Eleven NYS museums were awarded $498,809 in the latest round of the Institute of Museum & Library Services' Inspire! Grants for Small Museums to serve the public through exhibitions, educational programs, institutional planning, collections management, and other initiatives. In total, 78 museums across the country will receive $3,324,571 in federal funding.
This year, the Inspire! program provided applicants with two funding options – institutions requesting $5,000 to $25,000 were not required to provide any of their own funding, while institutions requesting $25,001 to $75,000 were required to match their requested funding amount with non-federal funds. This structure enables Inspire! grantees to propose larger-scale projects without putting undue burden on institutions that cannot provide a funding match.
The decision to update the program in this way was made with consideration to the diversity of small museums. Increasing the program’s adaptability enables applicants to design projects that best fit their institution’s needs and capacity. This is especially critical now, as many small museums are still struggling to return to pre-Covid funding and staffing levels.
“Small museums exist across a wide range of disciplines and geographies,” said Acting IMLS Director Cyndee Landrum. “Many serve as the only cultural institution in their community. Federal investment in small museums is an investment in access to art, science, history, and the preservation of local culture and stories. IMLS’s mission is to support small museums as the engines of vibrant, thriving communities.”
Oneida Community Mansion House, $25,000
The Oneida Community Mansion House (OCMH) will inventory and catalog approximately 850 objects in its care to preserve and improve access to its collection and advance knowledge of the Oneida Community and its relevance in United States history. OCMH staff will hire a part-time collections manager to inventory and photograph objects, create and update digital catalog records, and implement a collection storage plan and location system for two collections storage areas. Completion of this project will result in increased intellectual and physical control over the collection. Improving preservation and access to the collection will benefit visitors, students, researchers, historians, and Oneida Community descendants.
The Flow Chart Foundation, $25,000
The Flow Chart Foundation will partner with the Information Sciences Department at the University at Albany to create a paid internship program at the Ashbery Resource Center (ARC). ARC is the foundation’s repository and special collection library dedicated to the scholarly research of the 20th-century American poet, John Ashbery, and the broader New York School of Poets and Painters. Three part-time interns will be hired and trained under the direction of the ARC ’s Archivist/Librarian to assist with processing, cataloging, digitizing, and rehousing undocumented collections. The project will support museum and library workforce development by providing interns with hands-on training in collections management and archival processing. The work completed by interns will enhance preservation and access to the collection for students, visitors, and researchers and expand documentation for use in exhibitions and programming.
Hanford Mills Museum, $73,071
Hanford Mills Museum will draft and implement an updated Interpretive Master Plan to heighten connections between the site’s history and larger global systems and conditions. Museum staff will contract with a consultant to assist in writing the plan, building upon its recent interpretive audit and draft framework. The project team will draft interpretation and evaluation processes and protocols and provide interpretive workshops for staff, other small museums, and students. The project will result in a master plan to guide and expand interpretation, including an updated orientation script and mill tour. The planning process, resulting documents, and workshops will increase internal and external capacity and staff knowledge. Project beneficiaries include museum staff and board members, staff from surrounding small museums, nearby museum studies programs, and ultimately visitors to the site.
The Museum at Bethel Woods, $43,442
The Museum at Bethel Woods will build upon its oral history initiative to document personal stories of the Catskills, the Woodstock festival, and community activism during the 1960s and 1970s. The museum will partner with the Borscht Belt Museum and the Borscht Belt Marker Project to organize oral history pop-ups and conduct long-form interviews. Museum staff will process and transcribe oral histories and contract with an outside advisor to ensure adherence to ethical standards and best practices. The project will result in 60 videotaped oral histories that will be used by all three institutions in exhibits and public programs to help commemorate the 250th anniversary of America. This collaborative project will expand partnerships and contribute to organizational capacity-building. Documenting these rapidly disappearing personal accounts will enhance public understanding of a formative period in our country's history.
King Manor Museum, $60,000
The King Manor Museum will create a series of three exhibitions about local and national history as well as the abolition of slavery in New York. The museum presents the history of the King family, focusing on Rufus King (1755-1827), a Founding Father and anti-slavery advocate in early American government. The exhibitions will explore such topics as: the history and legacy of antislavery activism from 1805 (which was when Rufus King purchased the property) through the end of the Civil War, the history of Jamaica Queens, and the American bicentennial commemoration in 1976. Staff will work with community members to co-curate exhibitions. Staff will conduct associated public programming with the exhibitions for the benefit of the local Southeast Queens community.
