American Latino Museum Internship and Fellowship Initiative

This initiative is designed to provide opportunities for internships and fellowships at American Latino museums for students enrolled in Institutions of Higher Education, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). The initiative will nurture stu

This initiative will support internships and fellowships at American Latino museums for post-secondary students engaged in studying American Latino life, art, history, and culture. Projects should involve engagement between Institutions of Higher Education and museums as sites for paid study opportunities. They may involve cohort-based approaches to internship and fellowship design; incorporate evaluation of institutional and student experience of the program; or support documentation and publication of program design to be shared with the wider professional community.

An applicant to this initiative must meet geographic and governance criteria and qualify as one of the following types of organizations: 1. A museum with a primary focus on American Latino life, art, history, and culture that uses a professional staff, is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes; owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; cares for these objects; and exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities that it owns or operates. 2. A public or private nonprofit agency that is responsible for the operation of a museum that meets these criteria. 3. A museum service organization or association whose primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is to support museums whose primary focus is on American Latino life, art, history, and culture. 4. An Institution of Higher Education, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions, that will engage in the project with one or more eligible museums. Applicants should consult the Notices of Funding Opportunity for more details.

Undergraduate and graduate students who wish to pursue studies and/or careers in the study of American Latino life, art, history, and culture will benefit from museum internships and fellowships supported through this assistance.

Grant funds must be used for the purposes outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, and in accordance with the Institute of Museum and Library Services General Terms and Conditions. Examples of allowable costs include personnel salaries, wages, and fringe benefits for project staff; travel expenses for key project staff and consultants; materials, supplies, software, and equipment related directly to project activities; adaptive and/or assistive technologies and other resources and services to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities; equipment to improve collections storage and exhibit environments; third-party costs; publication design and printing; program evaluation; staff and volunteer training; paid internships/fellowships; and indirect or overhead costs.

Projects awarded in FY2024 must begin August 1, 2024. Project activities may be carried out for one to three years. Money awarded must be obligated within the approved period of performance specified in the Official Award Notification.

1. Ensure that required registrations are active and user names and passwords are in place. 2. Read the Notice of Funding Opportunity carefully to get all the information required for applying. 3. Compose the complete application, using resources available through www.imls.gov (e.g. on-demand webinars, instructions, Sample Applications, Reviewer Resources). 4. Contact an IMLS staff member to ask any questions about the application and review process. 5. Submit the application via Grants.gov by the deadline.

Successful applications in this grant program will reflect a thorough understanding of current practice and knowledge in creating and implementing museum internships and fellowships for students in higher education; present a work plan consisting of a set of logical, interrelated activities tied directly to addressing a specific key need or challenge identified in the application; and are designed to generate measurable results that tie directly to the identified need or challenge.

IMLS staff review applications for eligibility and completeness. IMLS uses a peer review process to evaluate all eligible and complete applications. Peer reviewers are experts in the field with relevant knowledge and expertise in the types of project activities identified in the applications. IMLS instructs reviewers to evaluate applications according to the review criteria outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. Peer reviewers must comply with Federal ethics and conflicts of interest requirements. The IMLS Director takes into account the input provided by the review process and makes final funding decisions consistent with the purposes of the agency's mission and programs.

IMLS will not release information about the status of an application until the applications have been reviewed and all deliberations are concluded. IMLS expects to notify both successful and unsuccessful applicants of the final decisions by email in July 2024.

IMLS may extend particular grants at the discretion of the Director.

IMLS will provide copies of reviewer comments and scores to all unsuccessful applicants and invite them to consult with specific IMLS staff when determining whether to revise the proposal and submit it again to IMLS or another funding agency.