Congresswoman Brown Announces Federal Funding for the Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Metroparks

Cleveland, OH – Today, Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are announcing federal Museums for America grants awarded to the Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Metroparks. These two Northeast Ohio recipients were among just 115 recipients nationwide out of 347 applicants.

Cleveland Metroparks will receive $237,120 for the Euclid Beach STEM Adventure Program Expansion. The Cleveland Museum of Art will receive $242,415 for Comprehensive Collections Care.

“Congratulations to Cleveland Metroparks and the Cleveland Museum of Art for being awarded these highly competitive Museums for America grants,” said Congresswoman Shontel Brown. “Our fantastic museums and parks are tremendous assets for our community and these grants will help the Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Metroparks build on their strengths and expand access to art and educational opportunities, from world-class works of art to STEM programs for our nation’s future leaders.”

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. The Museums for America program supports museums of all sizes and disciplines in project-based efforts to serve the public through exhibitions, educational/interpretive programs, digital learning resources, professional development, community debate and dialogue, audience-focused studies, and/or collections management, curation, care, and conservation.

Additional grant and program information:

• Cleveland Metroparks Euclid Beach STEM Adventure Program Expansion: The Cleveland Metroparks North Chagrin Nature Center will expand its Euclid Beach STEM Adventure program, which will include summer camp programs and year-round, out-of-school programs. The nature center will target youth from neighborhoods adjacent to the Park District's Euclid Beach Park with a goal of immersing youth in the natural environment of Lake Erie. The project will support hiring a full-time naturalist educator and two seasonal naturalists. This project builds on a pilot, during which the center developed partnerships with the Greater Cleveland Foodbank to provide meals for participants, and the Collinwood Recreation Center and Cleveland Public Library for classroom space. The program will facilitate cross-disciplinary learning for over 1,200 local youth annually as they explore STEM topics through reading, recreation, and hands-on field activities and experiments that focus on Lake Erie, water quality, and local watersheds.
   
• Cleveland Museum of Art: Comprehensive Collections Care at the CMA: Prints and Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art will undertake a collections inventory and rehousing project to enhance the care of and intellectual control over its collection of approximately 27,000 prints and drawings. The project team will inventory the collection, rehouse works using archival materials, consolidate the collection to enable more effective use of storage space, and improve documentation of the works for integration into the museum's collections management system. The museum will recruit and hire two full-time collections management technicians and one part-time collections information specialist. This project will result in improved care of the collection and better intellectual control for museum staff, which will enable the expanded use of the collection for research, exhibitions, loans, and free online public access to the collection.

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