Museum Grants For African American History and Culture

July 2009 Grant Announcement

Florida  |  Maryland  |  Mississippi  |  Missouri  |  New York  |  North Carolina  |  Ohio 

South Carolina  |  Tennessee  |  Washington 

Florida

The Black Archives History and Research Foundation - Miami, FL
Award Amount: $149,549; Matching Amount: $239,457

Contact: Ms. Elizabeth Williams
Executive Director
305-636-2317

Project Title: "Preserving South Florida's Black Archives"
This grant award will create a greater role for The Black Archives History & Research Foundation to effectively interpret the rich tapestry of African American history in the South Florida region. IMLS funds will be used to hire an assistant archivist/collections manager and purchase equipment and supplies to inventory and accession the collection, which includes primary source materials, personal and professional papers, oral histories, photographs, billboards, and African American art. Students from nearby universities will be introduced to the museum profession through the creation of an internship program that will focus on collections management. Professional development opportunities will be provided for current staff members and an executive assistant will be hired to enhance the public impact of the foundation’s Historic Lyric Theater, allowing more time for the executive director to plan for the future of this growing organization.

Maryland

Maryland African American Museum Corporation (Reginald F. Lewis Museum) - Baltimore, MD
Award Amount: $82,258; Matching Amount: $112,039

Contact: Ms. Cherrie Woods
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
443-263-1812

Project Title: "Audiences, Capacities, and Awareness Initiative (ACAI)"
Guided by a recently completed strategic planning process, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum will strengthen future operations by hiring a consultant to conduct a needs assessment and introduce its staff to 21st-century skills and best practices in audience development, communication, and engagement. The project would also support the purchase of equipment and software to implement newly acquired skills, resulting in the development of a two-year audience development plan for the institution and revisions to the museum’s Web site. The Audiences, Capacities, and Awareness Initiative (ACAI) will allow the museum to successfully pursue its mission and better serve its public by accurately identifying its audience and more fully understanding its needs.

Living Classrooms Foundation - Baltimore, MD
Award Amount: $21,535; Matching Amount: $27,083

Contact: Dr. Dianne Swann-Wright
Curator and Director
410-685-0295

Project Title: "Summer Internship/Staff Development"
The Living Classrooms Foundation's Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park will nurture two future museum professionals by establishing a paid summer internship program that will provide academic credit for students and strengthen partnerships between the museum and local universities. Interns will assist with the development of a three-year temporary exhibit plan as well as research to support the overall interpretation of this maritime history site of the first African American-owned shipyard in the United States. Funds will support student stipends and the necessary supplies and materials to support their work. The project will also provide new opportunities for staff members to expand their professional knowledge and skills by attending conferences and continuing education workshops.

Mississippi

B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center - Indianola, MS
Award Amount: $144,561; Matching Amount: $190,212

Contact: Mrs. Ann Shackelford
Communications Director
662-887-9539 ext. 229

Project Title: "B.B. King Museum Capacity Building"
The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened to the public in 2008, with a commitment to improving the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its staff and the development of sustainable programs and services. IMLS funds will support substantive professional training and development for key members of this young institution’s staff through participation in national conferences, a series of management seminars, and enrollment in the Jekyll Island Management Institute. The project also includes hiring a volunteer coordinator to increase volunteer involvement in all areas of museum operations, build the docent program, and initiate an internship program. The museum staff and board will also work with a strategic planning consultant to focus attention on future goals and programming that will create lasting connections to its community.

Missouri

American Jazz Museum - Kansas City, MO
Award Amount: $40,009; Matching Amount: $50,261

Contact: Ms. Dina Bennett
Manager, Collections/Exhibitions
816-474-8463

Project Title: "John Baker Film Collection Internship Program"
The American Jazz Museum will recruit ten undergraduate and graduate college students over a two-year period to launch a pilot internship program to catalog the John Baker Film Collection—one of the largest collections of jazz film in existence. Under the guidance of staff and expert consultants, interns will be introduced to museum work while learning best practices of film research and categorizing and gaining skills in the technical work of inspecting and cataloging these rare resources. The students will also research content and write detailed descriptions of films in the collection for use in the museum’s permanent exhibitions, Web site, educational programming, and the development of a film collection box set intended to generate revenue to sustain the program in the future. Museum staff will carefully select interns with specific qualifications based on prior coursework and technical skills.

New York

Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History - Brooklyn, NY
Award Amount: $150,000; Matching Amount: $181,733

Contact: Ms. Jessica MacLean
Collections Manager
718-756-5250

Project Title: "Preservation and Education Capacity Project"
In preparation for the opening of its new Education and Cultural Arts Building in 2011, the Weeksville Heritage Center will promote from within to establish a new department and the new position of director of preservation and collections. A fully functioning department of Preservation and Collections will result in a greater focus on historic preservation, collections, and preservation education for the community while dramatically increasing the use of objects and artifacts in the interpretation of this site—one of the first free African American communities in the nation. IMLS funds will also support graduate education courses for the senior education programs curator at Bank Street College.

