NEH grants for sustainable preservation strategies

Guidelines have been posted for the National Endowment for the
Humanities' Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants. U.S.
nonprofit museums, libraries, archives, and educational institutions
can apply for grants to plan and implement preventive conservation
projects in ways that are cost effective, energy efficient, and
environmentally sensitive and that aim to mitigate greatest risks to
humanities collections rather than to meet prescriptive targets.

Apply for planning grants of up to $40,000 (with an option of up to
$50,000) to bring together interdisciplinary teams that might
reevaluate environmental parameters for collections and examine
passive (nonmechanical) and low-energy alternatives to conventional
energy sources and energy-intensive mechanized systems for managing
collection environments.  Testing, modeling, or project-specific
research may help applicants better understand collection
environments and formulate sustainable preservation strategies;
therefore, with planning grants you might measure energy
consumption; use blower door tests to identify air leaks in
buildings; create mock-ups of lighting options; test natural
ventilation methods; conduct thermal imaging of buildings; test the
effect of buffered storage enclosures on moderating fluctuating
environmental conditions; re-commission small-scale climate control
systems; or adjust the operating protocols for climate control
systems.

Apply for implementation grants of up to $350,000 to manage interior
relative humidity and temperature by passive methods; install
heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems; install storage
systems and rehouse collections; improve security and the protection
of collections from fire, flood, and other disasters; and upgrade
lighting systems and controls to achieve levels suitable for
collections that are energy efficient. Projects that seek to
implement preventive conservation measures in sustainable ways are
especially encouraged.

Deadline: December 1, 2011

Guidelines: <URL:http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SCHC.html>

Program officers are willing to read draft proposals. See the
guidelines for additional details and please contact the division
for more information by emailing preservation<-a t->neh< . >gov or calling
202-606-8570.

Laura Word
Senior Program Officer
Division of Preservation and Access
National Endowment for the Humanities


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