The National Endowment for the Humanities invites applications from nonprofit museums, libraries, archives, and educational institutions in the United States to its Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program. This grant program encourages cultural institutions to plan and implement preventive conservation projects that pragmatically balance preservation goals, 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.
Planning grants of up to $40,000 (with an option to request an additional $10,000 to implement a recommendation made by the planning team) are available to bring together interdisciplinary teams that will work collaboratively to identify sustainable preventive conservation strategies. Planning teams should consider the nature of the materials in a collection; the performance of the building, its envelope, and its systems in moderating internal environmental conditions; the capabilities of the institution; the nature of the local climate and the effects of climate change; the cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency of various approaches to preventive conservation; and the project's impact on the environment.
Implementation grants of up to $350,000 are available 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.
With Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants, cultural institutions are
* reevaluating specifications for relative humidity and temperature and establishing realistic and achievable targets;
* identifying passive (nonmechanical) strategies for creating more stable collection environments;
* investigating how the environmental management features of historic buildings might be used, especially those related to ventilation and control of solar gain;
* studying the natural variations in a building to identify spaces best suited for collections;
* employing the concept of multiple layers of buffering to create more stable conditions for collections;
* reorganizing collections by material type, locating more vulnerable collections in spaces that are more naturally stable;
* considering how docent-led tours might be re-routed to minimize the introduction of unconditioned air;
* repairing building envelopes and improving site drainage to prevent moisture infiltration;
* evaluating mechanical systems and optimizing their performance;
* exploring control strategies and programming of building automation systems for operating HVAC systems more efficiently;
* adopting, when possible, simple and easy to maintain mechanical systems and controls;
* designing mechanical systems that are "right sized;"
* implementing managed setbacks and shutdowns of climate control systems in well insulated spaces; and,
* installing energy efficient lighting and employing occupancy sensors for control in storage spaces and galleries.
The next grant deadline is December 3, 2013.
Guidelines, FAQs, and sample narratives from successful applications are on the NEH Web site: www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/sustaining-cultural-heritage-collections.
A list of previous awards can be found here: www.neh.gov/files/divisions/preservation/sustaining_cultural_heritage_collections_awards.pdf
Program officers are available to discuss project ideas and read draft proposals. Please contact the division for more information by emailing [log in to unmask] or calling 202-606-8570.
Laura Word
Senior Program Officer
Division of Preservation and Access
National Endowment for the Humanities
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