ADVOCACY

PENNSYLVANIA BUDGET SEASON

Pennsylvania's budget season kicked off on February 4 with Governor Shapiro's introduction of his third Executive Budget. This is only the beginning of the budget process; for the next few weeks, lawmakers will react to the Governor's budget, frame their priorities and take part in budget hearings, which started yesterday. Pennsylvania's House returns to session after budget hearings on March 17, and the Senate returns to session on March 24. Any of the four caucuses could introduce a version of the budget that can serve as a placeholder, and once hearings are concluded, negotiations will begin that will lead to a spending plan lawmakers agree upon and that Governor Shapiro will sign. This year's Executive Budget can be found here.

The Governor's budget proposal included $2 million for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's (PHMC) Cultural and Historical Grants program, down from the $4 million available last year. The PHMC's operating budget would increase around 5% to $25,500,000.

PA Museums is organizing our advocacy effort around the PHMC's Cultural and Historical Support Grant line item that so many of our members need for their general operations. We will be calling our members to action as the Pennsylvania budget is developed over the coming months. With help from you, our members, we secured $4 million last fiscal year. Let's plan to do the heavy lifting together again.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL HISTORY (AASLH) ADVOCACY PROGRAM

Join AASLH History Hour on February 25 to meet your peers from around the country and talk with them about advocacy. History Hour is a free, monthly, community-building event. Register here.

FEDERAL FUNDING CONCERNS AND GUIDANCE

PA Museums recognizes that many of our members continue to be concerned about the new administration's potential to disrupt agencies that provide funding for arts and culture. The nonprofit community also continues to seek guidance for navigating Executive Orders. If you and your organization are struggling to understand the landscape, you are not alone. Our association shares these concerns, particularly about how changes could threaten the completion of the Pennsylvania budget that has expectations of federal funding. Some of our national and statewide partners are providing guidance and updates, and we encourage our members to use these resources as you see fit:

The Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO)

The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

The American Association for State and Local History - The 250th Anniversary and the Road Ahead

The American Alliance of Museums - Advocacy Alerts

2025 PA MUSEUM CONFERENCE CALL FOR SESSION PROPOSALS

Save the date for PA Museums' 2025 Conference. We'll be in Erie, PA, September 28-30, 2025.

Start planning now to join us! Our theme will be From Community Anchors to Community Catalysts. Our theme will explore the ways museums and historical organizations, rooted in place and traditions, can transform and influence communities and culture through partnerships and new strategies.

PA Museums is looking for conference sessions including off site tours now. Please click here to propose a program for our conference. The deadline to submit a proposal is March 16, 2025.

Information for exhibitors, sponsors, and advertisers is available now. Please click here to see our 2025 pricing. Please email Rusty Baker, Executive Director of PA Museums to learn more. We encourage businesses and non-profits that work with museums to consider joining us an exhibitors!

MEMBERSHIP

The Marilyn Horne Museum and Exhibit Center at the University of Pittsburgh in Bradford is looking for its next Director. If your organization has a job to post with PA Museums, please review our guidelines and contact us. You can also complete and submit your job posting on our easy-to-use form.

PA Museums will be hosting a Lunch and Learn on March 12 at noon with The Frick Pittsburgh. Staff from the Frick will lead a conversation about their award-winning Gilden, Not Golden tour of Clayton. To learn more and register, please click here.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has launched its first National Museum Survey. Your participation will provide your institution with the ability to access reports on the survey findings and give you access to a dynamic data portal once it is released in early summer 2025. The survey will be available to every type and size of museum. PA Museums encourages your participation. If your institution did not receive an invitation from IMLS, you can request one by clicking here.

PA Museums, in conjunction with PA Humanities and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, is checking with museums and cultural community on how organizations might be impacted by potential changes to federal funding via the NEA, NEH, IMLS, and other federal funding lines. Please complete this BRIEF SURVEY (approx. 7-8 minutes) on the impact of federal funding on your organization. Deadline February 28.

Is your organization on Facebook? We received an usual message this week and did some research. As it turns out, many people are reporting similar messages on Facebook targeting business accounts. Individuals pretend to be Facebook administrators and send messages to businesses claiming that their accounts will be deleted soon because they violate Facebook's terms and conditions. Please be aware of this and do not click anything in these phishing emails.

PA Museums updated our listings of webinars, conferences, and other programs that may be of interest to our members. Please click here to see what's coming up.

SUPPORT FOR YOUR WORK

Keystone Planning and Construction Grants from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission



The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) announced the opening of the Keystone Historic Preservation Grant Program to help fund local projects that identify, preserve, promote, and protect historic and archaeological resources in Pennsylvania for both the benefit of the public and community revitalization.

Two categories of grants—construction and planning—are available for historic resources in Pennsylvania that are listed, or eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places. Applicants may apply for only one type of grant.

For this year’s grant round, PHMC will give special consideration to proposals that advance one of the America250 themes and align with the United States Semiquincentennial celebration in 2026. Applicants will be required to explain how their project aligns with one of the themes.

Informational webinars for the Keystone Planning and Construction Grants will be held later in January. The deadline to apply is March 3, 2025. Please click here for more information.

Community-Based Archives Grants

The Mellon Foundation has issued a Call for Proposals from Community-Based Archives to support their work. Grants can support operational costs, collections care, and programming. Awards can range from $25,000 to $100,000 over two years. Eligible archives must have been in existence for at least two years and have an operating budget between $12,500 and $1,000,000.

Deadlines: Online registration is required by March 12; full applications are due March 28.

Click here for more information.

Marketing to Attract Tourists

The Marketing to Attract Tourists Program from Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development provides funding to support and development international tourism, sports marketing, outdoor recreation, and cultural attractions. Please click here to view the guidelines and apply. This program has a rolling deadline.

National Park Service Semiquuincentennial Grant Program

The National Park Service is now accepting applications for the fourth round of funding for the Semiquincentennial Grant Program. This grant program was created by Congress in 2020 to support the preservation of sites and structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places that commemorate the founding of the nation. Grants support the physical preservation of a broad variety of cultural resources associated with the country's semiquincentennial (250th anniversary).

For the purposes of this grant program, the "founding of the nation" is defined as the period ending in 1815. This end date corresponds to the defeat of British naval forces at the Battle of New Orleans and the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent by Congress. These events brought a close to the War of 1812, marking the end of military hostilities between the United States and Great Britain which had begun with the American Revolution. The founding of the nation does not have a defined starting period to be inclusive of the many cultures that combined to create the America of today. 

The deadline to apply is March 15, 2025.

PA MUSEUMS IN THE NEWS

TribLive reported on a large naming gift to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

PHL17 talked with the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts about how to preserved Super Bowl memorabilia.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle highlighted the progress in the establishment of a museum and educational programs with the Tree of Life's new facilities.

The Penn Trafford Star teased Bushy Run Battlefield's winter living history event.

President's Day brought lots of history headlines. Here are news stories filed from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Lititz Historical Foundation.

LancasterOnline covered LancasterHistory's event honoring Lydia Hamilton Smith.

PhillyVoice previewed Small But Mighty, and exhibition coming up at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Artnews revisited Charles "Teenie" Harris' work for Black History Month with the Carnegie Museum of Art.

RECOMMENDED

AAM shared a data story, Hope for the Future and Museums.

Here's a short read about the state of state museums that we found interesting.

PA Museums | rusty.baker@pamuseums.org 

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