$3.6 million in ARP funding available to Native cultural institutions

(Oklahoma City, October 18) The Association for Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) has received $3.6 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to help Native cultural organizations recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. ATALM is one of seven organizations in the USA to receive funding through the “Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan” (SHARP) program.

ATALM anticipates making up to 175 subawards to Native cultural institutions and their partners. Awards range from $5,000 to $50,000. Eligible entities include federally recognized tribal governments with cultural institutions, tribal cultural facilities with non-profit status, non-tribal cultural institutions working in partnership with tribes, and higher education institutions working in partnership with tribes. Funds may be used for operational support including rehiring furloughed employees, preparing facilities for reopening, documenting cultural practices, and new exhibits and programs.

Program details and the grant application are available at https://atalm.org/node/534. Applications will open on October 20th, with a deadline of December 13, 2021. A pre-application webinar is scheduled for November 4 at 3:00 pm Eastern.

“The American Rescue Plan recognizes that the cultural and educational sectors are essential components of the United States economy and civic life, vital to the health and resilience of American communities,” said NEH Acting Chairman Adam Wolfson. “These new grants will provide a lifeline to the country’s colleges and universities, museums, libraries, archives, historical sites and societies, save thousands of jobs in the humanities placed at risk by the pandemic, and help bring economic recovery to cultural and educational institutions and those they serve.”  

“ATALM has developed a strategy to address the most critical needs facing tribal cultural institutions, while also building bridges with non-Native institutions,” said ATALM Board Chair Walter Echo-Hawk. “We are grateful to the NEH for recognizing the unique ways Native communities are experiencing this pandemic and we are pleased to have this opportunity to provide much needed support.”

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION OF TRIBAL ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES, AND MUSEUMS

The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) is an international association dedicated to preserving and advancing the language, history, culture, and lifeways of Indigenous peoples. Founded in 2010, ATALM maintains a network of support for Indigenous cultural programs, provides professional development training, enables collaboration among tribal and non-tribal cultural institutions, and advocates for programs and funding to sustain the cultural sovereignty of Native Nations. To learn more, visit www.atalm.org.

ABOUT THE NEH SHARP PROGRAM

NEH’s “Strengthening the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan” (SHARP) grants provide emergency relief to help offset financial losses sustained by humanities organizations over the last 18 months. They allow cultural and educational nonprofits to retain and rehire staff, maintain operations essential to their missions, and rebuild programs and projects that have been disrupted by the pandemic. The humanities activities they support include education, preservation and access, public programming, digital humanities, and scholarly research. See more information on these grantees in the accompanying press release.