All types of museums, large and small, are eligible for funding. Eligible museums include aquariums, arboretums and botanical
gardens, art museums, youth museums, general museums, historic houses and sites, history museums, nature centers, natural history and anthropology
museums, planetariums, science and technology centers, specialized museums, and zoological parks. Federally operated and for-profit museums may
not apply for IMLS funds. An eligible applicant must be:
- either a unit of state or local government or a private not-for-profit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue
Code;
- located in one of the fifty states of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American
Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated states of
Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau; and
- a museum that, using a professional staff, (1) is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes; (2)
owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; (3) cares for these objects; and (4) exhibits these objects to the general public
on a regular basis through facilities which it owns or operates.
An organization uses a professional staff if it employs at least one professional staff member, or the fulltime equivalent,
whether paid or unpaid primarily engaged in the acquisition, care, or exhibition to the public of objects owned or used by the institution.
An organization “exhibits objects to the general public” if such exhibition is a primary purpose of the institution.
Further, an organization which exhibits objects to the general public for at least 120 days a year shall be deemed to exhibit objects to the
general public on a regular basis. An organization which exhibits objects by appointment may meet the requirement to exhibit objects to the
general public on a regular basis, if it can establish, in light of the facts under all the relevant circumstances, that this method of exhibition
does not unreasonably restrict the accessibility of the institution's exhibits to the general public. Please note that an organization which
does not have as a primary purpose the exhibition of objects to the general public. but which can demonstrate that it exhibits objects to the
general public on a regular basis as a significant, separate, distinct, and continuing portion of its activities, and that it otherwise meets
the museum eligibility requirements, may be determined to be eligible as a museum under these guidelines.
A museum located within a parent organization that is a state or local government or multipurpose non-profit entity, such as
a municipality, university, historical society, foundation, or a cultural center, may apply on its own behalf, if the museum: (1) is able to
independently fulfill all the eligibility requirements listed above; (2) functions as a discrete unit within the parent organization; (3) has
its own fully segregated and itemized operating budget; and (4) has the authority to make the application on its own. When any of the last three
conditions cannot be met, a museum may apply through its parent organization.
Prospective applicants that cannot fulfill all of these requirements should contact IMLS to discuss their eligibility before
applying. IMLS may require additional supporting documentation from the applicant to determine the museum’s autonomy. Each eligible applicant
within a single parent organization should clearly delineate its own programs and operations in the application narrative. A parent organization
that controls multiple museums that are not autonomous but which are otherwise eligible may submit only one application per grant program; the
application may be submitted by the parent organization on behalf of one or more of the eligible museums.
For the Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program, please see Native American/Native Hawaiian Tribe and Organization
Eligibility.
Please see the following program overview pages for specific eligibility requirements:
• National
Leadership Grants
• Partnership
for a Nation of Learners Community Collaboration Grants
•
21st Century Museum Professionals
• Museum
Grants for African American History and Culture
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