Thank you to everyone who applied for my personal grant of $10,000 to be
awarded to a small museum for a specific project. There were a number of
great submissions but only one could be chosen. Please keep an eye out on
MuseumL for future grant opportunities. The award goes to the Accokeek
Foundation for their project “Black and Indigenous Narratives of The
Potomac.”
The
Accokeek
Foundation
is a small non-profit who stewards Piscataway Park at the traditional capital of
the Piscataway people. Founded in 1957 to protect the view from George
Washington’s Mount Vernon across the Potomac, the Foundation has over 65 years
of experience in preserving and protecting cultural resources. After hosting the
launch of the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area, the Foundation continues
to be a center point for leading-edge cultural preservation. The Foundation has
strong partnerships with MD, DC, VA schools, and primarily services students in
Prince George’s and Charles County school systems. Through the “Black and
Indigenous Narratives of The Potomac” Project, the Accokeek Foundation will
create diverse, accurate, and widely accessible digital and physical collections
based around oral histories from African American and Indigenous fishing
industry workers, in their own words. These collections will be the basis of
creating an effective interpretive plan for inclusive educational programs for
years to come. These oral histories will also be the basis for new wayside
exhibits that combine cultural traditions and history with contemporary resource
challenges, ecological sustainability, and resilience initiatives to convey an
Indigenous stewardship ethic. The Accokeek Foundation seeks to provide access to the
untold stories of all who shaped this landscape. Through collecting, preserving,
and sharing back these stories about Piscataway, enslaved African, Free Black,
and Afro-Indigenous groups with ties to this region, this project is integral to
interpreting a more expansive view of this land and its people, past and
present.
For those that did not see the original
announcement, the text follows.
I have a charitable contribution of $10,000
to give to a deserving museum. Yes, I know all of you are deserving.
There are only a few requirements: you must be a registered non-profit; you must
be small – I’ll leave that definition up to you; it can NOT go to your general
fund or endowment; it must be for a specific project, ideally in collections
preservation, including historic buildings; the project must occur soon, not a
year or two down the road; you agree to provide me with updates on the project’s
progress. The project can be a new one just for these funds, or a discrete
part of a larger project. Simply write me an email with a description of
your project and why you are a worthy recipient.
Marc
A. Williams, Principal
American Conservation Consortium,
llc
4 Rockville Road
Broad Brook, CT
06016
860-386-6058
*Collections Preservation
Consultation
*Conservation Assessments & Surveys
*Environmental
Monitoring & Low-Tech Control
*Moisture Management
Solutions
*Collections in Historic Structures
*Collections Care Grant
Preparation