FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contacts:
Giuliana Bullard gbullard@imls.gov
202-653-4799
Janelle Brevard jbrevard@imls.gov
202-653-4630
IMLS Awards Nearly $1 Million in Grants to Strengthen Native American and Native Hawaiian Museum Services
Washington, DC - The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced 21 grants, from Alaska to New York, supporting museum services for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. The grants, totaling $972,000, are being made through the IMLS Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services grant program.
The list of awardees provides descriptions of funded projects. States represented among this year’s awardees include Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington.
“The IMLS grants announced today through the Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program will be used to support best practices among tribal museums, and will buttress their role as stewards of our nation’s tribal cultural heritage,” said IMLS Director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew.
Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services grants provide opportunities to federally recognized Indian tribes, Native Alaskan villages and corporations, and non-profit organizations primarily serving and representing Native Hawaiians to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge through strengthened museum services. The funding will support activities including exhibitions, educational programming, and professional development. Examples of funded projects include:
- A project of the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay, Washington, to preserve oral histories by digitizing and indexing fragile audio reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, and handwritten transcriptions to enable Makah tribal members to learn from recordings of elders and fluent speakers.
- The development of a virtual museum about Kaho’olawe, an island that is preserved and protected for Native Hawaiian cultural and spiritual purposes and is generally inaccessible to the public. Working with a software development team, the Kaho’olawe Island Reserve Commission of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will design an interactive map of Kaho’olawe that will enable users to virtually explore the island and link to a collection of digitized archival documents.
The Native American/Native Hawaiian grant awards were part of $2.4 million in grants that IMLS announced Friday. Additionally, the agency awarded $1.4 million under the African American History and Culture grant program and $158,534 through the Sparks! Ignition Grants for Museums program.
More information about the museum grant opportunities can be found on the IMLS website.
Use the IMLS Search Awarded Grants tool to view our archive of grants awarded by the Institute. Search grants by grant name, institution, or project type.