Category: Grants & Scholarships

This category provides information for the membership about upcoming deadlines for national grants, funded opportunities, and awards. Descriptions of funding opportunities that are culled from other sources (announcements from newsletters, websites, etc.) are also included.

Luce Grant Helps Cornell Create Preservation Training Program for Chinese Libraries

Starting in November, 2012 Cornell University Library will help preserve valuable books and prevent damage from natural disasters thousands of miles across the ocean.

Thanks to a $180,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Library is beginning an internship program that will allow representatives from four libraries in China come to Ithaca to study

with experts in the library’s Department of Preservation and Conservation.

Cornell’s preservation experience, facilities and expertise will show the eight interns how to mitigate the immediate physical risks that threaten some of China’s most significant historical

collections and greatly extend the life of their valuable books.

“Knowledge creation is global. With fewer barriers to cross-border research, the well-being of collections in other countries is directly linked to the research we do at Cornell and around the world, and it benefits from their accessibility,” said Xin Li, Associate University Librarian for Central Library Operations. “Helping Chinese librarians preserve these materials ensures they’ll be around for the long run, which is part of the global mission of a land-grant university.”

Four leading academic libraries in Beijing–Renmin University Library, Peking University Library, Tsinghua University Library and the China Agricultural University Library–will participate in the program. Its first session begins Nov. 1, 2012 with two interns coming to Cornell at a time. Over the course of two years, each of the interns will attend two six-week workshops.

Interns will learn conservation of Western bindings, non-damaging exhibition practices and care and handling of collections, as well as how to prevent mold and mitigate water damage.

By the end of the program, interns will not only be able to implement preservation and disaster plans at their own libraries, but also help train other librarians, archivists and technicians at other institutions in China. An enhanced online preservation tutorial translated into Chinese will also allow library staff members to continue mentoring and advising the interns even after the project is over.

“Our ‘train-the-trainers’ model, combined with our online tutorial, means we can reach far beyond the people we’re training in person,” said Barbara Berger Eden, director of preservation at Cornell. “This program requires a combination of specialized skills that our Library can offer: singular expertise in traditional conservation skills and the innovative use of cutting-edge technology.”

“The preservation of endangered materials will benefit scholarship,” said Helena Kolenda, Program Director for Asia at the Luce Foundation. “This training program will also serve to build bridges between the library communities in the United States and China.”

To learn more visit www.library.cornell.edu/preservation.

Call for Nominations: George Cunha and Susan Swartzburg Preservation Award

The  was established by the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) to honor the memory of George Cunha and Susan Swartzburg, early leaders in cooperative preservation programming and strong advocates for collaboration in the field of preservation.

The award acknowledges and supports cooperative preservation projects and/or rewards individuals or groups that foster collaboration for preservation goals. Recipients of the George Cunha and Susan Swartzburg Award demonstrate vision, endorse cooperation and advocate for the preservation of published and primary source resources that capture the richness of our cultural patrimony. The award recognizes the leadership and initiative required to build collaborative networks designed to achieve specific preservation goals. Any person or group is eligible for this award; membership in ALA is not required. The Cunha/Swartzburg Award is sponsored by Hollinger Metal Edge and includes a $1,250 grant and citation.

Send nominations, including the name of the person or group being nominated; address, phone number and email address of nominee and nominating party; a formal statement of nomination, with rationale for the nomination; resume, vita or extensive narrative career outline upon which the award jury can base its determination; and letters of support and endorsement, to Kris Kern, chair, Cunha/Swartzburg Jury, kernk [at] pdx__edu

For more information, visit www.ala.org/alcts/awards/profrecognition/lbicunhaswartz

Kristen Kern
Fine and Performing Arts Librarian
Portland State Library
503-725-5218

From the Bench: Literally Hanging by a Thread

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators.  Part scientist, part detective, conservators work to preserve the past for the future.  This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS supported projects in museums across the United States.  For more information about IMLS funding for museums visit www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

By Meg Loew Craft, Senior Objects Conservator, Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum was delighted to receive a bequest of over 165 Southeast Asian works of art from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2002. The objects complement and enhance the Walters’ Asian collection, which is focused on the arts from China and Japan. This diverse gift includes manuscripts and manuscript cabinets, lacquer Buddha sculptures, painted textile banners, ivory seals, and porcelain teapots, to name a few.

