A regional preservation field service program that strengthens preservation practices and the care of humanities collections at hundreds of museums, historical organizations, libraries, and archives in five states of the Upper Midwest. Activities include training workshops, disaster response services, preservation needs assessments and surveys, the loan of environmental monitoring equipment, and information and outreach services. In all, the project would support more than twenty workshops reaching hundreds of staff members at over 400 cultural heritage institutions in the Midwest. The award would additionally support training for two Native American conservation fellows as part of its Native American Collections Care Fellowship Program, which began in 2018.

The Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) requests continued funding for its Regional Preservation Field Service Program (Preventive Conservation). This program strengthens the preservation practices and collections care at cultural repositories in the Upper Midwest resulting in increased public access. During the proposed NEH grant period (3/2020-2/2022), the Preventive Conservation program will improve the preservation practices at hundreds of institutions by providing: collections care and preservation related workshops; disaster planning, training and response services; preservation surveys and plans; collections care information; grant preparation assistance; and other related collection care improvement services. The program has demonstrated successful outcomes and measurable results, keeps its programming accessible to even the smallest institutions in the region, is staffed by knowledgeable conservators and preservation experts, and is devoted to this region’s collections.

A preservation field service program that provides assessments, workshops and seminars (in-person and online), technical consultations, and disaster assistance to libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage repositories, predominantly in the Northeast.

With a respected history as a preservation and conservation resource for organizations of all sizes, the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) effectively increases the knowledge and skills of collections care professionals—at all levels—in the long-term care and stewardship of paper-based and photographic collections, audiovisual materials, and digital objects. Through workshops, webinars, in-person conferences, reference services, disaster assistance, print and online resources, assessments, and consultations, NEDCC helps institutions better understand and address their preservation challenges so that their vital humanities collections remain accessible into the future. NEDCC’s basic field services programs remain the staple of our work and will continue unabated. As our clients’ needs change, NEDCC expands its expertise and services. With this grant, we propose to continue to transform our services with both the design of new services and the improvement of existing ones.

Three five-month emergency preparedness training programs located across Alaska and targeting predominantly small, rural, heritage institutions.

This program will guide three cohorts of regional humanities practitioners through a comprehensive emergency preparedness and response training program. Each cohort will take part in a 5 month program that includes two in person workshops and an online course. At the end of the program, participants will have relationships with local and regional first responders and emergency managers, completed a comprehensive written disaster plan, conducted risk assessments at their institutions, and practiced salvaging collections materials damaged by fire, flood, and earthquake. The program is attuned to the realities and needs of small collecting institutions in the remote corners of Alaska and is planned to ensure both the participation and success of humanities practitioners from across the breadth of Alaska, the nation's most disaster prone state.

A continuing education program in preservation of audiovisual collections for tribal archives, libraries, and museums that includes establishment of five regional hubs (across the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii), delivery of six regional workshops for approximately 140 participants, development of preservation plans for select audiovisual collections, and development of educational resources, such as toolkits, guides, protocols, and templates for film inspection and digitization.

The Community Archiving Workshop, a project of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, proposes to address the widespread threat to a/v (film, video, audio) holdings in humanities collections through a series of regional workshops for tribal archives, libraries and museums (TALMs). In a 2012 survey, 60% of responding TALMs stated that they are stewards of important a/v recordings. In partnership with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums, CAW proposes to support efforts to preserve and improve access to these collections by training tribal archivists and librarians to inventory and assess their collections, and to prioritize and prepare them for digitization. Each workshop involves group webinars, the delivery of online training models, and onsite workshops in which participants learn to identify different media formats and risk factors, establish controlled vocabulary for description of a/v collections, and document and prioritize collections for preservation.

The development of online training modules, two onsite two-day training programs, and a one-year fellowship, all of which are focused on educating diverse practitioners in audiovisual preservation skills, techniques, and practices.

A community-based three-year training program focused on educating a broad range of arts and cultural heritage practitioners in audiovisual preservation skills, techniques and practices. The program will provide online and in-person training, and a one-year fellowship for an information science postgraduate with a desire to pursue a career in community-based arts and cultural heritage.

