IMLS just announced its winners for the National Leadership Grants.  Several winners are from New York State.  Queensborough Community College partnering with the Nassau County Museum of Art; Queens Library partnering with the Queens Museum of Art and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan partnering with the Association of Children’s Museums have all received awards.   Congratulations!

Project descriptions can be found the the press release:

IMLS Awards National Leadership Grants to 51 Institutions

$17.9 Million Distributed

Washington, DC-The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal funds for the nation’s museums and libraries, announces the 51 institutions receiving National Leadership Grants (NLG) totaling $17,894,475.  Projects by these institutions will advance the ability of museums and libraries to preserve culture, heritage, and knowledge while enhancing learning.

“Projects funded by IMLS’s National Leadership Grants focus on education, health, computer literacy, and problem solving skills. We believe that museums and libraries play an important role in building a competitive workforce and engaged citizenry. We are equally confident that these institutions will elevate museum and library practice through this work,” said Anne-Imelda Radice, IMLS Director.

NLG recipients will generate new tools, research, models, services, practices, and alliances that will positively impact the awarded institution and the nation. These projects include:

* The Boston TV News Digital Library: 1960-2000, developed by The WGBH Media Library and Archives, will be the first online resource offering a city’s commercial, noncommercial, and community cable TV news heritage to educators and the public. The project, created in collaboration with Northeast Historic Film, Cambridge Community Television, and the Boston Public Library, will establish a new collaborative model for local collecting institutions, create modules for clarifying legal issues relating to TV news collections, and provide curricular context for the study of urban history in classrooms and community institutions.

* The Pathways to Excellence and Achievement in Research and Learning (PEARL) project, created by the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus, will produce a training guide that can be used to create professional development programs to address “expectation gaps” between high school and post-high school pursuits. These programs will focus primarily on the mastery of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, interpreting information, and analytic reasoning.

* Inviting Institutions, a program developed by the Queens Museum of Art and the Queens Library and Quality Services for the Autistic Community, will develop and implement a model community-based art therapy program for Spanish- speaking families of children with autism spectrum disorders.

* The Supporting Early Literacy Learning project will partner the Minnesota Children’s Museum, the Dakota County Library System, Hennepin County Library System, Saint Paul Public Library System, and other institutions to develop and test an innovative early literacy program that will explore new directions in the ways that libraries and museums bring their unique expertise together for successful collaborations.

* The Floral Report Card, a program created in collaboration with the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Northwestern University, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and the University of Washington, will use gardens, citizen science, and technology to teach and engage students with one of the most urgent contemporary issues: climate change.

* The CALTA (Culture and Literacy through Art) project, developed by the Nassau County Museum of Art with the Queensborough Community College, will build on a long-standing partnership to plan an innovative, multi-generational, visual literacy program using visual art as a catalyst for literacy and critical thinking in adult English Language Learners.

* The National Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Program, created by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in partnership with the Association of Children’s Museums, will adapt the NIH’s “We Can!” curriculum to provide community-wide leadership in the fight against childhood obesity for children under 8 and their parents.
Click here to learn more about the 2009 NLG awardees http://www.imls.gov/news/2009/092409b_list.shtm.