Grant Proposal/ Program Plan
HST 573: Education and Interpretation at Museums and Historic Sites
The Assignment: Prepare a grant proposal for a nine-month program in which museum professionals teach curation and exhibition skills in high school classrooms. The program must be geared toward curriculum goals and remote user groups.
The Funding Agency and Grant: North Carolina Humanities Council Large Grant: http://www.nchumanities.org/home.html. Download the grant form for the large grant.
Your Museum: You are the Director of Education at the UNCW Museum of 20th Century History. Your museum’s mission is to promote knowledge about the 20th century through collection, preservation, and public programming. Your museum serves the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick, Duplin, Pender, and Onslow, and in the past you’ve hosted “curation camps” at your UNCW site. Most of the participants in these camps have been from New Hanover County, and you’d like funding for a program to use your staff of five educators and your web and DVD technologies to reach user groups in remoter areas. You are seeking funding up to $5000 to run the program for the duration of a school year.
Your Collections Resources: The UNCW Museum of 20th Century History maintains teaching collections (a total of 236 objects) that are available for use in public programs. The themes of the collections are: early 20th century garment workers, 1950s sports and fitness, 1970s youth and education, and 1980s consumerism. Programming does not have to reflect these specific themes. Objects may be used to teach any number of themes relevant to 20th century history. Click here for a printable version of the collections list.
Your Technology Resources: The UNCW Museum of 20th Century History has software, equipment, and server space for: web authoring, film-making, and graphics production. You also have set aside $300.00 from your division's materials budget to commit to this project.
Your Staff Resources: Your division consists of a director (you) and three full-time museum educators. Your compensation rates (per hour) are $24.65 for division director and $15.89 for each educator. Depending on the nature of your project, you may require the services of additional museum personnel. Their rates are as follows:
Registrar: $20.15
Public relations specialist: $19.78
Exhibit Designer: $17.47
Assignment Requirements
Respond to all requirements of the grant form fully, concisely, and in enough detail to allow for review.
The grant is due in class on November 3. Late papers will be penalized five points per day.
Grading
This assignment is worth 45 points of your final grade. Your grants will be graded on the following elements:
Educational objectives and feasibility of the program (10)
Extent to which the proposed program responds to a community need (10)
Extent to which the grant follows the guidelines of the agency (7)
The precision of the program budget (6)
The evaluation plan (6)
Clarity of the descriptions and arguments (6)