ADVOCACY

Pennsylvania's House and Senate will return to session on June 2. When lawmakers return, the race will be on to complete a spending plan for FY 2025-26.

With help from you, our members, we secured $4 million last fiscal year. Our aim is to restore the line item for the Cultural and Historical Support grants to $4 million. If you have not already done so, please support this effort now.



What you can do:

1. Find your legislator here.

2. Use our sample letter below to send a letter on your organization's letterhead to your member of the PA House and PA Senate.

3. Please forward a copy of your letter to rusty.baker@pamuseums.org so we can keep track of this effort. 

Sample Letter:

Dear ___Representative or Senator/ Last Name of Lawmaker___:

I write today on behalf of ________your organization______ in strong support of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)’s Cultural and Historical Support Grants, which provide critical operating support for museums and historical societies.  I, along with the PA Museums, request your support for increasing the Cultural and Historical Support grants program line item. The program was re-established in 2014 after having been eliminated in 2010; earlier the funding levels reached a historic high point with over $6 million available for museums and historical societies in 2006. The Cultural and Historical Support Grants program was funded at $2 million from 2014 until last year, when $4 million was made available to support 173 grantees in 57 counties. We are requesting the Cultural and Historical Support Grants line item be restored to the FY 25 level of $4 million. This amount will restore stable and predictable funding at last year’s level and properly fund our Commonwealth’s rich network of cultural and historical sites.

PA Museums is a statewide association, an independent nonprofit creating and supporting museum community in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania’s museum community includes museums of all kinds large and small. Our rich heritage as one of the original thirteen colonies has provided a firm foundation for our museums, historic sites, history organizations, science museums, and children’s museums to engage millions of visitors annually with world class collections and programs. Our community of museums and historical organizations are centers of teaching and learning about local and Pennsylvania history for school children and preserving the history and the architecture of communities. These institutions are the stewards of millions of dollars in artifacts and hallowed places that tell the story of our state and its people to over 7 million visitors annually. Our organizations are economic drivers for tourism dollars and make direct and indirect impacts to the economy while supporting 25,000 jobs in the Commonwealth.

With the above in mind, we are respectfully requesting the restoration of the Cultural and Historical Support grants line item to $4 million. This level of funding provides ____information about how your museum/historical society benefits from or utilizes your grant funding ____ in your district.

Thank you for your time and attention to this important funding. Please do not hesitate to call upon me.       

Sincerely,

Your Signature



Your name

Your Title

Your Organization

Thank you to all who have already sent letters. Keep them coming!

2025 PA MUSEUMS SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS NOMINATIONS OPEN NOW

Deadline: May 31, 2025

Each year, PA Museums recognizes the special achievements of museums and historical organizations in Pennsylvania.

PA Museums Special Achievement Awards:

• Serve as public recognition of staff and volunteers doing exemplary work
• Encourage member institutions to establish and maintain standards of excellence
• Provide a vehicle to promote institutional achievement and individual professional success
• Reinforce statements attesting to the quality of an institution's work in grant applications and development activities
• Publicly honor awardees with peers at an awards ceremony during the PA Museums annual conference

Nominations must be submitted through the appropriate online forms.

Institutional Award Nomination Form

Individual Award Nomination Form:

A list of award winners from previous years can be found here (scroll down).

Eligibility:

• A nominee for an award must be a member of PA Museums.
• Anyone may submit a nomination, including staff of the nominated organization.
• Nominations for joint projects may be submitted if all major partners are PA Museums’
• members.
• PA Museums’ business affiliate members and individual members who are full- or part-time
• consultants are eligible for an award when the project has benefited a PA Museums’ Groups of volunteers are not eligible for individual achievement awards.

Primary consideration will be given to projects completed within 18 months before the May 31, 2025 deadline. The review panel may also consider nominations for exceptional programs or individual volunteer activities extending over a longer period of time.

Institutional Awards of Merit are awarded in recognition of exemplary projects or uses of best practices in the museum field.

Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:

·        An exhibit and related interpretive programming that presents an event/topic, or tells a story in an innovative and compelling fashion;

·        A successful cultural tourism program with marketing and media components that resulted in community development and collaboration;

·        A publication or a school program that reaches and engages a previously underserved audience;

·        A model earned-income program that has strengthened fiscal independence; or

Some examples of uses or development of best practices may be:

·        Exemplary implementation of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice policies and practices;

·        A creative outreach initiative to broaden audiences (in-person or online);

·        An exemplary or new housekeeping routine;

·        A state-of-the-art volunteer or docent-training program; or

An innovative collections conservation or interpretive plan.

Individual Awards of Merit recognize the lifetime achievements of career professionals and volunteers for leadership, scholarship, and lifetime contributions in the museum field. This award may only be given to an individual once in their lifetime.

PA Museums recorded our 2024 webinar about submitting awards nominations, and we encourage members to check it out on our Youtube channel because it addresses many frequently asked questions.

To check the status of your membership, please contact Rusty Baker, Executive Director, PA Museums.

2025 PA MUSEUMS CONFERENCE

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 has already made arrangements for a great rate on accommodations with the Cobblestone Hotel and Suites in Erie. If you would like to book ahead before we open registration, please click here.

Directions for using the booking link:

-Click on the Link

-Scroll Down until you see: PA Museums Meeting

-Confirm check in and check out dates

-Click to book

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

PA Museums updates our jobs page regularly. If your organization has a position to post, you can complete and submit your job posting on our easy-to-use form. Job postings are free for PA Museum members as a membership benefit.

We continue to update our listings of professional development opportunities at our website.

The PHMC announced that its Historical and Archival Records Care (HARC) grant program opened with an August 1 deadline. PHMC will host a webinar on June 17 at 1p.m. to provide guidance to applicants.

Our friends at the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) launched a new research initiative, the National Survey of History Practitioners, to better understand who works at history organizations, how they are compensated, and how they feel about their work. We’re asking staff, contractors, and volunteers at U.S. history organizations—including museums, historic sites, preservation entities, and more—to take 10 minutes to complete the survey. This data will help AASLH and the field build stronger, more sustainable institutions. The survey will remain open through Friday, June 6. 

If you received the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) survey on museum facility conditions, please complete it. The survey was delivered from GAOMuseumSurvey@gao.gov. Check your spam or junk folders for the request. Congress directed the GAO to independently review museum facility repair needs and provide a public report. The survey will inform Congress of museum needs and aid in making an informed decision about the future of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For questions, please contact GAOMuseumSurvey@gao.gov or Tania Uruchima at (202) 512-5112 or Jennifer Kim at (213) 830-1115. 

The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) is planning for its 2025 conference to be held in Pittsburgh, October 28-30. MAAM's call for session proposals is posted here with a June 2 deadline. MAAM is also organizing its White Gloves Day of Service around the conference. You can fill out MAAM's Interest Form if you would like to volunteer individually or be a Project Site.

We at PA Museums extend our condolences to V. Chapman-Smith's family, friends, and colleagues. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania recognized V. Chapman-Smith on its website yesterday as an important voice in Philadelphia's history community.

PA MUSEUMS IN THE NEWS

The Post-Gazette reported on expansion plans at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

PhillyVoice shared the opening date for the new Calder Gardens museum on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia; it's a go for September 21.

Good Day PA (ABC27) visited the Conococheague Institute.

GoErie provided an update on the U.S. Brig Niagara's repairs.

BillyPenn was on hand for the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collecting on its Super Bowl wager.

Pittsburgh Magazine unpacked the Frick Art Museum's temporary closure for renovations while the institution's other offerings will still be open to the public.

Vintage Aviation News featured the World War II Weekend coming up at Reading's Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, June 6-8.

WHYY highlighted important loans on the way to the National Constitution Center for exhibits on the 250th.

TribLive explored the Andy Warhol Museum's latest exhibit, Good Business: Andy Warhol’s Screenprints.

Blue Star Museums made headlines in Lancaster County and in Lewisburg.

RECOMMENDED

Non Profit times published Voters, Red and Blue, Want Nonprofits Left Alone.

AASLH shared its 2024 Annual Report.

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