WASHINGTON – The National Park Service (NPS) today announced $25.7 million in Save America’s Treasures grants to fund 59 projects that will preserve nationally significant sites and historic collections in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
“The Save America’s Treasures program began 25 years ago and continues to enable communities across the United States to preserve and conserve their nationally significant historic properties and collections,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “It’s fitting to celebrate this milestone anniversary through a wide range of projects that help to pass the full history of America and its people down to future generations.”
Since 1999, the Save America’s Treasures program has provided over $405 million from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) to more than 1,400 projects to provide preservation and conservation work on nationally significant collections, artifacts, structures, and sites. Previous awards have gone toward restoring the Park Inn Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the USS Intrepid, an Essex class carrier on display in Manhattan; and the Saturn V Launch Vehicle, a three-stage rocket designed for a lunar landing mission.
Today’s award of $25,705,000 will be matched by almost $50 million in private and public investment. NPS partners with the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to award the grants.
“Capturing and preserving our diverse American stories by appreciating historic sites and collections helps us to better understand our past. Historic sites and collections help us ask and answer important questions crucial to how we continue to shape our world,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support the Save America’s Treasures program and the crucial funding it provides to conserve and protect our cultural treasures, ensuring their accessibility for future generations.”
Established in 1977, the HPF has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and non-profit organizations. Administered by NPS, HPF grant funds are appropriated by Congress annually to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural and historic resources.
The HPF, which uses revenue from federal offshore oil and gas leases, supports a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars. The intent behind the HPF is to mitigate the loss of nonrenewable resources through the preservation of other irreplaceable resources.
Applications for next year’s round of the Save America’s Treasures Grant Program will open in the fall of 2024. $25.5 million in funding will be available. Visit the NPS website for the full list of preservation and collections projects.
Examples of some of the arts-related collections projects include:
- ChromaDiverse will preserve, digitize, and make available to the public Margaret Elizabeth “Marbeth” Schnare’s photographs of Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). Project activities include inventorying, transporting, digitizing, and storing the collection, which includes 6,000 DTH photographs in print and 35mm negative formats, as well as approximately 100 documents. The project will involve the development of a curated website, along with the creation and implementation of a marketing strategy to showcase the collection to audiences online. Once preserved and made accessible, the collection will be a resource for general audiences and scholars interested in Dance Theatre of Harlem, classical ballet, African American history, and the cultural life of Harlem and New York City. The grantee will provide $147,266 in matching funds.
- The Philbrook Museum of Art will conduct a project to safeguard and preserve its Native art collection, which includes works of 20th-century basketry, pottery, paintings, and jewelry from across Indian Country. Project activities include the installation of fire suppression and new smoke detection systems, and outfitting storage and gallery areas with security cameras and access control panels. The preservation of the museum’s Native holdings will ensure the collection is available for lay visitors and cultural researchers for generations to come and will continue to elicit conversations about Oklahoma’s complex history with Native peoples. The grantee will provide $468,119 in matching funds.
- The Allentown Art Museum will conserve and install two monumental stained-glass windows designed by artist Agnes F. Northrop (1857-1953) for the Tiffany Studios of New York. Northrup worked with Tiffany Studios for nearly a half-century, leading the Women’s Glass Cutting Department known as the “Tiffany Girls,” a cadre of talented artisans who were involved behind-the-scenes in the execution of many of the firm’s prestigious works, from lamps to mosaics. Conservation efforts include repairing or replacing broken pieces of glass, repairing lead channels between glass pieces, and installing the windows in the museum’s New American galleries. The works will have new interpretive language that narrates Northrup’s largely untold story for a broad audience, expanding understanding of the American Arts and Crafts movement. The grantee will provide $167,339 in matching funds.
For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit nps.gov/stlpg.
