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March 9, 2022 • 7:00 PM (ET)

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Photographer Shaun O’Boyle has traveled to both polar regions to capture the stark beauty of remote and beautiful Arctic and Antarctic landscapes. With a background in architecture and engineering, his images often focus on the built environment, where Western exploration and industrial activities intersect and engage with the unique landscapes of polar lands. From sophisticated telescopes imaging the cosmic microwave background at South Pole Station to the long-abandoned remains of exploration and mining camps, O’Boyle’s photographs explore the complex interplay of human endeavor, environmental extremes, and the passage of time.

January 2022

The LeDroit Building, once home to the first law school founded by women, for women. Photo courtesy of Jason Hornwick (photographer); DC Preservation League.

The Underrepresented Community (#URC) Grant Program  application deadline has been extended to February 8, 2022! The National Park Service’s Underrepresented Community Grant Program (URC) works towards diversifying the nominations submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. URC grants are funded by the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), and are administered by the NPS. Projects include surveys and inventories of historic properties associated with communities underrepresented in the National Register, as well as the development of nominations to the National Register for specific sites. Congress has appropriated $1,000,000 for the URC Grant Program. Eligible applicants are limited to State Historic Preservation Offices, Federally Recognized Tribes, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian Organizations, and Certified Local Governments. Applications are due February 8, 2022. Learn more about URC Apply to URC via Grants.gov

Competitive Grant Programs Now Accepting Applications

Estey Hall, Shaw University in Raleigh, NC. Photo Courtesy of Shaw University.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Grant Program HBCU grants document, preserve, and stabilize historic structures on HBCU campuses. Eligibility information has been changed for this application cycle to expand the types of resources that may receive a grant. Congress has appropriated $10,000,000 in HBCU funding for FY2021. Applications are due January 25, 2022. Learn more about HBCU Apply to HBCU via Grants.gov

Centre Market Square Historic District in Wheeling, West Virginia. Photo courtesy of Erin Yaeger.

Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Subgrant Program Subgrant programs enable the rehabilitation of historic properties and rehabilitate, protect, and foster economic development of rural communities. Congress has appropriated $7.5 million in funding for FY2021. Applications are due February 22, 2022. Learn more about Paul Bruhn Revitalization Grants Apply to Paul Bruhn via Grants.gov

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2022 Donald Peterson Student Travel Award!

Established in 2005, this award supports students and recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The goal of the scholarship is to stimulate greater participation in the activities of SAA by students and recent graduates. This participation must include either a presentation of research during the Annual Meeting or active participation in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable.

Click here to preview the application and/or to apply. All applications must be submitted online and include the following:

1. A 500-word essay describing the applicant's career goals and potential impact on the archival profession.
2. Unofficial transcript to verify student status or copy of graduate diploma.
3. Two letters of recommendation from individuals having definite knowledge of the applicant's qualifications.

Nominations will be accepted until February 28, 2022.

If you have any questions regarding the award or the application process, please contact Danielle Sangalang, Donald Peterson Student Travel Award Committee Chair, at dsangalang@massart.edu

For more information on the details on awards from previous years, please visit the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award on the SAA webpage. Please feel free to pass along this announcement to colleagues.

Donald Peterson Student Travel Award Committee:

Helen Conger

Jessica Hornbuckle

Danielle Sangalang (Chair)

The application period for the Society of American Archivists’ (SAA) Mosaic Scholarship is currently open, with a deadline of February 28, 2022. 

The Mosaic Scholarship was established to provide financial and mentoring support to minority students pursuing graduate education in archival science, to encourage students to pursue careers in archives, and to promote the diversification of the American archival profession. The award is given to applicants who demonstrate excellent potential for scholastic and personal achievement and who manifest a commitment both to the archival profession and to advancing diversity concerns within it. 

Up to two scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded, contingent on available funds. In addition, each scholarship recipient receives a one-year complimentary membership to SAA and complimentary registration to the Society’s Annual Meeting for the year in which the scholarship was received. 

For more information on the scholarship, eligibility requirements and application instructions, please visit: http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-mosaic. Click here to apply!

