From: "Maxwell, Eileen" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: IMLS Announces 1999 Museum Leadership Grants
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 21:32:31 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           Press Contact:  202-606-8339

September 24, 1999
Eileen Maxwell:[log in to unmask]
Mamie Bittner: [log in to unmask]


11 MUSEUMS AWARDED FOR PROJECTS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMMUNITIES


Washington, DC - Eleven museums across the
nation received the 1999 Museum Leadership Initiatives award today to
improve the social and economic condition of their communities. The
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal cultural agency
that supports the nation's museums and libraries, made the award.

"Museums are no longer content to simply
entertain their communities," said Beverly Sheppard, Acting Director of
IMLS.  "They seek, rather, to transform them.  With programs such as these,
communities can look increasingly to their museums to help solve their
problems as well as enrich their lives."

This year's awards include: a Michigan zoo
creating after-school programs for latch-key children; a history museum in
New York enhancing family visits to nursing home residents; and an art
museum in Alabama providing after-school art lessons for children in
high-crime neighborhoods.  (See the attached for a complete list of awards
and descriptions of the projects.)

IMLS created the Museum Leadership
Initiatives award to support innovative partnerships between museums and
local organizations that meet the pressing needs of the community. Each
museum will receive between $40,000 and $50,000 each for its award project.

About the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) - IMLS is an independent federal agency that fosters
leadership, innovation, and a lifetime of learning by supporting the
nation's 8,000 museums and 122,000 libraries. Created by the Museum and
Library Services Act of 1996, P.L. 104-208, IMLS has an annual budget of
$190 million. For more information, including grant applications, contact:
Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, DC 20506, (202) 606-8536, or http://www.imls.gov.


Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL, $40,370
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with the City of
Montgomery will undertake Art in the Afternoon, a series of free
after-school art lessons children grades 3-6 in high-crime neighborhoods.
The program is a component to the U. S. Department of Justice's "Weed and
Seed" program, whose goal is to involve all levels of the community in an
effort to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang
activity.  The ultimate goal is neighborhood revitalization through
prevention, intervention and treatment achieved through family services,
organized recreation, job, and life skills development.

Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ, $49,400
The Tucson Unified School District and the Tucson Arts District Partnership
have formed an after-school collaboration called Working Smart with Art to
provide an innovative multi-discipline curriculum for children K-12.
Students from two area schools will be bused to the Tucson Museum of Art in
the mornings and after-school three times a week, where they will engage in
a multi-faceted program to include the design and reconstruction of a
courtyard on-site and the production of street-side Arts District banners
and sculptures.

Monterey History and Art Association, Monterey, CA, $49,650
The Monterey History and Art Association, the City of Monterey, and the
Monterey State Historic Park will develop a plan to implement the Monterey
Historic Master Plan with input from an extensive coalition of community
partners. Experts in historical interpretation, marketing, and architecture
will create a cohesive history for Monterey, which will interpret and
preserve the city's rich heritage for residents and visitors to Monterey.
The partnership plans to write articles for appropriate magazines, speak at
conferences, and develop a website about the planning process.

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, $49,453
Budding Branches is a collaborative effort among the Chicago Botanic Garden,
three Chicago public library branches and three community-based
organizations to provide a consistent after-school offering for children.
The program will create an after-school program to be offered at the three
branch libraries in underserved Chicago communities.  Participating
children, ages 6-12, will come to their local library after school once a
week for hands-on learning activities on gardening, nature and related
topics.  The program activities will teach various subject areas and foster
skills such as investigation and problem solving.

New England Aquarium, Boston, MA, $42,888
The New England Aquarium will collaborate with the Boys and Girls Clubs of
Boston to develop and implement Environmental Investigators, an after-school
environmental science program for urban children ages 6-18.  This initiative
will train staff at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston to provide at least
300 youth with hands-on Aquarium science activities.  The project will also
develop an outreach series for grades 5-8, lead over 50 families on family
field trips, and offer up to summer and academic year internships to area
teens.

Maine State Museum, Portland, ME, $43,953
Maine State Museum in partnership with the Maine Public Broadcasting Station
plans a collaborative project to document Maine's history. The History of
Maine Partnership project will include television programs, museum
collections and exhibits, Web-site content, and related educational
curriculum development that bring historical materials and museum
collections to Maine's largely rural audience.  The project will also serve
as a national model for readily replicable, collaborative programs among
museums and public broadcasting stations.

Ann Arbor District Library, Ann Arbor, MI, $43,117
The Ann Arbor District Library and the University of Michigan's Exhibit
Museum of Natural History propose to link, enrich, and expand two separate
programs into a new program, The World Around Us: A Five-Year Family Reading
and Informal Science Learning Collaboration.  The program will encourage
family members to develop and sustain an interest in life-long learning at
both the museum and the library.  The project will establish and consolidate
the Library-Museum partnership, pilot the program components, and will
prepare for future expansion of the program for countywide libraries.

Detroit Zoological Institute, Royal Oak, MI, $50,000
The Detroit Zoological Institute in conjunction with the Detroit Public
Library system and area public schools will create an after-school program,
Passport to Adventure at the Library and Zoo, which will provide structured
activities for latchkey children, grades 2-6, who frequent the library.
Students, or "explorers", will be given a progression of activities that
will help them effectively use library resources, and learn about the
natural world. Older students will act as "field guides" to help the younger
children discover more information to be learned.

New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, NJ, $49,100
The New Jersey Historical Society, in partnership with the Barringer
Infant-Toddler Center, the Young Fathers Program at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and the Nulites Program of the Urban
League of Essex County have planned Partners in Learning.  The project will
enhance parenting skills for teen parents by providing them with an
opportunity to bring their children to museums and other cultural
organizations.  During the visits, teen parents will learn how to use museum
resources in teaching their children.  The partnership will also develop a
reference booklet for adolescent parents describing how to experience
museums and cultural institutions with children, and provide a place to
record their own experiences with non-traditional learning.

Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, $50,000
The Albany Institute of History and Art has initiated a collaboration with
the Albany County Nursing Home to develop Remembering Together, a set of
cultural resources to enhance the quality of family visits to nursing home
residents with dementia. The museum will develop kits including cultural
resources and guided activities about the art and history of the region. The
kits can be checked out and used by families during visits to their
relatives to improve the quality of their time spent together.  An
evaluation plan will measure the effect of this strategy on the nursing home
patients and their families.

Cayuga Nature Center, Ithaca, NY, $41,460
The Cayuga Nature Center, in collaboration with Tompkins County Head Start
and Ithaca Area Church and Community Child Care Center, will create Pee Wee
House Calls: Natural Science on Wheels.  This collaborative project will and
develop a modular curriculum on natural science and train staff at the two
day-care centers on how to integrate it into their programs. It will also
expose pre-school children to nature and natural sciences in a manner that
is fun, educational, and consistent with the goal of encouraging interest in
learning science in the formative years.

###

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).