North Carolina

Afro-American Cultural Center - Charlotte, NC
Award Amount: $150,000; Matching Amount: $258,000

Contact: Ms. Carolyn Mints
Interim President/CEO
704-374-1565 ext. 32

Project Title: "Gantt Center Capacity Building and Organizational Enhancement (GaCCBOE - 'gazebo')"
The Afro-American Cultural Center will build institutional capacity by upgrading its current infrastructure as it transitions to a new facility in downtown Charlotte. The new facility will be known as the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture. Current staff members will be afforded the opportunity to participate in skill-building professional development programs. The museum will create the new positions of staff curator/collections manager and director of operations/facilities manager to help facilitate the move into the larger facility and implement programs and exhibits. The services of a consulting curator will assist with collections care and exhibition. The ambitious project also includes the enhancement of the museum’s Web site and the establishment of an internship program through a new partnership with Johnson C. Smith University to result in a digitization plan for the museum’s collections.

Ohio

Ohio Historical Society's National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center - Wilberforce, OH
Award Amount: $149,478; Matching Amount: $175,273

Contact: Dr. Floyd Thomas
Sustainable Program for Managing the National Afro
800-752-2603

Project Title: "Sustainable Program for Managing the NAAMCC Archival Collections"
Funding from IMLS will enable the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center to hire a professional archivist to provide the vital expertise that is necessary for building organizational capacity to manage its rich archival collections. An archival management plan will be developed and staff members will participate in formal training in archival processing, the development of finding aids, database management, and digitization. With the acquisition of these new skills and capabilities, the staff will be able to make the museum’s extensive African American history resources accessible to wider public and scholarly audiences. Working closely with its parent organization, the Ohio Historical Society, the museum will build and implement a sustainable program for the ongoing management of its archival collections.

South Carolina

South Carolina State University's Stanback Museum - Orangeburg, SC
Award Amount: $147,119; Matching Amount: $147,119

Contact: Ellen Zisholtz
Museum Director
803-536-8711

Project Title: "Professional Capacity: Collections Management"
The Stanback Museum is the only museum with a planetarium on any HBCU campus, allowing the integration of arts, humanities, and sciences in a single facility. The museum will use its grant to strengthen the knowledge and skills of the professional staff and interns in all aspects of collections management. A registrar will be hired and significant progress will be made on completing the accessioning and cataloging of the collection. A consultant will be retained to provide training and assistance with the development of written policies and procedures, including a collections policy and disaster plan. A highly successful internship program will be expanded and enhanced by offering student stipends, and interns will gain additional connections to the museum profession by accompanying staff to the annual meeting of the Association of African American Museums.

Tennessee

National Civil Rights Museum - Memphis, TN
Award Amount: $138,690; Matching Amount: $170,890

Contact: Ms. Barbara Andrews
Project Director
901-521-9699 ext. 223

Project Title: "Building For The Future"
Located at the Lorraine Motel, the assassination site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the National Civil Rights Museum will use its grant award to meet the needs of a planned renovation to serve a growing audience. IMLS funds will support the establishment of two new positions—a registrar to assist with the care of collections and an education assistant to provide more resources and programming for students, teachers, and families. The museum will also make a significant commitment to professional development by providing training opportunities for over 20 staff members and actively encouraging their participation in presentations, committees, and networking with regional and national professional organizations. An existing internship program with local institutions will be strengthened through the addition of stipends, with a goal of recruiting additional new students from LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis’s HBCU.

Washington

Northwest African American Museum - Seattle, WA
Award Amount: $136,801; Matching Amount: $183,525

Contact: Mr. Brian Carter
Deputy Director
206-518-6000 ext. 103

Project Title: "Strengthening and Sustaining the Curatorial Capacity of the Northwest African American Museum"
The Northwest African American Museum will develop and strengthen its core curatorial capacity by hiring a curatorial assistant to participate in the planning and execution of upcoming exhibitions and related programming. Grant funds will also allow current staff members to build collegial networks by attending national conferences and enhance their skills through participation in intensive workshops on exhibit design and fabrication, developing institutional and collector relationships, techniques of community-based exhibit design, and integrating the discipline of an outcomes-based evaluation process with exhibit and program work. The museum will partner with the University of Washington’s Museology Program to create an ongoing curatorial internship program that will offer students a hands-on introduction to African American museum practice. These interconnected and collaborative initiatives will enhance this young museum’s capacity to interpret the history, arts, and culture of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest.