Get Help with Your America 250 Commemoration by Applying for a Museum Makeover Grant

Watch the December 5 recording of the Museum Makeover info session online here.

Contact:  Kathy Craughwell-Varda / CSL.ConservationConnection@ct.gov

Conservation ConneCTion and CT Humanities have partnered to offer America 250 CT Museum Makeover grants, a program designed to help cultural organizations tell new and unique stories about the American Revolution and how the themes of the America 250 | CT Commission reverberate through our nation’s history. The outcome should improve the visitor experience through a deeper and richer understanding and appreciation of the themes of the American Revolution and increase their understanding of the people, places, issues, and stories facing our communities so we can both learn from the past and make progress to a better future.

Proposed projects can include exhibitions; orientation galleries; interpretive spaces, such as period rooms in historic house museums; or accessibility improvements, such as creating bilingual content, and developing new tools for improved visual, auditory, and physical access (these components should meet the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act). The project should support at least one of the America 250 | CT themes:  Tell Inclusive Stories, Power of Place, Doing History, and For the Common Good.

Successful applicants will receive two free site visits from a curatorial project manager who will work with the institution’s paid and unpaid staff throughout the grant period to implement their project. Paid and unpaid staff at these cultural organizations will be actively involved in all phases of Museum Makeover and will work closely with their assigned curatorial project manager to implement recommendations. Each participating institution will also receive up to $5,600 to help cover the costs of upgrading or creating exhibition and interpretive areas. This funding can be used for curatorial consultants, graphic designer, exhibit designer, exhibit fabrication and production, and exhibit installation.

America 250 | CT has also created a Planning Guide that provides assistance in developing new and unique projects.

Applications must be submitted using Connecticut Humanities’ online grant portal. Before applying, organizations must contact Conservation ConneCTion director, Kathy Craughwell-Varda, CSL.ConservationConnection@ct.gov, to discuss their grant application. We are eager to help you submit a strong application and are available to review draft applications received at least two weeks before the grant deadline.

Fill out your application today! Museum Makeover Application

Application deadline is 11:59 p.m., January 22, 2025.

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America 250 | CT Museum Makeover is a program of Conservation ConneCTion and the America 250 | CT Commission, administered by CT Humanities (CTH), with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature.