Blog and Newsletter

The Maine Arts Commission has announced its new grant lineup. The agency staff have been busy updating all of the information online and getting the Grants Management System ready for applications. Any artist or organization interested in applying should read the updated guidelines, and if you need help, be sure to go to the Grants Help page with its improved help documents.

Some of the highlights for this cycle include: Two NEW COVID relief grants; one for artists and one for organizations. These will have a February 18 deadline. Relief for Organizations ($4k) and the Resilience Artist Grant ($1k). The deadline for both grants is February 18.  The Organization Partnership application has a new February 18 deadline. This is a month earlier than the previous year, so Partnership applicants have less time to apply. Also, Partnership Grant requirements have changed, making it easier for small and mid-sized organizations to apply.  NEW Springboard Artist Grant (1.5k) for artists who have not been previously awarded by the Maine Arts Commission. We hope this makes funding more accessible to emerging artists or people new to the grant writing process.  The CCED2 implementation grant will not be offered, but the CCED 1 will still be offered. This grant is now called the Cultural Planning Grant.  We have removed the cash/in-kind match requirement for Organization Grants. As part of making things easier for applicants during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Agency staff is always available to discuss your application ideas and answer any questions about requirements or the process. Please don’t wait for the day before the deadline to start your application. We are looking forward working with you and hearing about your project proposals.

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 $750,000 in URC funding for FY2020.

Applications are due March 31, 2021

Learn more about URC

Apply to URC via Grants.gov

Please help us to recognize the best among archivists!

Have you read a great new book about archives? Encountered a new documentary publication that is head and shoulders above the rest? Has a new web publication really stood out to you? 

If you have, please consider nominating it for the Society of American Archivists Waldo Gifford Leland Award. Nomination forms, a list of previous winners, and more information are at http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-leland. The due date for nominations is February 28, 2021.

The annual Leland Award – a cash prize and certificate – recognizes “writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, and practice.”  (Please note that periodicals are not eligible.) 

Established in 1959, this award honors American archival pioneer Waldo Gifford Leland (1879-1966), president of the Society of American Archivists in the 1940s and one of the driving forces behind the founding of the National Archives.

SAA’s subcommittees for Awards for Excellence: Contributions to the Archives Profession invite nominations for their 2021 awards. Brief descriptions are provided below. Click on the links for additional information about the criteria and process for each award.

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, 2021

The Dead River Area Historical Society’s pictorial 2021 calendars are now available. The cover features “The children of Edward and Alice Scribner: “1956, Judy holding Melissa, then Kathy and Randy holding Brenda.” January – The Village of Stratton Circa March 1924, February – Gas Lombard run by the Eustis Lumber Company, 1918, March – Eleven sleds of white birch belonging to Stratton Mfg Company 1919, April – North Branch Bridge, April 1927 Flood, Stratton, May –William (Bill) Arnold, Eustis Village, circa 1920, June –Dead River Fish and Game Association Map 1940, July – Middle Tow at Booming-out-place, Flagstaff Lake near Stratton, August – Stratton Brook Bridge, Coplin, September-Robert Tague and Mother Nellie (Nettie) Tague, 1945, October – Long Falls Dam Construction, Postcard Photo late 1940’s, November – Dwight Lander and Ray Willard, 1952 at King and Barlett Camps, December – George W. and Florida Bachelder Family photo 1919. The back page of this calendar features a paragraph about each photograph which greatly adds to the value of the calendars.

You can find them for sale at Pine’s Market, Fotter’s Market, and T & L Enterprises, while you are there browse around if they don’t have it you don’t need it.

You can also purchase them through the mail for $8.00 plus $2.00 for postage for each calendar. Send to: Dead River Area Historical Society, PO Box 15, Stratton, Maine 04982. There are many pictorial calendars left from previous years for sale at $2.50 each. You can also order a cook book ($6.00 each or two for $10.00) from the same address as the calendars.

