Regional and Foundation Grants

Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices is a national grant competition administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for digitizing rare and unique content stewarded by collecting organizations in the US and Canada.

In 2021, the call for applications will focus on projects that propose to digitize materials that deepen public understanding of the histories of people of color and other communities and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or unattended.

These often “hidden” histories include, but are not necessarily limited to, those of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color; Women; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-binary, and other Genderqueer people and communities; Immigrants; Displaced populations; Blind, Deaf, and Disabled people and communities; and Colonized, Disenfranchised, Enslaved, and Incarcerated people.

The program is generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Eligible Formats
This program supports the digitization of rare and unique historical and cultural materials in a variety of formats and the creation and promotion of online access to those materials. Any expenditures of program funds must be directly related to these purposes. The range of media that can be termed special collections or archives is not restricted. Increasingly, valuable collections are composed of many formats, from paper, moving images on film or video, all types of sound recordings, ephemera, specimens, electronic files or data sets, works of art, to myriad types of artifacts. 

What does "Hidden" mean?
For the purposes of this program, applicants must convincingly argue that their materials are “hidden” in the sense that they cannot have a meaningful impact on public understanding of people, communities, and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or attended in the past until those materials are digitized, discoverable, and accessible in ethical, respectful, and legal ways.

For complete grant information and eligibility requirements:

See the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices APPLICANT HANDBOOK.

QUESTIONS?

For questions which are not answered in the application guidelines, which includes a handy fill-in form for your draft application, contact CLIR program staff at [email protected]. During the application period, CLIR accepts inquiries by e-mail only; no phone calls, please.

 

Recordings at Risk is a national regranting program administered by CLIR to support the preservation of rare and unique audio and audiovisual content of high scholarly value through digital reformatting.

NEWS!   The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded CLIR $2,807,000 to continue its regranting program to digitize “at-risk” audio and audiovisual materials of high scholarly value. The program will run nine competitions from 2017-2021, awarding a total of $4.5 million.

Audio and audiovisual recordings document vital, irreplaceable aspects of twentieth and twenty-first century life, but if the current generation of professionals fails to act, vast amounts of this history will be lost. Digital reformatting is currently the best available solution for ensuring the survival and utility of recorded content stored on fragile or obsolete media such as magnetic tape, grooved discs, cylinders, or film.

Open Competitions: Audio and/or Audiovisual Media  

Recordings at Risk encourages professionals who may be constrained by limited resources and/or technical expertise to take action against the threats of degradation and obsolescence. The program aims to help institutions identify priorities and develop practical strategies for digital reformatting, build relationships with partners, and raise awareness of best practices.

Awards from the open competitions will range from $10,000 to $50,000 and will cover costs of preservation reformatting for audio and/or audiovisual content by eligible institutions working independently or with qualified service providers.

CLIR’s review panelists will assess:

- the potential scholarly and public impact of proposed projects
- the urgency of undertaking the reformatting to avoid risk of loss
- the viability of applicants’ plans for long-term preservation
- the overall cost-effectiveness of the proposals

For Complete Information and Guidelines, visit CLIR Recordings at Risk 

The Foundation plans to offer a total of $1 million in support of community-based archives in two annual calls for proposals, one in 2019 and the second in 2020.  The 2019 Call for Proposals (CFP) is now open and directed towards community-based archives that represent and serve communities marginalized due to oppression based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, class, sexuality, religion, ability, and/or geographic location.  For the purposes of this CFP, community-based archives must demonstrate that community members actively participate in their archival processes, making key decisions about what to collect and how.

For complete eligibility information and application guidelines, visit Grantmaking Policies and Guidelines.

If you would like to sign up for email alerts, or if you have any questions about this CFP, please write to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at [email protected] or call 212-500-2475.

Each year AHPCS offers grants towards the conservation of significant prints in institutional collections. AHPCS encourages accredited, non-profit institutions to apply for the Shadwell Conservation Grant for the preservation of American historical prints. Artwork must be at least one hundred years old, and the institution must be a member of the AHPCS.

For more information, please contact:

Roger Genser, Chair
Shadwell Print Conservation Subcommittee
Santa Monica, CA
[email protected]

Complete information and guidelines

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please first complete the eligibility self-assessment.  If your project meets the program criteria, you will be given instructions on how to submit a proposal. Take the eligibility self-assessment.

View 2021 Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant recipients here.

QUESTIONS? 

Contact Bank of America Art Conservation program at [email protected]

• At-risk Collections 

  • The Foundation offers project grants to organizations to preserve at-risk collections. At-risk collections include orphan collections (those being deaccessioned with no identified future home), those in private hands (proverbial ones in basements, attics and forgotten storerooms), collections held by organizations with limited capacities, and occasionally collections within larger institutions.

    For at-risk collections, the Foundation supports a range of projects, from stabilization, to restoration, to archival processing.

    Grants for at-risk collections vary in size, depending on several factors.

• Creative Interpretation 

  • The Foundation offers project planning grants for institutions to work with artists, curators, historians and other creatives to engage audiences in new, dynamic ways; that push the envelope of presentation and interpretation; that go beyond the typical array of exhibits and exhibitions in drawing attention to collections of exceptional regional significance.

    Institutions that receive planning grants may be eligible in the future for partial funding support to implement projects of exceptional promise.

    Planning grants may be up to $25,000. 

• Digitization 

  • The Foundation offers challenge grants for digitization projects of the highest value, regionally-focused collections. A higher priority will be placed on those digitized collections that can be made available through one of the regional digital portals: Lowcountry Digital Library (College of Charleston), EXPLORE Chicago Collections(Chicago Collections Consortium) or the Community Collections Portal (Chicago Cultural Alliance.)

    The purpose of challenge grants, beyond supporting expanded public accessibility, is to help institutions build a stronger base of support for stewarding its collections long-term.

    Organizations may apply for a maximum of three challenge grants, provided they demonstrate progress toward building and sustaining long-term support.

    Grants for digitizing collections vary in size, depending on several factors.