A continuing education training program in archival methods for community-directed language revitalization that would contribute to capacity-building efforts for access to language archives. Activities include training that combines distance-learning with direct technology support from the National Breath of Life archives team; support for five apprentices; and opportunities to network with other community archivists.

The mission of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages is to work with Community Archivists from endangered language communities to build capacity around methods in archives-based research for community-directed revitalization efforts. With this mission in mind, the National Breath of Life has developed a model for Native American philology. Since 2011, National Breath of Life has expanded the model to increase the depth and breadth of training for Native American Community Archivists who are responsible for building and maintaining a wide range of language archive activities and research specific to the revitalization of their community languages. As part of this process, National Breath of Life provides state-of-the-art software and best practices to advance their work. The proposed project builds capacity for the National Breath of Life in two strategic areas. First, is the development to provide ongoing technical training and outreach by creating

Scholarships for 32 internships as part of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) program. Twenty semester-long scholarships of $7,000 each would place students in New York City cultural heritage institutions, while another twelve summer scholarships at $10,000 each would place them at institutions across the country.

Over the course of their studies for their master's degree in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP), students engage in experiential learning through course projects and three internships that aid their professional development while improving the condition and accessibility of unique, often vulnerable, media collections in archives, libraries, museums, public broadcast stations, non-profit organizations, and other settings. By helping to assess, catalog, and preserve audiovisual recordings that document diverse histories, cultures, arts, and communities, MIAP interns facilitate the longevity of primary source materials that are vital for scholarship, teaching, and public programming in the humanities. Funding for our "Media Archiving and Preservation: Education and Professional Training" project, would facilitate 32 internships serving media-rich humanities collections, between September 2021 and August 2023.

Establishment of the Utah Community Preservation Program, which would train professionals across the state who manage humanities collections. One conservator would be hired to coordinate the program and serve as lead instructor for a series of twenty-four online and eight in-person trainings and workshops over the course of two years; the program would also train seven cultural heritage professionals, geographically distributed throughout the state of Utah, to act as an ongoing Community Preservation Team.

Utah Field Services seeks a NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training grant to establish a new Utah Community Preservation Program (UCPP). This project will develop, implement and test a comprehensive set of virtual and on-site, culturally appropriate, training and mentorship activities, designed to elevate the preservation literacy (knowledge and skills) of museum/collections stewards across Utah through more than 1,000 engagements.After the three-year project period ends in early 2024, Utah Field Services (UFS) will sustain UCPP.

A three-year Preservation Training Initiative in conservation and archives, offered to students at different levels (nine undergraduate interns, one master’s intern, and three post-graduate fellows in conservation), as well as four continuing education workshops, for 30 participants each, for museum professionals from across the state of Virginia focusing on collections care and archival management.

VMFA requests funding for a 36-month program, Preservation Training Initiative, which will provide training and professional development across the continuum, from college students considering careers in heritage preservation to emerging professionals in the fields of preservation, conservation, and archives to established museum and library professionals throughout Virginia. The project will support paid training for students at key touch points in their academic careers: 1) three postgraduate students to serve as advanced fellows in conservation (one per year); 2) one part-time, nine-month master’s-level intern in Library Sciences to gain practical experience in the museum’s archives; and, 3) nine pre-program undergraduate students to serve as 10-week, paid summer interns in the museum’s conservation labs (three per year). In addition, the initiative will allow for the development of two statewide preservation workshops.

The establishment of new Alliance for Response (AFR) networks in Chicago, Illinois and Charleston, South Carolina; development of response team training courses for Minnesota-based and nationally-distributed individuals; creation of continuing education webinars on emergency preparation; and the building of online resources to support these efforts and increase sharing of expertise among the 32 existing AFR networks throughout the United States.

The project will support training to establish two new Alliance for Response networks, in Chicago and Charleston, SC. Response team training will be offered in collaboration with the Twin Cities Alliance for Response (MN), and nationally for the National Heritage Responders. Webinars, web-based resources, and small project grants will support existing Alliance for Response networks.

Hiring two pre-professional, post-baccalaureate apprentices from communities underrepresented in the archives and preservation professions to work in the Special Collections and Digital Archives Department of the Denver Public Library for two years.