For more information call Mary Henderson at: 246-2271.

MAC is soliciting applications for the 2021 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 decent; 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. The applicant must also be either a resident of the MAC region or registered in a qualified program, onsite or online, that is based in the MAC region.

Applications are due ​March 1, 2021​ 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, 2021. 
Awards will be announced no later than June 1, 2021.

STQRY (formerly oncell) is offering to MAM members a 20% discount on their standard app plan and a reduced set up fee of $495 (set up is regularly $1,995!).

This offer extends through the end of 2020.

Check out the flyer for some more details and how to receive the discount.

Check out the discounts regularly available to MAM members through partner businesses.

The National Park Service (NPS) is pleased to announce that applications for $16 million in Save America's Treasures funding are now open on Grants.gov. Deadline for applications is January 26, 2021. 

The SAT program is administered by the NPS in cooperation with its partners, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).The NPS manages the preservation grants and the IMLS the collections grants, once awarded. 

Apply to SAT Preservation Grants via Grants.gov. Eligible Preservation projects must be listed currently ​as: 

1. Individually listed as a National Historic Landmark or be a contributing property within a National Historic Landmark district.
2. Individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places for national significance (properties listed at the state or local significance are not eligible) or be a contributing property within a nationally significant National Register Historic District. Properties include buildings, sites, structures and objects.

Apply to SAT Collection Grants via Grants.gov. Eligible Collections projects must be determined to be of national significance based on the supportive description of its significance within the application. Collections include artifacts, documents, sculptures, and other works of art.

SAT Factsheet

Learn more about the SAT Grant Program

The Save America’s Treasures (SAT) program is funded through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) using revenue from Outer Continental Shelf oil lease revenue, not tax dollars.

The Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grant program was established in 1998 and first awarded grants in 1999 to help preserve nationally significant historic properties and collections that convey our nation’s rich heritage to future generations. Since 1999, there have been more than 4,000 requests for funding totaling more than $1.54 billion. More than $315,700,000 has been awarded to 1,300+ projects. 

Awarded Projects for FY2020 

Save America's Treasures (SAT) Application Webinar

Apply to SAT Preservation Grants via Grants.gov SAT- Preservation - P21AS00202

Apply to SAT Collection Grants via Grants.gov SAT-Collection - P21AS00203

Congress has appropriated $16 million for the SAT Grant Program.

Applications are due January 26, 2021.

Farmington Underground and Washburn-Norlands Living History Center recently completed their collaboration on a guided mystery tour through the month of October. The private tours featured historical stories and information about the Norlands property as well as interactive puzzle elements designed by Farmington Underground. 

Over 200 people came to the site and completed a mystery tour, entitled “Tale of the Forgotten Son”, over the 4-week period. The goal of the collaboration was to increase engagement with local history in a safe and fun way. Over the past few months, Farmington Underground has worked with other organizations to design new ways of engaging the public with historical and artistic collections, and they are looking for other organizations that may be interested in a collaborative project.

More information about the mystery tour can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/FarmingtonUnderground/posts/945098425977828

The Society of Southwest Archivists, in partnership with Louisiana State University, will host a virtual annual meeting May 17-21, 2021. The theme this year is Going with the Flow. As we have all faced numerous challenges over the past year, SSA would like to learn about barriers faced, creative solutions, and what the “new normal” looks like for your archive.

Session proposals are welcome on any subject or skill relevant to the archives or records management professions. Proposals will be evaluated on the completeness of the description, the originality of the topic, and the diversity of speakers. In addition, the Program Committee will prioritize submissions with a strong equity, diversity, & inclusion component. 

SSA hopes that the virtual format for 2021 will make the conference more accessible for various groups, including those located outside the Southwest region. SSA encourages proposal submissions from non-SSA members and those located outside of the Southwest.

Find guidelines, a spreadsheet to facilitate collaborations, and the submission form on the SSA Call For Proposals page.

The deadline for submission is Friday, December 18th, 2020.