WASHINGTON, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced the FY24 recipients of its largest museum grant funding opportunity, Museums for America (MFA). One hundred and fifteen museums of diverse sizes, disciplines, and geographies will receive support for strategic, project-based efforts to serve the public through exhibitions, educational/interpretive programs, digital learning resources, professional development, community debate and dialogue, audience-focused studies, and/or collections management, curation, care, and conservation. In total, the program’s FY24 awardees will receive $23,361,915 in federal funding – including $2.3M for American Public Gardens Association members.
The Association advocates annually for increased funding to IMLS, which received $55.5M in funding in FY2024. Learn more about IMLS grant opportunities here.
The Tudor Place Historic House and Garden will improve management and care of their collection and archive through the purchase and installation of high-quality storage equipment. The project builds upon planning documents created by a team of museum professionals, architects, and engineers, and will consolidate more than 30 dispersed storage locations into one purpose-built collections management center. As a result, consolidated storage, conservation and improved environmental conditions will allow the museum to expand access to these objects and materials to students, teachers, and researchers.
The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill will implement a collections inventory and mapping project to strengthen the management and care of their plant records and improve staff access to information about their living plant collections. The garden will hire a full-time plant recorder to complete a full inventory of the woody and conservatory plant collections; reconcile the plant records database with the findings from the inventory; complete verification of cultivars; map each accession; facilitate the launch of a web portal; engrave and mount tags on each accession; and update display labels. As a result, the garden will improve its collection management and make the collection accessible to researchers and students in the field of horticulture.
James Madison’s Montpelier in partnership with the Montpelier Descendants Committee will re-envision the visitor experience by creating a new interpretive plan for the site. The project will address the need for museums and historic sites to engage effectively and ethically in truth-telling about slavery’s role in the shaping of the United States, the legacy it continues to have on race relations in America, and the lingering institutional disparities that prevent Americans from realizing the ideals expressed in our founding documents. A core committee will create a narrative interpretive plan with up to four interpretive themes, and work with consultants to co-create the content and implement the plan for a new visitor experience and to develop and implement formative and summative evaluations. The museum and the descendant community will benefit from co-creation of visitor services strategies, interpretive goals and methods, and site wayfinding that will welcome members of the public and provide a more complete American history where everyone sees their story represented.
The New York Botanical Garden will implement the second phase of its Therapeutic Horticulture and Rehabilitative Interventions for Veteran Engagement (THRIVE) program to provide horticultural therapy programming for local veterans. In partnership with the Resilience and Wellness Center in the Bronx-based James J. Peters Veterans Administration Medical Center, the garden’s Edible Academy will expand services and outreach for participating veterans and THRIVE alums. Program participants will learn about plants and nutrition by growing, harvesting, preparing, and consuming fresh produce with horticultural therapy specialists. The garden will hold a symposium with cultural institutions, horticultural therapy specialists, and veterans’ organizations to share strategies and best practices informed by the THRIVE program, and staff will present findings and share information about horticultural therapy intervention for veterans at professional conferences and via new digital resources.
The Denver Botanic Gardens will advance work on the long-term care and protection of alpine plants and ecosystems in North America. The team of cross departmental staff will be led by experts in seed conservation, plant conservation science, and scientific data management in collaboration with public garden partners across the country. Project activities will include developing a web portal, increasing conservation seed collections, and managing stored conservation collections. The team will acquire an X-ray machine to conduct a quality assessment of the seed collections currently banked and those collected through this project. Data will be shared with collaborators working in alpine plant conservation and the broader botanic garden community. As a result, the garden will make progress towards the goal of understanding and conserving alpine habitats and plants in North America.
The Missouri Botanical Garden will create a collections development module within their living collections management system that will enable them to prioritize and acquire species for the living plant collection. This project addresses the complexity that goes into deciding which plants to acquire based on various criteria such as global rarity and climate suitability, and alignment with the garden’s strategic goals. The project team will contract with a software analyst to perform development work and will work with programmers to create the module using input from the horticulturists and management staff. The team will produce the final documentation and train staff on the module, which will result in a modern, comprehensive living collections management system that tracks and maintains their living plant collections.
Desert Botanical Garden will develop statewide conservation plans for at-risk pollinators with the Arizona Monarch Collaborative, a group of approximately eighty organizations. The project will focus on maintaining and updating the Arizona Monarch Conservation Plan and developing a new Arizona Native Pollinator Plan. Project staff and volunteers will coordinate with collaborating partners across eleven states to hold annual meetings, recruit new participants, and increase community outreach. Informed by a previous pilot program, this project will expand the sharing of resources amongst conservation professionals and outreach community science participants. Beneficiaries of the project will include conservation professionals and members of the public interested in learning more about pollinator conservation.
The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will address recommendations from a Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) report that highlighted challenges the horticulture staff face in maintaining climate zones specific to the needs of plants due to the garden’s aging infrastructure. Project activities will include replacing the environmental monitoring system, the louvers and shades in garden buildings, and the greenhouse misting system. As a result, the garden will continue to protect, preserve and expand the botanical collection including threatened taxa, which is essential to supporting the garden’s functions and mission.
The Atlanta History Center will inventory and digitize 4,000 museum artifacts from its collection, which it will share along with expanded metadata on its online digital portal. The museum will then select 1,000 artifacts that document the historical themes and topics most often requested by K-12 educators to create twenty new lesson plans and educational activities that align with state standards. The project will support the hiring of several temporary positions to undertake project activities including a full-time project registrar, a part-time outreach programs assistant, and two part-time inventory assistants. The project will result in free resources for educators to use to advance student’s knowledge of Georgia’s history. The museum will benefit from enhanced physical and intellectual control of its collections, and both researchers and the public will benefit from free access to the artifact records online.
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden will create a new digital asset management system that will house and make accessible thousands of existing archival assets and serve as a repository for digital assets in years to come. The project team will include garden staff and volunteers who will conduct an assessment of currently held assets to refine the scope of work. A web developer will be contracted to work with the team on designing the structure and interface and content migration. To ensure future accessibility, the team will develop simple, easy-to-follow protocols for preparing and uploading assets into the system. As a result, the garden will provide access to an archive that documents the garden’s work to conserve and protect native plants.
Riverbanks Zoo and Garden will engage guests in the issue of wildlife trafficking by producing a new exhibit that will address the lack of awareness of the topic and foster empathy for affected wildlife while providing ways for people to reduce the demand for exotic wildlife and wildlife products. The project team will lead two phases of audience research to support the exhibit design: a baseline assessment of guests’ knowledge and attitudes of wildlife trafficking will be completed followed by audience research evaluating effective messaging. Results will be used to design and install an educational experience responsive to the zoo’s regional audience. Through this project, the zoo will be better able to deliver on its strategic priorities while having a lasting impact on wildlife and wild places.
The San Diego Botanic Garden (SDBG) will partner with Ocean Knoll Elementary School to undertake a one-year pilot program to turn Ocean Knoll Canyon, an environmental restoration site, into a living laboratory where teachers, students, and community members will engage in environmental education. SDBG will establish a group of ten teachers who will lead the development of programming and curricula in consultation with scientists, ecologists, and SDBG staff. Teachers and SDBG staff will then lead programming in the canyon, capturing both student and teacher feedback to refine the program. SDBG will also work with teachers to develop interpretative signage for installation along canyon trails. During the final phase of the pilot, SDBG will invite community members to engage in “bioblitzes,” which will include guided hikes, restoration work, and opportunities for students to share the knowledge they gained through the program.