Denver Public Library (DPL) proposes Bridging the Gap: Post-Baccalaureate Apprenticeships for Underrepresented Populations in Archives (Bridging the Gap), which will recruit and hire two pre-professional, post-baccalaureate apprentices.  We will prioritize underrepresented populations in archives and preservation professions for this program. We encourage those who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or people of color (BIPOC) and/or those who are first generation college graduates to apply. Over their two-year apprenticeship, they will have exposure to core archival and preservation functions and decision-making to advance the discovery, access and use of archival records included in historically important humanities collections in DPL’s Special Collections and Digital Archives Department. Through this project, apprentices will learn to process (i.e., perform collections assessment, arranging and describing of) collections for which they have a personal affinity; apply basic preservation treatments; and create finding aids (metadata) for digitized materials. To ensure that other libraries and archival institutions can learn from this project, DPL will partner with the Society of American Archivists (SAA) to disseminate a report about how DPL implemented the project, as well as the project’s evaluation outcomes related to apprentices’ professional skill development and the impact of the project on access to the humanities collections that will be improved through Bridging the Gap.

A regional preservation field service program that strengthens preservation practices and the care of humanities collections at hundreds of museums, historical organizations, libraries, and archives in five states of the Upper Midwest. The award would additionally support training for two Native American conservation fellows as part of its Native American Collections Care Fellowship Program, which began in 2018.

The Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) requests continued funding for its Regional Preservation Field Service Program (Preventive Conservation). This program strengthens the preservation practices and collections care at cultural repositories in the Upper Midwest, resulting in increased public access. During the proposed NEH grant period (3/2022-2/2024), the Preventive Conservation program will improve the preservation practices at hundreds of institutions by providing: collections care and preservation related workshops; disaster planning, training and response services; preservation surveys and plans; collections care information; grant preparation assistance; and other related collection care improvement services. The program has demonstrated successful outcomes and measurable results, keeps its programming accessible to even the smallest institutions in the region, is staffed by knowledgeable conservators and preservation experts, and is devoted to this region’s collections.

The creation of two five-day training sessions at three sites, with follow-up sessions and consulting both online and in person to capture cultural heritage materials with two-dimensional and three-dimensional imaging. The participating Indigenous groups from Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine would learn how to prepare their photographic data, their 3D work products, the contextual metadata that describes how these digital assets were acquired and built, and how to make a standards compliant submission to an archival preservation system.

This project provides a program of in-depth, hands-on training in advanced computational photography 2D and 3D documentary and archival technologies. It is a collaboration between Cultural Heritage Imaging and three indigenous community organizations: The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, serving the Unangax^ (Aleut) people; Huliauapa’a, serving Hawai’i’s native people; and the Passamaquoddy Tribal Government in Maine. The training sessions will build a sustainable core of culture bearers in each community to digitally document their material culture and heritage sites. A scientific imaging work flow and tools that simplify metadata management give the generated digital representations reliability and reusability. Tools supporting archival submission of the digital documentary materials help ensure the long-term preservation of each community’s digital collections. The project will help each community perpetuate their heritage and take control of their cultural narrative.

A continuing education program for collections stewards that would include six online courses, two in-person regional workshops, and follow-up mentoring to support sustained application of lessons learned, targeted to Native Americans working with tribal materials at museums and cultural centers across the country.

UCLA/Getty respectfully requests $310,632 for: 1) six online courses, 2) two in-person regional workshops, and 3) follow-up mentoring designed to support sustained application of lessons learned, all targeted to reach Native Americans working with tribal materials at museums and cultural centers. The proposal builds on a successful UCLA/Getty history of working with Indigenous communities and will reach up to 136 participants and an equal number of mentees. Increased emergence of American Indian museums and cultural centers speaks to the importance of humanities collections in the preservation and even revitalization of cultural practices, and to the sovereignty behind self-representation. Humanities tribal collections serve to educate tribal youth, provide heritage in support of language learning, and instill pride in intergenerational heritage accomplishments of a community. Tribal museums reach non-tribal visitors and scholars as well, offering a crucial humanities perspective.