The new collection was stored in a climate-controlled, secure facility, but it was offsite, which made the art works difficult to access, study, examine, and integrate into museum programming. A grant from IMLS permitted us to gain access to the Duke objects, examine each piece individually for treatment and storage needs, and correlate curatorial and conservation priorities. A symposium was held that brought Southeast Asian scholars and conservators together to discuss the Duke Collection. Focusing attention on the collection has enabled rehousing of two-thirds of the collection into onsite museum storage and encouraged creative thinking on how to incorporate the Duke objects into current and future exhibition galleries.

A new fire suppression system slated for installation in Hackerman House, our mid-1860s historic building housing Asian art, will necessitate moving the artwork out of the galleries in the near future. This is an opportunity to treat and put some of the larger sculptures and paintings on display in the museum. Information from the survey is being used to help refigure the displays for reinstallation. This is especially significant for eight to ten sculptures and paintings that are too large to fit in our in-house storage area.

Burmese sculpture of Buddhist adorant. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.
Burmese sculpture of Buddhist adorant. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.

This Burmese sculpture of a Buddhist adorant, has been examined during the IMLS survey, given the highest priority by both curators and conservators, and will be treated this fall. The carved wood adorant is covered with lacquer and heavily decorated with gold leaf and glass mirror inlays. The jewelry and flames made of leather similarly adorned are the weakest elements. The leather is water-damaged, distorted and brittle. The cracked leather has been crudely repaired – it is literally hanging by a thread.

Back view shows the broken belt. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.
Back view shows the broken belt. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.

Without the support of IMLS, attention would not have been focused on the Duke Collection. The survey has generated excitement and exposure for these treasures. We anticipate bringing these objects to light with continuing research, online digital images, chats in the conservation window, and display in the galleries – thanks to IMLS.

From the Bench: New Blog Series Highlights the Work of Conservators

IMLS, the American Institute for Conservation, and Heritage Preservation, welcome you to a new blog series, “From the Bench.”

Every day in museum, library, and private labs across the country, conservators go about the work of ensuring that the objects that define us are protected and preserved for the benefit of our own and of future generations. They create the first lines of defense against forces that would otherwise see the materials we hold dear reduced to unrecognizable dust, smears, or puddles and thus quieting their stories.

Conservators are first-rate scientists and detectives, working at every scale from the sub-molecular to that of massive building environments and using tools ranging from the simplest swabs to those that rival well-outfitted chemistry and physics labs anywhere. The discoveries they make—sometimes in the course of routine documentation and other times as part of a rigorous scientific protocol—reveal hidden histories and prompt new lines of inquiry every day.

It’s easy to understand why conservators say their work is gratifying. Routine and predictability are punctuated with astounding breakthroughs. Most of all, to them, their work in caring for objects is most valuable because it results in increased access and learning for now and long into the future.

IMLS is proud to support conservation work, and we are delighted to help sponsor this opportunity for conservators to tell about their work from the bench. We hope you enjoy the series.

Guidelines for grant applications for collections care and conservation projects will be available on the IMLS website in mid-October.  Applications are due through Grants.gov on January 15, 2013. For more information on these and other funding programs, please visit http://www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

Call for Proposals: 2013 Preservation Technology and Training Grants (PTT Grants)

The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) announces it’s 2013 Preservation Technology and Training Grants (PTT Grants) call for proposals.

The call outlines in detail how our grants program works. Briefly, we are looking for innovative proposals that develop new technologies or adapt existing technologies to preserve cultural resources. The deadline to submit a proposal to Grants.gov is November 1, 2012.

PTT Grants have funded recipients like the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum that is conducting innovative research in non-invasive documentation of complex submerged archeological sites located in turbid waters.

NCPTT supports single year projects. Grants are awarded competitively with the maximum award of $25,000. Preference is given to proposals with a one to one cash or in-kind match, and to proposals that support our research priorities. NCPTT typically receives 40 proposals and funds approximately 10 grants per year.

