The Institute of Museum and Library Services has given out more than US$257,000 (€193,000, £156,000) to go towards training workshops for museums in the US with links to Native Americans and Native Hawaiians as part of a larger US$925,000 (€695,000, £556,000) grant scheme designed to protect native cultural heritage in the US.
The Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services (NANH) programme supports Native American tribes and organisations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians. The grants – which range anywhere from US$5,000 (€3,700, £3,000) to US$50,000 (€37,500, £30,000– are intended to provide opportunities to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge through exhibitions, educational services and programming, professional development and collections stewardship.
Two groups in Alaska have received more than US$86,000 (€64,600, £51,600) to go towards a new exhibit and training workshops for the region’s small museums. US$47,900 (€36,000, £28,700) will go to the Chilkat Indian Village in Haines for the installation of the Whale House exhibit and instruction from the Alaska State Museum in best practices for curating exhibits. Staff from the Alaska State Museum will train tribal members in professional collection handling, interpretation and exhibit installation.
Seldovia Village Tribe has secured a grant of US$38,100 (€28,600, £22,900) to develop a training workshop which will educate staff from multiple museums in Alaska. The funding will supplement a two-day professional development workshop, to be held at the Pratt Museum in Homer for ten participants from the Seldovia Museum and other small Alaskan museums to learn about aspects of exhibition development. The workshop will also be recorded to develop six brief instructional how-to videos that will be made available online.
In Hawaii, the Department of Land and Natural Resources in Wailuku has been granted US$49,900 (€37,500, £30,000) to train interns on the process of scanning archival documents, labelling digital files and applying proper archival standards for storage of its public collection of archival materials, including over 8,500 photographs, 2,500 documents and 10,000 artefacts. The information will then be organised into a searchable database that will be accessible to the public through an online museum portal.
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in Peshawbestown, Michigan, has been awarded US$25,000 (€18,800, £15,000) for the Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center to provide professional development training for staff to gain knowledge in book preservation, with classes providing staff with greater technical expertise in collections stewardship that will be used in the preservation of the museum’s Durant Roll and historic documents acquired in the future.
In North Carolina, US$49,900 (€37,500, £30,000) will be used to recreate a living history experience of a blacksmith’s studio and to provide training for village staff to accurately explain Cherokee traditions.
Finally in Wisconsin, The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa has been granted US$46,700 (€35,100, £28,000) to provide 26 four-hour long training sessions for staff on the development, design and management of exhibitions. During the training, participants will develop an exhibit management plan; conduct an inventory of existing exhibit materials in tribal facilities; and develop an exhibit. As a result, the project will strengthen the museum staff’s skills in developing and managing exhibits both during and beyond the grant period.