A continuing education project that would develop two new online courses, fund 162 scholarships for staff and volunteers at smaller cultural heritage organizations, and offer two 12-month fellowships for graduates of the University of Illinois Chicago Museum and Exhibition Studies Graduate Program.

The Center for Collections Care (C3) offers professional development opportunities that empower participants to be effective stewards of humanities collections by building knowledge and skills through instruction in collections care. To support the development of knowledge and skills among professionals responsible for preserving and providing access to humanities collections, C3 respectfully requests $349,971 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a three-year project that will: (1) provide training to over 280 individuals from approximately 180 cultural institutions across the nation; (2) provide 162 scholarships to practitioners at smaller museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural organizations; (3) provide two 12-month postgraduate fellowships for emerging practitioners of color; and (4) develop two online courses (Fundamentals of Collections Management and Culturally Appropriate Stewardship).

Six stipends per year for three years for students in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. These “NEH Fellows” would have additional outreach and community engagement responsibilities.

The Winterthur/University of Delaware Graduate Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) requests $250,000 with $100,000 in federally 1:1 matched funds for a total project cost of $450,000. NEH funds will support graduate stipends for six “NEH Fellows” annually, from 7/1/23, to 6/30/26. Graduate stipend support enables our students to concentrate on their conservation studies without distraction of financial hardship or external employment during their three years of study. Two students in each of the first, second, and third years will be “NEH Fellows,” a title that follows them throughout their graduate career. During their time at WUDPAC and beyond, NEH Fellows are committed to preserving objects and those objects’ many varied stories; their cutting-edge research, exceptional treatment skills, and exemplary advocacy will result in the preservation of countless objects, artifacts, and collections that benefit peoples of many different backgrounds and traditions.

Implementation of a three-year, community-engaged field school located at Brush Arbor Cemetery in Starkville, MS, a designated location on the National Register of Historic Places, to educate ten advanced undergraduate or graduate students and one research fellow in community-based anthropological and archeological research and methods.

Located at Brush Arbor Cemetery in Starkville, MS, our field school will train advanced-undergraduate and graduate students interested in archival, archaeological, historical, and anthropological work to preserve African American sites through a community-based decolonial model. We pair community-based methods including oral history, public archaeology, participatory GIS Story Mapping and Black Digital Archives to train future practitioners in the critical skills necessary to equitably work with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations. Community-based anthropology is a growing field that aims to link traditional anthropological methods with the perspectives and voices of local communities. Decolonial community anthropology works towards dismantling traditional academic hierarchical barriers that in the past have not allowed the community to be appreciated and their voices heard. Students will receive a certificate in community-engaged anthropology at completion.

Scholarships for 38 internships as part of New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) program. 20 semester-long scholarships of $7,000 each would place students in New York City cultural heritage institutions, while another 18 summer scholarships at $10,000 each would place them at institutions across the country.

Over the course of their studies for their master's degree in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP), students engage in experiential learning through course projects and three internships that aid their professional development while improving the condition and accessibility of unique, often vulnerable, media collections in archives, libraries, museums, public broadcast stations, non-profit organizations, and other settings. By helping to assess, catalog, and preserve audiovisual recordings that document diverse histories, cultures, arts, and communities, MIAP interns facilitate the longevity of primary source materials that are vital for scholarship, teaching, and public programming in the humanities.

A continuing education program for collections stewards that would include a six-module hands-on preservation course offered with a train-the-trainer component intended for at least 30 participants at 15 partner sites. The award would also support a nine-month post-graduate fellowship in AV preservation.

The Community-Based Preservation Education and Training is an innovative, multi-pronged, hands-on training program preparing cultural workers with videotape preservation skills via: (1) national community-based training to over 30 cultural workers; and (2) a one-year-fellowship for a post-graduate preservationist at BAVC Media. These activities will enable BAVC Media to sustainably and effectively train up future community-centered preservationists across the nation.

The continuation and expansion of field service activities, including preservation assessments, emergency assistance, educational workshops and webinars, and writing and updating educational publications.

