Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (2023) | AAHC FY23

Opportunity Information: Apply for AAHC FY23

Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (2023) is a discretionary federal grant opportunity offered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under CFDA 45.309. The program is focused on strengthening African American museums by helping them expand what they can do as institutions and by investing in the people who do the work inside them. In practical terms, the opportunity is meant to improve the long-term health of African American museums and to support the professional growth of staff working in those museums, while also helping museums and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) make their museum and archival collections easier for the public and researchers to access.

The central goals of the program fall into three connected areas. First, it supports projects that nurture museum professionals, meaning training, skill-building, and other workforce development efforts that help staff become more effective and better prepared for the demands of museum work. Second, it funds projects that build institutional capacity, which generally refers to strengthening internal systems and capabilities that allow a museum to operate more sustainably and deliver better services over time. Third, it backs efforts to increase access to collections, especially museum and archival materials held by African American museums and HBCUs, with an emphasis on helping these collections be more discoverable and usable for audiences who want to learn from them.

This particular funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: AAHC FY23) was posted on August 15, 2022, with an original application deadline of November 15, 2022. Awards could be as high as $500,000, and IMLS anticipated making around 30 awards. The activity areas are listed under arts and humanities (cultural affairs), reflecting the program's role in preserving, interpreting, and sharing African American history and culture through museum practice.

Eligibility is described broadly in the listing as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the full announcement, but the program description makes clear that the primary intended applicants and beneficiaries are African American museums, with collection-access efforts also explicitly including African American museum and archival collections held at HBCUs. Overall, this grant is structured to help eligible institutions improve professional expertise, strengthen operations, and broaden public access to historically significant collections tied to African American history and culture.

• The Institute of Museum and Library Services in the arts (see cultural affairs in cfda), humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (2023)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 45.309.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 15, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 15, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for AAHC FY23

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