Heritage Preservation is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a National Leadership Grant for Museums, Professional Practices. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funds projects designed to have a broad impact in the museum field through programs such as the National Leadership Grant. When considering which projects will be funded, IMLS looks for innovation and creativity, model projects that can be replicated throughout the field, and collaborative projects that have an extended impact. Professional Practices, a subcategory of the National Leadership Grant, supports projects that create opportunities to improve professional practices through training or the development of new materials. Project design could include direct dissemination of information through workshops, seminars, and courses or indirect communication through publications and web sites.

The Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) plans to meet IMLS goals for National Leadership Grants by conducting a workshop for conservators who act as CAP assessors to aid them in their work with small museums. Since CAP was developed in 1990, more than 1,800 conservation reports have been written for museums throughout the United States. Over the past 11 years, CAP assessors have developed their own styles of conducting site visits, communicating with museums, and report writing. The workshop format will allow conservators to share their experiences and discuss their best practices for conducting CAP surveys. Other topics will include working cooperatively with architectural assessors, using technology in site-visits and reports, and maintaining a connection with the museum after the assessment. CAP also plans to develop training materials, which will be compiled and formatted into a booklet that can be available to future CAP assessors. Heritage Preservation hopes this workshop will help assessors maximize the quality and outcome of the CAP experience for small museums that are awarded grants each year.

Best Practices for General Conservation Surveys will take place as a pre-conference workshop during the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Annual Meeting, June 6, 2002, in Miami, Florida. Robert Martin, Director of IMLS, states, "By combining forces with many of the nation’s museum service organizations, IMLS expands the reach and penetration of federal funds in the museum field. We look forward, again this year, to working with these outstanding organizations."

Heritage Preservation is excited to offer this workshop to conservators and is currently developing a similar workshop for its architectural assessors. Stay tuned to this Web site for more information as the program is developed. For more information on IMLS awards, visit www.imls.gov.

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