As a respected preservation and conservation resource for collecting organizations of all sizes, the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) will continue to provide preservation field services with the goal of increasing the knowledge and skills of collections care professionals—at all levels—in the long-term care and stewardship of paper-based and photographic collections, audiovisual materials, and digital objects. Through this project, NEDCC will provide 4 one-day hands-on emergency preparedness and response workshops in at-risk areas along the Gulf Coast and in California; 4 general preservation pre-assessments; “Ask NEDCC” reference service; 24/7 collections emergency hotline; and student registration discounts for web courses. Funding will support staff time to update the free Preservation Leaflets, maintain free online resources and textbooks, develop 4 new webinars, and deliver 6 free preservation training webinars.

A continuing education program in preservation of audiovisual collections for approximately 150 Tribal cultural stewards that would include five regional workshops, the development of inventories and preservation plans for site partners, and the creation of a new module on managing digital AV collections.

This project continues Community Archiving Workshop’s efforts to preserve and improve access to tribally held collections by training tribal archivists and librarians to assess and inventory audiovisual (AV) collections, and learn the essentials of inspection, digitization, and managing digital AV collections. Each workshop involves onsite training in which participants learn to identify different media formats and risk factors, establish controlled vocabulary for description of AV collections, and document and prioritize collections for preservation. Workshops facilitate local networking between archivists, librarians, and community members, encouraging the sharing of resources and knowledge. Participants will participate in a new training module delivered online: AV Essentials: Digital File Storage and Maintenance. This will train participants in naming, storing, and caring for digital AV collections and builds on the analog collection skills participants learn during the workshop.

A three-year project to further develop the Utah Collections Preservation Network (UCPN), which would support the state’s cultural heritage caretakers in museums, libraries, archives, and communities through delivery of webinars and workshops on collection care; training new members of the Collection Preservation Team (CPT), a cohort of community experts throughout the state; and completion of preservation assessments and discrete collection care projects in Utah’s small cultural heritage organizations.

Building upon the Utah Collections Preservation (UCP) program, piloted with support from NEH in 2021-2023, the proposed Utah Collections Preservation Network (UCPN) project will expand access to a comprehensive suite of virtual and on-site, culturally appropriate training and mentorship activities, designed to enhance the preservation literacy (knowledge and skills) of underserved collections stewards across Utah through an estimated 1,500 engagements. Facilitated by the Preservation Outreach Coordinator and other Utah Field Services (UFS) staff, this project will address the need to further develop and strengthen relationships between underserved collections stewards across the region, including rural organizations, and holders of community collections. Utah Field Services aims to elevate and empower the diversity of practices and perspectives surrounding Utah’s world renowned cultural heritage and pedagogical landscape.

The creation of an open access curriculum and toolkit teaching community-centered oral history and archives practices and the expansion of a fellowship program by recruiting nine mentors and developing three webinars and workshops.

The Texas After Violence Project (TAVP) proposes Archival Belonging: A Guide to Community- and Care-Centered Archiving (Archival Belonging), a three-year project to develop a curriculum and toolkit for community archivists and memory workers that is grounded in community-centered archival ethics and practices. Building on TAVP’s community-centered fellowship program, the Archival Belonging project seeks to build capacity among community archives and memory workers to more effectively and ethically collect, preserve, and share stories of people with backgrounds and identities that are underrepresented and underserved in archives. Archival Belonging aims to help create archives that are safe, thoughtful, and inclusive spaces that provide access to previously ignored or endangered stories in ways that center the communities they serve.

Twelve summer community archives fellowships for master’s students, in which participants would receive mentorship while conducting oral histories and collecting South Asian American community materials and developing public programming to share their projects.

The SAADA Summer Fellowship in Community Archiving is an intensive, two-month summer fellowship program that will provide training in community archival practices and digital preservation to master’s-level students who have a demonstrated interest in the South Asian American community and the preservation and care of humanities collections. Fellows will learn about the operations and programming work within a community-based archive, including digitizing materials, licensing and copyright law, creating metadata for archival objects, conducting oral history interviews, and ethical issues around community storytelling. They will also be exposed to a range of career readiness and discovery opportunities. During the program, each fellow will create a digital collection and curate an exhibit highlighting a South Asian American community of which they are themselves a member, or in which they have deep existing relationships.