Visiting the Institute of Museum and Library Services at the Society of American Archivists conference in Chicago in August.
l to r: IMLS 21st-Century Librarian Program Officer Kevin Cherry, DHC Executive Director Libby Smigel, and DHC Board Chair Nena Couch, curator of the Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio State University.
Download the PDF version
The Dance Heritage Coalition is pleased to announce it has received a generous grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support Fellowships in Preservation and Archives for master's degree students.
The DHC's award is the first time that a grant in this IMLS grant program has supported a dance-specific project, and only two other awards in the history of the grant program have singled out performing arts librarianship. In this year's competition, out of the 114 applications, only 24 grants were conferred. "Dance is a part of our nation's rich cultural heritage," said Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director. "It is important that we share this knowledge and ensure these valuable resources are available to the widest audiences."
Nena Couch, board chair of the Dance Heritage Coalition and curator of Ohio State University's Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, was delighted by the announcement of the grant recipients: "The Laura Bush grant is providing a wonderful opportunity to the Dance Heritage Coalition to recruit and train a cohort of dance archivists who will move us ahead in reaching underserved library constituencies and will become the leaders in making access available to dance collections that are an important part of our nation's life."
The Fellows project is modeled on a smaller Fellowship program that the DHC has run since 2001, which supported only one or two Fellows each year. The IMLS funds will support a group of as many as seven students for each of the three summers from 2012 to 2014. Students will receive training in dance-related librarianship and archival practices at one of the DHC nationally distinguished dance archives, a practicum placement at a smaller dance collection like a dance company or historical society, and travel to national conferences. Fellowships for Summer 2012 will be $10,000 each.
DHC Executive Director Libby Smigel commented on the significance of receiving the award: "Through this grant, the IMLS staff and its reviewers have shown great confidence in our work to organize and preserve dance legacy materials. I believe the outstanding accomplishments of our Fellows in the past 10 years spoke convincingly to the impact that this program will have for the Fellows, the DHC, and - most significantly - for the small-size dance collections that otherwise have little access to archival assistance."
The DHC will receive $526,000 from the IMLS, and must raise a match of $280,000 additional funding and in-kind contributions over the next three years for a total project cost of over $800,000. Full instructions for applying for the Summer 2012 Fellowships are available at new.danceheritage.org/apply.html. This page will have descriptions of sample Fellowship projects by October 15. To be added to the email contact list, send an email with name, library school, email and phone to DHC@danceheritage.org with "Fellows Contact List" in the subject line.
See the list of Fellows from 2001 to 2011 and their accomplishments here. new.danceheritage.org/previous.html
Follow the blogs of two current DHC Fellows (Kat Bell and Rachael Riggs Leyva) working with Dance Companies.
Kat Bell: preservingdtharchives2011.wordpress.com
Rachael Riggs Leyva: bbmarchives2011.wordpress.com
Read the IMLS news announcement here.
The Dance Heritage Coalition is the sole national nonprofit organization that works to document and preserve the records of America's dance legacy and to ensure access to the materials for use by scholars and critics, faculty and their students, and the general public. new.danceheritage.org
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. www.imls.gov