Announcement proposals for the: 2016 Museums Connect program

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Museums Connect: Building Global Communities program brings together U.S. and international communities, especially youth, women, and other underserved groups, through collaborative museum-led exchange projects that support foreign policy and mission strategic objectives, such as civic engagement, human rights, climate change, disability rights, interfaith tolerance, and women’s empowerment.  Through the 2016 Museums Connect: Building Global Communities program, at least six projects will each receive $50,000-$100,000 divided between the selected U.S. and foreign museums.

Recent projects include supporting displaced Ukrainian youth by exploring cutting-edge art and technology skills with teenagers in Rhode Island and empowering girls with design-think skills to solve environmental challenges in their communities in Kenya and Minnesota.

Museums Connect projects focus on community engagement and participation, while showcasing the role of museums and cultural spaces as vibrant, engaged, and influential institutions in contemporary society.  The grants do not fund construction or projects focused primarily on staff/institutional development or capacity building, staff training, standard exhibition design or object exchange, or artist residencies.

                For more information about the AAM’s Museum Connect website at http://www.aam-us.org/museumsconnect.