Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
NEH grants support cultural institutions in preserving humanities collections through sustainable practices, disaster preparedness, and energy efficiency.
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Due Dates: January 10, 2025 (Next cycle deadline TBD)
Funding Amounts: Up to $50,000 for Planning; up to $100,000 for Implementation Level I; up to $350,000 for Implementation Level II; additional funds for non-contiguous states. Awards typically last 2-3 years.
Summary: Supports cultural institutions in preserving humanities collections through environmentally sustainable preventive care, energy efficiency, and disaster preparedness.
Key Information: Eligible applicants include nonprofits, government entities, and higher education institutions; no cost sharing required; next deadline not yet announced.
Description
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access offers the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program to help cultural institutions preserve large and diverse holdings of humanities materials for future generations. This program focuses on environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies that mitigate deterioration, prolong the useful life of collections, reduce energy consumption, and enhance institutional resilience against disasters such as theft, fire, and floods.
Eligible institutions include libraries, archives, museums, historical organizations, and other cultural entities. The program supports projects that manage environmental factors affecting collections (temperature, humidity, pollutants, light), provide protective storage and display systems, and implement disaster preparedness measures.
There are three funding levels:
- Planning (up to $50,000): For developing and assessing sustainable preventive care strategies.
- Implementation Level I (up to $100,000): For projects addressing specific, discrete preservation challenges identified through assessments.
- Implementation Level II (up to $350,000): For large or multifaceted projects addressing complex preservation challenges, often involving multidisciplinary teams.
Organizations in non-contiguous states or jurisdictions (e.g., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico) may request additional funds to cover higher travel, shipping, and material costs.
The program aims to improve collection storage and display conditions, enhance systems and resilience, reduce energy usage and costs, and produce in-depth preservation studies and plans.
