Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues,

MANY is pleased to open the call for participation in “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility” and extend our thanks to our congressional representatives for their support for the IMLS with CARES Act funding for Museums. 

This project will support 100 museums in high needs locations in the state to help them respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by giving staff the tools and training to reach their communities virtually and raise their profiles with audiences beyond their physical locations. The project will provide museum professionals with hardware, software, and training to develop virtual programs focused on stories from their collections revealing cultural and racial diversity within their communities. Each museum selected to participate will partner with a local library to develop and implement programs that build on the assets of both organizations resulting in access to 200 new virtual programs for audiences - no matter their geographical location.

No prior experience delivering virtual programs is required. A museum of any budget size is eligible to apply. Museum staff travel costs will be kept to a minimum by holding in-person trainings at hotels centrally located in each region that can offer a safe, socially distanced meeting room and food service. In addition to the training, museums will receive hardware and software equivalent to a $5,000 in-kind donation.

To comply with the CARES act rapid implementation criteria, the application and notification process will be conducted as swiftly as possible. We will select ten museums in each region who will commit two staff members to 60 hours of training time (24 in-person/36 virtually) and 250 hours of program planning, development, and delivery over two years. MANY will use New York State Department of Education criteria to determine if a museum meets the high need location requirement. At the end of the project, New York will have a cohort of 200 highly trained museum professionals who can share their expertise and support the work of museum professionals across the state.

The application deadline is Friday, October 16 at 5 PM. Notifications will be made on November 2.

Please share this letter widely with colleagues.

With thanks for your support,