NEH grants for sustainable preservation

NEH's Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants encourage
sustainable approaches to preserving humanities collections

Grant deadline:  December 3, 2014

The National Endowment for the Humanities invites applications from
nonprofit museums, libraries, archives, and educational institutions
in the United States to the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
program.  This grant program supports planning and implementation of
sustainable preventive conservation projects that pragmatically
balance preservation goals, cost, and environmental impact.  All
projects should be designed to be as cost effective, energy
efficient, and environmentally sensitive as possible.

To identify and achieve sustainable preservation strategies, it is
important to define preservation requirements based on an
understanding of your collections, their conditions, and the risks
they face, rather than relying on ideal and prescriptive targets.
Your local climate, the characteristics and performance of your
building and its systems, the potential effects of climate change on
cultural property, and institutional capacities must also be
considered.  It is advisable to look first for passive (that is,
nonmechanical) ways to improve collection environments and to design
mechanical systems, whenever possible, after investigating and
implementing passive approaches for achieving and managing desired
conditions.  It is also important to evaluate and measure the
effectiveness of a project's results through the collection of data
on conditions, energy use, and costs.

Planning grants of up to $40,000 (with an option of up to $50,000)
are available to bring together interdisciplinary teams that will
work collaboratively to identify sustainable preventive conservation
strategies.

Implementation grants of up to $350,000 are available 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.

Over the program's first five years, museums, libraries, and
archives have used Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants
to

    Identify passive strategies for creating more stable and
    protective collection environments;

    Reevaluate specifications for relative humidity and temperature
    and establish realistic, achievable, and perhaps seasonally
    adjusted targets;

    Repair building envelopes and improve site drainage to prevent
    moisture infiltration to help stabilize collection environments;

    Investigate how the environmental management features of
    historic buildings might be used, especially those related to
    ventilation and control of solar gain;

    Study the natural variations in a building to identify spaces
    best suited for collections and reorganize collections by
    material type, locating more vulnerable collections in spaces
    that are more naturally stable;

    Employ the concept of multiple layers of buffering to create
    more stable conditions for collections;

    Evaluate existing mechanical systems and optimize their
    performance;

    Explore control strategies and programming of building
    automation systems for operating HVAC systems more efficiently,
    perhaps implementing managed setbacks and shutdowns of climate
    control systems in well-insulated spaces;

    Design mechanical systems that are "right sized" and adopt, when
    possible, simple and easy-to-maintain systems and controls; and,

    Install energy efficient lighting and employ occupancy sensors
    for control in storage spaces and galleries.

Guidelines, FAQs, and sample narratives from successful
applications:

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

A list of previous awards:

    <URL:http://www.neh.gov/files/divisions/preservation/sustaining_cultural_heritage_collections_awards.pdf>

NEH program officers are available to discuss project ideas and read
draft proposals.  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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