In 2020, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) awarded more than $3.7 million in 132 grants to organizations from all 10 Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) Regions in New York State for Museum Program Funding. Grant applications for 2021 are due March 12 by 4 PM. We are pleased to share some helpful tips from NYSCA to navigate the grant application process and examples from previous Museum Program Grantees to help inspire your institution as the deadline approaches. 

NYSCA Grantee Map, (all grant recipients for all NSYCA programs)

The goals for the Museum Program Grants from NYSCA are to “help advance museums and other related professional service organizations by offering support for arts and cultural activities, and encourages creative thinking to better engage the public.” Funding can be awarded to museums, cultural nonprofits, Native American Tribes in New York State, and units of government in municipalities in New York State, like public libraries, school districts, or public parks. All organizations must have its main place of business located in New York and serve New York State constituents. 

Museum Program Grants

This program seeks to recognize excellence in museums engaged in arts and cultural activities, encourage creativity, foster life-long learning through museums, expand audience for museums, recognize strong leadership and institutional management, and support non-profit organizations providing opportunities for museum professionals. Within the Museum Program Grants there are three funding categories: General Operating Support, Project Support, and Regrants and Partnerships (the last category being by invitation to apply only). 

General Operating Support

General Operating Support is investment by NYSCA into an organization’s ongoing work instead of a specific project or program. Funds can be used to support administration, finance, programming, or other organization activities. From NYSCA’s Museum Program Guidelines when considering General Operating Support, “NYSCA examines the nature, scope, and quality of an organization’s programs and activities, its managerial and fiscal competence, and its public service.” 

Some of the main criteria to qualify for General Operating Support from NYSCA is that an organization must:

• Have ongoing programs, exhibitions, or other arts and cultural activities that are open to the general public

• Makes evident a substantial commitment to arts and or culture, with a prior record of accomplishment in producing or presenting cultural activities

• Demonstrate fiscal responsibility, like positive fund balance or a balanced organizational budget without substantial or recurring deficits

• Employ one or more qualified and salaried full time or part time administrative staff

• Have a policy of fair payment to artists

Museums like the Long Island Children’s Museum on Long Island and the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton both received General Operating Support form NYSCA in 2019 for their public programming and exhibitions. The Long Island Children’s Museum specifically uses these funds to support their traveling exhibits, theatre performances, and other community outreach initiatives while the Roberson Museum uses General Operating Support to fund a percentage of the salaries of their Director of Education, Public Programs Coordinator, Registrar, and Director of Exhibitions. The Museum at Eldridge Street received $20,000 in General Operating Support for general operations including their historic building tours, temporary exhibitions program, k-12 educational programs, adult learning programs, lectures and concerts, and neighborhood walking tours.

Long Island Children’s Museum Theatre, which is partially supported by NSYCA General Operating Support, is Long Island’s only year-round venue that offers more than 200 live family-focused performances. Photo courtesy Long Island Children’s Museum

General Operating Support is usually awarded on a multi-year basis. These grants are no less than $5,000 and cannot exceed more than 25% of an organization’s budget. 

Project Support

Project support offers an opportunity for museums or related service organizations to “seek funding for projects or programs that are essential to maintain, improve and/or increase service to their audience/communities.” NYSCA cites arts or cultural projects like exhibitions, education programs, public programs, interpretation, collections research, catalogs, audience development, and services to the field.

The minimum awarded is $2,500 and grants cannot exceed 50% of the total project budget. 

Bronx Children’s Museum

Bronx Children’s Museum’s “Dream Big” Summer Arts Enrichment Program.  Photo courtesy Bronx Children’s Museum

The Bronx Children’s Museum received $8,000 in NYSCA Project Support for their community based learning project, “Dream Big”— a five week summer arts enrichment program to children in the South Bronx that focused on the theme “Building the Bronx.” The Dream Big Summer Enrichment Program serves approximately one hundred 2nd and 3rd graders from Bronx community-based organizations and schools. Its purpose is “to encourage children to entertain and elaborate on their grandest desires for their futures.” Offered as a summer enrichment program at two to three community based organizations as day camps, museum teaching artists provide visual and performance arts instruction three days a week for up to fifteen sessions. The theme changes each year but it is always Bronx related. The program culminates is a Dream Big Day which celebrates the entire program and where notable Bronx-born in the arts and public life (like Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor) interact with the children and help inspire them to pursue their dreams. Children also present what they have learned throughout the program.

Other Project Support Funding

The Voelker Orth Museum is a museum in Queens that tells the story of an immigrant family in the 1890s. The Museum received $5,000 in NYSCA Project Support for the first phase of a new interpretive plan that will include audience evaluation and asset review. 

Lakes to Locks Passage received $18,00 to continue services to the field with workshops, roundtables, and technical assistance to museums in northern New York State for building strong governance, improving capacity, and creating thematic interpretive programs to increase visitors’ understanding of the region’s cultural resources. 

The New York Botanical Garden received $20,000 in project support for their exhibition “KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature” a garden-wide exhibition that will bring new, critical perspectives to the body of work by Japanese Contemporary Artists Yayoi Kusama. The exhibition combines newly commissioned site-specific, early, and existing artwork and will be a multi-sensory presentation of Kusama’s connection with nature. 

The exhibition will cover the entire 250 acres, inside and out and will feature Kusama’s first obliteration greenhouse.

The exhibition opens on May 9, 2020.

Tips and Advice from NYSCA

• Read the Guidelines carefully. There are updates every year.

• Ask questions! Reach out to NYSCA Program staff.

• Use the formatting tools in the NYSCA-CFA to make your application easier to read.

• Submit early. Don’t wait until the last day to apply—there are no extensions.

• Follow up. Whether your request is funded or not, follow up with NSYCA Program staff after you receive notice to schedule time to hear feedback.

Applicants to the Museum Program can choose to apply for either General Operating Support or Project Support, but not both. Organization may submit applications for another NYSCA Program, like Facilities Projects, Folk Arts, or Visual Arts, etc.) if applicable.

Consolidated Funding Application Tips

• Be prepared. Review all the steps to apply: https://arts.ny.gov/application-guide

• Choose your words wisely when it comes to character counts. Character counts at the maximum and do include spaces. Tell your story with detail but don’t be repetitive.

• Use your options. For NYSCA, budget notes are really important, so don’t skip them.

• Upload support materials. Each category has different requirements so be sure to read carefully and upload the required materials as PDFs as to not lose any formatting. 

• Again, submit early. No exceptions for CFA applications. 

Grant applications are due March 12, 2020 by 4 PM.

Further Reading / Resources

Museum Program Overview

https://arts.ny.gov/programs/museum

Recent NYSCA Grants Search 

Search for recently funding NYSCA organizations

http://www.nysca.org/grant_app/org_search.cfm

Applying to NYSCA for FY21? Start Here!

https://arts.ny.gov/blog/applying-nysca-fy21-start-here