The Society of American Archivists’ subcommittees for Awards for Excellence: Contributions to the Archives Profession invite nominations for their 2022 awards. Brief descriptions are provided below. Click on the links for additional information about the criteria and process for each award. 

If you have nominated a project or person who was not selected for an award in a recent cycle, and you feel their work is still timely and relevant, we encourage you to resubmit the nomination.

Distinguished Service Award: Recognizes an archival institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or government organization that has provided outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archives profession.

Eligibility: Any archival institution, archival organization, records center, or manuscript repository, archival education program, or nonprofit or government organization providing service or support to the archives community in North America.

nomination form

Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award: Recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.

Eligibility: individual archivists only.

nomination form

Spotlight Award: Recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the archives profession and of archival collections, and whose work would not typically receive public recognition.

Eligibility: An individual archivist or a group of up to five archivists who have collaborated on a project. Preference is given to archivists working in smaller repositories, especially those without institutional support for professional activities.

nomination form

Diversity Award: Recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. Nominees will have demonstrated significant achievement in the form of activism, education, outreach, publication, service, or other initiatives in the archives field. The award is given based on the long-term impact on improving and promoting diversity as defined in the SAA Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.

Eligibility: An individual, group, or organization.

nomination form

Archival Innovator Award: Recognizes an archivist, a group of archivists, a repository, or an organization that demonstrates the greatest overall current impact on the profession or their communities.

Eligibility: The work should be undertaken within the past three years—it need not be completed, but it must be sufficiently advanced to demonstrate results.

nomination form

Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and/or performed commendable service to the archives profession. The award is given based on the total experience of the awardee, including knowledge, leadership, participation, and/or achievements in the profession.

Eligibility: Nominees must be SAA members with more than two years and less than ten years of professional archives experience.

nomination form

Deadline: February 28, 2022

Native American, Native Hawaiian Library Services Grants Available Available Now Application Deadline is April 1, 2022

WASHINGTON, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services is now accepting applications for Native Hawaiian Library Services and Native American Library Services Enhancement grants. The deadline for submitting applications for either grant is April 1, 2022. “IMLS continues to look for ways we can better align our grant programs with the needs of the communities we serve,” said IMLS Deputy Director of Library Services Cyndee Landrum. “We’re very pleased to announce that application to the Native American Basic grant program is no longer a requirement for eligible organizations to apply for the Native American Library Services Enhancement grant.” For more information about the changes to eligibility for the Native American Library Services Enhancement grant, please read this grant program update. Native Hawaiian Library Services grants are available to nonprofit organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians. These grants, awarded in amounts of up to $150,000 for two years, are designed to improve core library services for their communities. Native American Library Services Enhancement grants advance the programs and services of eligible Indian tribes, including Alaska Native villages, regional corporations, and village corporations. These competitive grants, awarded in amounts of up to $150,000 for two years, are designed to improve core library services for their communities. Reflecting IMLS’s goals of championing lifelong learning, strengthening community engagement, and advancing collections stewardship and access, successful projects for either grant program will: Improve digital services to support needs for education, workforce development, economic and business development, health information, critical thinking skills, and digital literacy skills. Improve educational programs related to specific topics and content areas of interest to library patrons and community-based users. Enhance the preservation and revitalization of Native cultures and languages. An awardee with an active Native American Enhancement Grant or Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant may not apply for another Native American Enhancement Grant or Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant that would have an overlapping period of performance with the active grant. For more information, please contact IMLS staff. Grant guidelines and descriptions of previously funded projects are available on the IMLS website. On-Demand Webinars To learn more, interested applicants are invited to view the recorded pre-application webinars: Native Hawaiian Library Services Grants Webinar Native American Library Services Enhancement Grants Webinar Photo: The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's canoe, Laxaynem, during the Intertribal Canoe Journey at Suquamish, Port Madison, WA in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Jamestown S'Klallam Library)

The Midwest Archives Conference is soliciting applications for the 2022 Archie Motley Memorial Scholarship for Students of Color (http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley). The scholarship is designed to provide financial assistance to students of color pursuing graduate education in archival administration and to encourage ethnic diversification of the MAC membership and of the archival profession as a whole. Two $750 scholarships, accompanied by one-year memberships to MAC, will be awarded.   

