Cultural institutions, including libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations, face an enormous challenge: to preserve humanities collections that facilitate research, strengthen teaching, and provide opportunities for lifelong learning.  To ensure the preservation of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art, and historical objects, cultural institutions must implement measures that slow deterioration and prevent catastrophic loss from emergencies resulting from natural or human activity.  They can accomplish this work most effectively through preventive conservation.  Preventive conservation encompasses managing relative humidity, temperature, light, and pollutants in collection spaces; providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguarding collections from theft, fire, floods, and other disasters.

For the January 2023 deadline, there are two levels of funding available at the Implementation phase. Level I (up to $100,000) is intended to address discrete preservation challenges that are identified through general preservation assessments at small to mid-sized institutions. Level I awards support organizations that have already undertaken a general preservation assessment or other targeted collections assessment, identified preservation challenges and priorities, and are ready to implement small-scale improvements to environmental conditions and other sustainable conservation measures. Level II (up to $350,000) provides funding for institutions of any size that have completed interdisciplinary planning and are prepared to implement more extensive preventive conservation projects.

Visit https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/sustaining-cultural-heritage-collections for more information.