The 2008 Maine New Century Community Program Historical Facilities Grants and Historical Museum Collections Grants are now available.
The first deadline is Dec. 1. Guidelines and applications may be found at http://www.maine.gov/sos/arc/cric/grants.htm. These grants are funded by the State of Maine New Century Community Program through the Maine State Museum and the Maine State Archives.
The Maine New Century Community Program (MNCCP) Historical Facilities Grant Program is designed to help preserve or improve physical facilities (buildings or rooms or storage areas) in Maine that house historically, scientifically, or artistically significant collections.
Significance may be national, statewide or local; it will depend upon the criteria of the institution’s mission and collecting policy.
These grants can also be used to engage a consultant to assess a facility and develop a preservation plan recommendation.
Past awards have included partial funding for window and roof repair projects, designing collection storage areas, purchasing new heating and environmental control systems, construction of storage vaults for local archives and construction of handicapped accessible ramps to improve access to historical collections.
Grant awards will be in the $500 to $5000 range. Higher awards will be considered for projects that demonstrate models of working partnerships and collaborations.
The MNCCP Historical Museum Collections Grant Program is designed to help Maine organizations preserve collections in four ways. Grants can be used to help preserve an organization’s, such as a library’s or local historical society’s, overall collection by improving conditions in a storage area.
They can be used to preserve specific important objects, such as a painting, or groups of objects, such as textiles within a collection. Grants may be used to pay for a consultant to assess the preservation needs of an object and develop a treatment plan recommendation.
Finally, they can be used to fund training for staff in the care and handling of particular objects or types of objects. Eligible collections may include a mix of archival material and objects. Grant awards will be in the $500 to $3000 range.
Applications and guidelines have been streamlined to make them easier to understand and complete correctly.
“Our goal is to better serve the Maine historical society, museum, library, historic site and local archive communities,” Peggy Konitzky, Cultural Resources Information Center manager said.
The Cultural Resources Information Center administers the grant programs and provides professional technical assistance to cultural organizations statewide. Over 80 grants were awarded in the 2006-07 grant cycles of these two programs.
Organizations applying for the first time are especially encouraged. Both programs will have two deadlines a year.
Applications received for the Dec. 1 deadline should be for projects that will be completed between March 1, 2009 and March 1, 2010. The 2009 deadlines will be May 1, 2009 and Dec. 1, 2009.
For more information, contact the Cultural Resources Information Center at 287-7591 or email maine.CRIC@maine.gov.
The Cultural Resources Information Center is a project of the Maine State Museum, the Maine State Archives and the Association of Maine Archives and Museums (MAM).
