Loading ...AANM Receives $200,000 Grant From Institute Of Museum And Library Services
Funding to be used for educational outreach programming about Arabs, Arab Americans and Islam
Dearborn, Mich. (Sept 25, 2017) – The Arab American National Museum (AANM) is a recipient of the FY2017 Museums for America Award, a grant awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to assist in projects that strengthen the ability of museums to serve their communities.
The IMLS is an independent federal agency that provides library grants, museum grants, policy development and research. Through the agency’s largest competitive grant program, Museums for America, the IMLS announced $19,189,929 in grants for museums across the nation. AANM was one of 132 institutions out of 558 applicants selected for the grant.
In total, AANM will receive $200,000 over the span of two years to help increase its educational outreach programming about Arabs, Arab Americans and Islam in the southeast Michigan region.
With the grant money, AANM will provide comprehensive educational resources and tools, underwrite field trips to the Museum and offer off-site workshops to under-resourced school districts in targeted regions of the state.
AANM also plans to use the grant to develop professional competency programming that will include workshops on educational approaches to culture and diversity for teachers, school district leaders and administrators.
The cultural competency workshops will be designed for K-12 schools across metro Detroit and outlying areas. AANM also plans to target school districts in rural and exurban areas that are isolated from large immigrant and refugee communities with off-site half-day educational workshops.
AANM will also retool, update and improve a free comprehensive booklet series about Arabs, Arab American culture and Islam that has been available to the general public and distributed as part of the Museum’s free educational resource materials for educators.
“As centers of learning and catalysts of community change, libraries and museums connect people with programs, services, collections, information, and new ideas in the arts, sciences, and humanities. They serve as vital spaces where people can connect with each other,” says IMLS Director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew. “IMLS is proud to support their work through our grant making as they inform and inspire all in their communities.”
As the current presidential administration aims to make national budget cuts by calling for the elimination of the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, AANM hopes to showcase how federal funding to museums and cultural institutions can positively impact communities.