The 2013 grants will be awarded during the federal fiscal year 2013 (October 1, 2012-September 30, 2013). Grants are funded by annual federal appropriation and are subject to availability of funds.

ALERT— Plan Ahead Now for ILMS & NEH Conservation Grant Support!

Institute of Museum & Library Services
As we have previously reported, funding for projects that were supported previously under the Conservation Project Support (CPS) Grants program will now be included as part of the Museums for America (MFA) program. In the last two fiscal years, $2.675 million was appropriated for Conservation Project Support Grants. The good news is that even more IMLS support for conservation is possible if there are enough excellent applications.

While final guidelines have not been posted, the draft guidelines indicated that:

  1. Final guidelines will be posted as soon as approved by the Office of Management and Budget. A projected date of October 15, 2012 was given. We will alert you as soon as a firm date is available.
  2. The deadline for submitting applications for FY 2013 funds is January 15, 2013.

Given that the late fall through the end of the year is a particularly busy time, we encourage everyone to begin planning now for applications for conservation support.

IMLS will open the Grants.gov portal and begin accepting applications as soon as it receives OMB approval. We will alert you to this as soon as we know. Additionally, IMLS staff will be offering webinars throughout the fall season to assist applicants with application preparation and to answer questions about the new guidelines.

IMLS has indicated that “applications submitted under each of these program areas will be reviewed by subject-matter experts.” And further that “in 2013, there will be no restrictions on the number of applications a museum may submit to MFA. We encourage you to read http://blog.imls.gov/?p=1590.

National Endowment for the Humanities
The deadline for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections is December 4, 2012 for Projects Beginning October 2013. This program helps cultural institutions plan and implement preservation strategies aimed at mitigating the greatest risks to collections in ways that pragmatically balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. For information and guidelines see http://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/sustaining-cultural-heritage-collections and http://www.neh.gov/files/grants/sustaining-cultural-heritage-dec-4-2012.pdf

While this is a continuing program category, we wanted to alert you to the deadline.

NEH grants for preserving collections in sustainable ways

Guidelines have been posted for the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants.  U.S. nonprofit museums, libraries, archives, and educational institutions can apply for grants to plan and implement preservation strategies that pragmatically balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. Projects should be designed to be as cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally sensitive as possible, and they should aim to mitigate the greatest risks to collections rather than to meet prescriptive targets.

Apply for planning grants of up to $40,000 (with an option of up to $50,000) to bring together interdisciplinary teams that might reevaluate environmental parameters for collections and examine passive (nonmechanical) and low-energy alternatives to conventional energy sources and energy-intensive mechanized systems for managing collection environments.  Testing, modeling, or project-specific research may help applicants better understand collection environments and formulate sustainable preservation strategies; therefore, with planning grants you might measure energy consumption; use blower door tests to identify air leaks in buildings; create mock-ups of lighting options; test natural ventilation methods; conduct thermal imaging of buildings; test the effect of buffered storage enclosures on moderating fluctuating environmental conditions; re-commission small-scale climate control systems; or adjust the operating protocols for climate control systems.

Apply for implementation grants of up to $350,000 to manage interior relative humidity and temperature by passive methods; install heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems; install storage systems and rehouse collections; improve  security and the protection of collections from fire, flood, and other disasters; and upgrade lighting systems and controls to achieve levels suitable for collections that are energy efficient. Projects that seek to implement preventive conservation measures in sustainable ways are especially encouraged.

Deadline: December 4, 2012

Guidelines: www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SCHC.html

FAQs: www.neh.gov/files/grants/sustaining-cultural-heritage-faqs_2012.pdf

Program officers are available to discuss project ideas and read draft proposals. Please contact the division for more information by emailing preservation [at] neh__gov or calling 202-606-8570.

Laura Word
Senior Program Officer
Division of Preservation and Access
National Endowment for the Humanities

Georgia Archives Receives Grant to Support Sustaining Georgia’s Permanent Records

The Georgia Archives is pleased to announce receipt of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to implement methods for achieving stable environmental storage conditions for its permanent records while reducing energy consumption and thus costs. “This project will help the Georgia Archives continue to reduce energy usage and serve as a model of sustainability for other institutions during these times of budget cutbacks” said project manager, Christine Wiseman, Preservation Services Manager at the Georgia Archives.

