Assessment of the IMLS African American History and Culture (AAHC) Grant Program

The Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC) program is one of these six IMLS Office of Museum Services (OMS) grant programs, and it was created by an Act of Congress in 2003 – the same act that created the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. This legislation directed IMLS to create a grant program to improve operations, care of collections, and development of professional management at African American museums. Now in its 13th year of funding grants, AAHC funds projects that nurture museum professionals; builds institutional capacity; and increases access to museum and archival collections at African American museums and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Museums of all sizes and geographic areas whose primary purpose, as reflected in their mission is African American art, life, history, and culture, are eligible to apply for an AAHC grant. The agency now seeks to undertake a systematic assessment to evaluate the performance of the AAHC grant program. The proposed evaluation approach is intended to provide a reasonable balance between scientific considerations for valid and reliable evidence with stakeholder utilization of the acquired knowledge. This investigation is tended to inform IMLS decision-making for current and future grant-making in this grant program, as well as for practices in this segment of the museum sector. This action is to create the survey forms and instructions for the assessment for the next three years.

The latest form for Assessment of the IMLS African American History and Culture (AAHC) Grant Program expires 2023-05-31 and can be found here.