Historic Cherry Hill, $47,469
Historic Cherry Hill will develop programming aligned with its reinterpretation plan and in preparation for the commemoration of the United States Semiquincentennial and 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in New York. Building upon previous IMLS funding and audience feedback, the museum will conduct historical research on enslavement, transcribe and digitize documents, and create a new tour and programming to share the complex stories of the diverse members of the Cherry Hill household. Museum staff will contract with historians, an interpretive specialist, and an evaluator to assist with the project. The resulting programming and new focus tour will help reshape the interpretation of the museum for the next generation of visitors.
En Foco, $25,000
En Foco in the Bronx, New York, will inventory, rehouse, and digitize materials chronicling its 50-year exhibition history. Founded as a collective of photographers from the Puerto Rican diaspora, En Foco’s exhibition records detail the cultural legacy of photographers of color. This project will support the hiring of a full-time digital librarian to research, organize, digitize, and rehouse the exhibition’s archive. The digitized collection will be available onsite at the Nueva Luz Study Center as well as digitally online. Archive staff will purchase a computer, document scanner, and archival supplies. The project will result in greater preservation and access to the collection and will serve as a crucial resource for the Bronx community of Latino artists and artists of color. Providing online access to the collection will benefit artists, scholars, writers, curators, gallerists, and the public.
The Whaling Museum, $75,000
The Whaling Museum will fabricate, install, and evaluate a 2-year special exhibition that explores ocean-inspired myths and monsters and their contemporary connections. The museum will develop an array of onsite and offsite learning opportunities including school group tours, workshops, and lectures to complement the exhibition. The project will support staff, exhibit and programming supplies and materials, and marketing. To convey the fragility of our oceans, the museum will commission a local artist to create a kraken sculpture made from plastic debris collected from local shore cleanups. The stories and messages in the exhibition will be gateways to launch wider discussions about the cultural roots of hate and negative stereotypes. By exploring nautical mythologies, visitors will be prompted to think about the ocean’s influence on how cultures were shaped and continue to shape us, and our impacts on the ocean today.
Center for Photography at Woodstock, $71,000
The Center for Photography at Woodstock will implement an educational program to engage local high school students enrolled in the English as a New Language Program. Center staff will partner with Kingston High School to organize field trips and weekly in-school classes designed to help students improve language skills through photography. The program will culminate in a student-produced public art piece and a publication. The center will contract with an artist team that has facilitated similar community projects. The expected outcomes are to build students’ sense of self-worth and foster a wider discussion about the neighboring Latin American community. The center recently relocated to Kingston, and engagement with its new community will help it build capacity and establish new audiences. Primary beneficiaries include participating students, their families, and the local community.
Roger Tory Peterson Institute, $20,374
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute will purchase equipment to enhance preservation and access to the approximately 80 framed works of art in its collection. The Institute holds the largest collection of works by the artist-naturalist and creator of the well-known Peterson Field Guides. Informed by a 2022 Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) report, museum staff will purchase and install powder-coated cabinets and wall-mounted screens to store its framed artwork collection. Staff will also take the opportunity to photograph and complete condition reports for each piece as it is being rehoused. The project will result in improved preservation and access to the framed art in the collection and the creation of more functional space for collection care support activities.
Underground Railroad Education Center, $33,453
The Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region will develop a Museum Studies Teen Program for junior and high school students. The organization will offer a comprehensive out-of-school program to prepare students from low-income and/or marginalized backgrounds for a career in the museum field. Staff will hire a full-time Program Manager, initiate partnerships for mentorship, develop curriculum with input from external consultants, and recruit program participants. The project will result in a ready-to-implement plan that can be shared with other small museums wishing to replicate the program at their institutions. The project will increase organizational capacity, engage community youth, and help diversify the museum workforce, benefiting student participants and the museum field as a whole.
Learn more about IMLS Inspire! Grants for Small Museums: https://www.imls.gov/news/imls-awards-332m-grant-funding-through-inspire-grants-small-museums