In order to be eligible for a scholarship, the applicant must be of African, American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Latinx descent; must be a student currently enrolled in or accepted in a graduate, multicourse program in archival administration; and must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in their academic program. If the program is not listed in the SAA Directory of Archival Education, http://www2.archivists.org/dae, the applicant must provide proof of the multicourse standard by submitting copies of course descriptions from the institution’s current departmental catalog.   

Applications are due March 1, 2022 and must include the following documents:  

• Completed Application Form, available at http://www.midwestarchives.org/motley  
• Transcript from the applicant's most recent academic program (unofficial transcript is acceptable)  
• Essay of not more than 500 words outlining the applicant's interests and future goals in archival administration  
• Two letters of recommendation.  

Completed applications should be sent to:  

Rebekah McFarland Certified Archivist
Sisters of the Living Word rmcfarland@slw.org  

Applications must be emailed by March 1, 2022.  
Awards will be announced no later than June 1, 2022.  

There are two grant announcements from the National Archives. Administered by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), both grant programs present opportunities for archives and special collections to collaborate.

NHPRC's Major Collaborative Archival Initiatives program is for projects to:

• digitize and publish online historical records as a "virtual" collection around a common theme, organization, or important historical figure(s); or
• create and test new tools and methods for the archival field to enhance public access, especially for born-digital records

Awards will be between $150,000 and $350,000.

NHPRC's Archives Collaboratives program welcomes collaborations among three or more organizations that target institutional advancement for small and underserved communities. Archives Collaboratives may:

• be located in the same community, state, or geographic region
• be "virtual" or online collaboratives
• share affinities among the scope and subject matter of their collections
• have similar organizational missions
• serve similar types of user communities

Apply for a Planning Grant (up to $25,000) or an Implementation Grant (up to $100,000).

NHPRC hopes to expand the reach of the NHPRC, and particularly welcome those collections that focus on the voices and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

You can find a contact person listed in each of the Grant Announcements. The program directors would be more than happy to listen to any new ideas for collaborative projects.

Native American Library Services Basic Grants Available for 2022 Application Deadline is March 1, 2022

WASHINGTON, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services is now accepting applications for Native American Library Services Basic grants through March 1, 2022. Native American Library Services Basic grants are noncompetitive one-year grants of $6,000 to $10,000, which can include up to $3,000 in eligible education and assessment activities or travel. The grants are available to federally recognized Native American tribes and Native Alaskan villages, corporations, and regional corporations and are designed to support existing operations and maintain core services of tribal and Native village libraries. Grants may be used to buy library materials, fund salaries and training, provide internet connectivity and computers, or develop public and private partnerships with other agencies and community-based organizations, for example. Libraries may request up to $3,000 for staff to attend library courses or training workshops; attend or present at conferences related to library services; or hire consultants for onsite professional library assessments. Application materials can be found on the grant program page. For more information, please visit the IMLS website. On-Demand Webinars To learn more, interested applicants are invited to view the recorded pre-application webinar. Photo: The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's Heron Hall Library. (Photo courtesy of Jamestown S'Klallam Library)

The Maine Arts Commission (MAC) is offering a special grant opportunity that awards up to $15,000 to support public art projects and programming for cultural organizations. This is a great opportunity for Maine’s creative community.

The Arts Jobs Grant supports arts organizations, programs, and professionals at the local level, advancing economic recovery within a cultural sector devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

MAC encourage applications from all 501c3 organizations including those that serve populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by ethnicity, economics, geography, or disability. Projects with small and medium-sized budgets and from rural to urban parts of the state are encouraged to apply.

There are two grant opportunities available—one for ARTISTS, and one for ORGANIZATIONS. Non-arts organizations are welcome to apply if the organization can demonstrate their mission is connected to the purpose of the grant and aligns with the established activities of the applicant. 

APPLY BY NOVEMBER 18, 2021

If you have any questions, please contact the Maine Arts Commission at 207-287-2724.