IMLS Museums Empowered supports six ASTC members

The U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced the recipients of its Museums Empowered program for fiscal year 2024. Six ASTC members are among 18 museums who will share $3.3 million in funding.

Museums Empowered: Professional Development Opportunities for Museum Staff helps support institutions in engaging staff, leadership, and volunteers in training activities designed to generate system change or organizational growth that results in more agile and sustainable museums. Competition was tough this year, with a 49% increase in funding requests since the previous cycle.

Exploratorium will create a cohort-based leadership development training program for middle and senior-level managers that will address inequitable access to leadership development. The project team will identify and hire consultants who will be active partners in designing the program. Working in collaboration with coaching advisors, they will set the goals, develop the curriculum, and design strategies for the six-month leadership training program. As a result of the project, twenty-two participants will shape and solidify their leadership identity, gain inclusive leadership skills, and build community among a cohort of peers and museum leadership. Exploratorium will develop a robust organizational culture of learning and belonging while centering and uplifting the identities, values, and abilities of leaders from all backgrounds and experiences.

KID Museum will train all staff across its museum to use culturally responsive practices to meet the needs of its diverse audiences and more effectively eliminate barriers to STEM education. Project activities will include hiring a consultant to oversee the development and delivery of training sessions as well as small group and all-staff workshops. By project completion, all 46 staff will be fully trained and able to actively apply their knowledge and skills within their specific responsibilities at the museum. The museum will integrate the culturally responsive practices into staff performance evaluations and goal-setting processes to help sustain those practices.

The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkley will develop institutional capacity to use data-driven approaches to serve and engage with communities in the East Bay. Project activities will include hiring advisors to work with staff to assess and refine current data collection and co-design processes, and to create embedded evaluation processes to receive programmatic feedback. The project will train staff in data collection and analysis as well as in collaborative design practices with communities to develop exhibits and programs. Through this staff development, the university will be able to use data to identify high-impact initiatives that will benefit target audiences. By developing iterative feedback through evaluation, the university will be better able to assess program success as well as improve visitor participation.

Michigan State University (MSU) will improve the quality of visitor experiences at the MSU Museum, particularly for those with visual impairments, by training museum staff to assess museum spaces for accessible pathways and developing high-quality audio descriptions for interpretative and educational application. Project activities will include a comprehensive assessment of the museum’s spaces, creating a plan for using content delivery technologies in galleries and generating high-quality gallery audio descriptions. Through these training activities, museum staff will develop skills to be more aware of and responsive to the needs of visitors and improve the overall accessibility of the museum interpretive spaces. In addition, they will instill institutional knowledge to collaborate with partners and continuously learn to use technologies within gallery spaces to ensure that future exhibitions and programs incorporate accessibility from the outset.

The Mid-America Science Museum will build capacity of staff to use evaluation as an ongoing cycle of inquiry when creating or improving museum programs and exhibits. Project activities include hiring an expert consultant to train staff on evaluations. As part of this training, departmental teams will work with the consultant to conduct evaluation studies on programs and exhibits to gain practice in developing goals, designing data collection instruments, and analyzing information. As a result of the project, staff will have developed the skills needed to implement and sustain a consistent evaluation practice that will instill a culture of evaluation within the institution for the long-term benefit of the museum and future visitors.

The National Children’s Museum will conduct a professional development project for staff on facilitating Maker programs for children. The project team will collaborate with experts from the Scott Family Amazeum, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and the Bakken Museum on effective and innovative approaches to facilitating high-quality Maker programs. Project activities will include conducting observational site visits, creating a curriculum to train current staff and onboard new staff, and developing and implementing an evaluation framework.  The project will build a collaborative community of practice that will improve the quality of the museum experience and outreach activities offered to diverse community audiences.

The Notice of Funding Opportunity for the FY 2025 cycle is expected to be released in the coming weeks

Additional Information:

• “IMLS Awards Over $3M in Grant Funding through Museums Empowered Program,” August 6, 2024.