America (MFA)
grants for 167 museums in 46 states and Puerto Rico. These museums were chosen from 433
applicants across the United States. Grants will support high-priority activities that
advance the museums’ missions and strategic goals, helping them to serve the public more
effectively.
“By making it their mission to provide the public with top-notch
programming and knowledgeable staff, the 2009 MFA grantees have demonstrated that they
know what is important to their communities,” said Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of
IMLS. Referencing IMLS’s report, InterConnections, Radice added, “In 2006, 156
million U.S. adults visited museums 1.2 billion times, in person and remotely. These
numbers prove that museums, like this year’s MFA recipients, are vital institutions that
play a significant role in people’s lives.”
Awarded in three categories (engaging communities, building institutional
capacity, and collections stewardship), MFA grants fund projects such as exhibitions,
training, research, planning, technological upgrades, the purchase of equipment, and
educational programming. This year, MFA grantees will be working on myriad projects,
including the following:
- The development of an exhibition on the history and culture of the Dena’ina
peoples in Alaska at the Anchorage Museum in Anchorage, AK. This exhibition will
be the first-ever on the Dena’ina people.
- The creation of a new education program at the Mount Gulian Society in Beacon,
NY, for adults and families, including underserved communities. The program will
be based on the compelling journal kept by James F. Brown, an escaped slave whose
writings contain information significant to national history and the history of
New York State’s Hudson River Valley.
- The design and implementation of a state-of-the-art, integrated data management
and technology system to support and link museum operations and enhance the visitor
experience at the Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk, CT. The system will
include business applications that will broaden the museum’s reach through distance
learning and interactive participation.
- The development of a model for converting, producing, and delivering dynamic
Web-based teaching units for classroom use by the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) in
Dallas, TX. The project, “Connect: Teachers, Technology and Art,”
will incorporate results from a study on how teachers learn and teach with works
of art, newly published research on the museum’s African and South Asian collections,
and technology made possible through the DMA Arts Network.
- The research and development of a curriculum as part of their Eastern Black Rhino
Interpretive Program, to be used in a variety of interpretive displays and materials,
both at the Sioux Falls Zoo in Sioux Falls, SD, and online for teachers and students.
This project will educate people about rhinos, captive breeding programs, habitat loss,
endangered species, and human cultural impacts on wild animal populations.
- The development and fabrication of two traveling exhibits based on the Oz books
by L. Frank Baum at the Children’s Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. The museum will
partner with the Clearwater Public Library System to promote literacy and reading
through the traveling exhibits.
For more information about this year’s grantees,
click here.
To learn more about Museums for America, the largest museum grant
program administered by IMLS, please
click here.
The next deadline for the Museums for America program is November 2, 2009.
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