The award is from NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access in the category of Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections.  The grant funds support expanding upon energy saving measures at the Georgia Archives initiated over the past two years by updating and further automating the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) and by implementing lighting upgrades.  The fundamental goal of the project is to increase energy savings efforts, while continuing to maintain storage conditions necessary for the long term preservation of Georgia’s permanent and historical records.

Archives staff will track and monitor environmental conditions as well as energy usage, and gather data that will be of use of other cultural organizations.

Be sure to subscribe to the project blog, Sustaining Georgia’s History, One Environmental Upgrade at a Time, to get timely updates. See  www.sustaingeorgiahistory.wordpress.com and click on link to subscribe. The project begins October 1, 2012 and runs for three years.

For more information, contact project manager, Christine Wiseman <cwiseman [at] sos__ga__gov> or visit www.georgiaarchives.org.

The Georgia Archives is a division of the Office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp.  The mission of the Georgia Archives is to identify, select, preserve, and make accessible records that constitute Georgia’s recorded history; to increase the efficiency of State Government through effective records management; and to improve the quality of records and archives management throughout the state.

Christine Wiseman
Preservation Services Manager
Georgia Archives
5800 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, GA 30260
678-364-3761

Conservation By Design Announces 2012 Scholarship Winners

Shaun Thompson, a bookbinder at Cambridge University Library, has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s Nicholas Hadgraft Memorial Scholarship.  Now in its eighth year, the coveted scholarship awarded by Conservation By Design (CXD) offers UKP1500 towards the cost of attending the Montefiascone Book Conservation Summer School; a unique bookbinding course held each year in the medieval town of Montefiascone, Italy.  The school runs for four weeks during July and August, 2012 and each week features a different course and tutor. Shaun intends to use his scholarship to attend two courses one addressing Glazier Codex, a 5th and 6th Century Coptic binding system, and the other exploring the history of Spanish gothic wooden binding structures in the “Mudejar” style.

The entries this year were so impressive that for the first time ever, a runner-up prize was also awarded. Mark Furness, a bookbinder from Manchester, demonstrated considerable skill and enthusiasm for his craft, so will be attending his preferred course at the summer school, which will look at the construction of a typical full calf late eighteenth century French binding.

The scholarship is offered in memory of Dr Nicholas Hadgraft, a good friend of Conservation By Design who died tragically in 2004. Nicholas was a fellow of the University of the Arts London and a key collaborator on the “Squelch Drying” technique devised by Stuart Welch (the founder of CXD), the most effective way to date of drying valuable rare books.

The Isabel Bader Research Fellowship in Textile Conservation

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Queen’s University’s Master of Art Conservation Program are pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted from experienced textile conservators for the 2013 Isabel Bader Research Fellowship in Textile Conservation.

The Isabel Bader Research Fellowship in Textile Conservation is a research initiative, promoting investigation and research in the areas of textile conservation and costume history. Through the generous support of Dr. Isabel Bader, the Fellowship links two of the University’s unique resources: the Queen’s University Collection of Canadian Dress at the Art Centre, which comprises over 2,000 articles of fashion from the early 1800s to the 1970s, and the Master of Art Conservation Program, which offers Canada’s only graduate degree in conservation theory and treatment.

Under the Isabel Bader Research Fellowship in Textile Conservation, the incumbent will undertake a three-month residency in Kingston to research a proposed project in textile conservation and/or costume history, using the Queen’s University Collection of Canadian Dress and the well-equipped laboratories of the Master of Art Conservation Program. The deadline for applications is 3 August 2012. Valued at $12,000 CDN, the Fellowship begins in January 2013.
For further information, please see www.aeac.ca/downloads/2013FellowshipPoster.pdf or call 613-533-6000, x 77049 to speak with Heather Saunders, Interim Administrative Coordinator, before 20 July or Matthew Hills, Administrative Coordinator, after 20 July.