Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository – Kodiak, AK
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The Alutiiq Museum is dedicated to preserving and sharing the culture of the Alutiiq, a Native Alaskan people. The museum seeks to unite Native values and Western academic practice and involves people of many backgrounds in the care of Alutiiq heritage to foster historic preservation, instill cultural pride, and teach tolerance. Through the museum’s “Community Archaeology” and “Site Stewardship” programs, volunteers give thousands of hours to protect and study threatened archaeological sites. Local media help revitalize the Alutiiq language and share cultural lessons through the museum’s “Alutiiq Word of the Week” program. And in partnership with nine remote village schools, the museum helps students preserve and explore artistic traditions in an annual “Rural School Art Show.”

B.B. Comer Memorial Library – Sylacauga, AL
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Library Service
The B.B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga, Alabama was founded in 1936 by community organizations and has since evolved into a public library serving parts of four counties with “cradle to grave” programs and services. The Library partners with over thirty organizations including local business, industry, and community groups to fulfill its mission of “education, enrichment, and entertainment for the people of the greater Sylacauga area.” A caring staff offers special programs for the mentally challenged, seniors in care, at-risk families, and schoolchildren.

Queens Borough Public Library – Jamaica, NY
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Library Service
With 63 locations, the Queens Borough Public Library serves two million people in one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse counties in the U.S. Through aggressive outreach and relevant collections and programs, the library supports the real, everyday needs of the population. Strong partnerships with schools and community groups facilitate outreach to and programs for a wide variety of audiences, including new Americans, latchkey children, and small business entrepreneurs. Queens Borough Public Library empowers the community to use information and knowledge available through the public library to take charge of their lives, governments, and futures.

Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives – Los Angeles, CA
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Library Service
The Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives opened in 1978 with 50 books and a part-time librarian. Today, the Library holds over 40,000 volumes and materials and is an internationally renowned resource center educating the world about the Holocaust and human rights issues. The Archives is a research repository that preserves, digitizes, and disseminates its primary source collection, including photographs, diaries, letters, and artifacts. Librarians typically respond to 500 information requests per week from around the world. The Library and Archives also carries out its mission through a variety of creative outreach programs focusing on awareness of tolerance and diversity.

Urie Elementary School Library – Lyman, WY
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Library Service
Literacy, community, and a love of reading are the goals of the Urie Elementary School Library. This rural primary school library in Wyoming hosts book fairs for the community and technology nights for parents. It enriches the community with storytelling programs, story-buddies for children, an extensive collection of books, hands-on activities, and a welcoming staff. The library is also taking the lead on the road to the Internet in the area, assisting the county public library with developing their own Web site.

Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia – Beckley, WV
Year: 2000
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
Operating in the rugged mountains of the region since 1977, the Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia has grown from its humble origins as a van that traveled from school to school with learning enrichment programs. Now the Museum offers hands-on exhibits, a planetarium, a science room, a recreated pioneer village, and educational programs. A recent museum exhibition, “Page After Page,” inspired young visitors by highlighting West Virginia children’s authors. The pilot “Transition to School Program” is designed to bring special needs preschoolers and their families into the Museum for afternoons of fun, learning, and socialization. The “Artist-in-Residence School Program” has introduced thousands of schoolchildren to the thrill of live theater, native arts-and-crafts, dance, story-telling and traditional Appalachian music.

Lincoln Park Zoo – Chicago, IL
Year: 1999
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
Established in 1868, Lincoln Park Zoo, the last free major cultural institution in Chicago, attracts nearly four million visitors a year. The zoo is a leader in making science education meaningful and relevant for Chicago’s teachers and students. They serve the public through a series of outstanding programs. The Malott Family Zoo Intern program has trained and employed more than 125 underserved city high school students as zoo interpreters. The Zootrition after-school program enrolls approximately 1,100 eight- to twelve- year olds and 85 chaperones and teachers every year. The program is dedicated to nutrition education, particularly for inner-city children. BioLINCS is a three- year teacher development program providing interdisciplinary science literacy training for fifty K-8 teachers in the Chicago Public Schools.

Nevada Museum of Art – Reno, NV
Year: 1999
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
Nevada Museum of Art’s commitment to become a cultural resource for every member of its community drives its programming. By creating innovative programs, the NMA makes the museum experience more accessible to Nevada’s growing community. Youth ArtWorks was developed by the NMA in partnership with the Reno Police Department and Sierra Arts Foundation in 1996 to redirect youth involved in graffiti vandalism. Since then, the program has expanded to embrace school-to-work objectives to educate, train, and mentor youth in the arts. The Hands/ON program creates free intergenerational learning experiences for families and the school services program offers tour and workshop opportunities for public school students presently without visual art educators in the elementary grades. Designed by museum education staff in partnership with elementary school teachers, Art Odyssey aims to make objects in the NMA’s permanent collection accessible to students and educators while integrating art into

St. Simons Island Lighthouse Museum – St. Simons, GA
Year: 1999
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse Museum developed an outstanding county-wide Heritage Education Program. Utilizing all the historic sites and museums in the area, the program assists students in their examination of their community’s history as it relates to them. A week-long workshop for 25 teachers is provided each summer in which they learn hands-on activities that engage and excite children about the history that surrounds them. A comprehensive Heritage Resource Guide developed by museum staff is provided to each teacher and placed in each school throughout the district. Now in its sixth year, the curriculum-based educational initiative is used in every school in Glynn County, Georgia, reaching over 11,000 students and serving a 38% ethnic minority constituency.

Belknap Mill Society – Laconia, NH
Year: 1998
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The Belknap Mill Society is credited with saving the oldest unaltered brick textile mill in the U.S. Equally impressive, the Belknap Mill Society has cultivated a network of partnerships to provide year-round community service, help rehabilitate downtown Laconia, and bring an appreciation of the arts and humanities to the townspeople. The Society is revitalizing its downtown by serving as a meeting place for businesses and families, coordinating publicity with local merchants, participating in city events, and drawing new audiences into the city. The Society led the way in creating a new park, which serves as a venue for concerts and walking tours. Using the park as a catalyst for further downtown revitalization, the Society has positioned itself as a leader in the business and cultural community and has changed Laconia. Citizens take pride in their heritage and work together to create a common vision for the future.

Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village – Dearborn, MI
Year: 1998
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village has developed the Youth Mentorship Program, a small yet intense program targeting twelve at-risk students and families with a combination of job training, community service and mentoring. Through the program, students not only learn valuable job and communication skills, but also gain self-confidence and self-esteem and are ready to give something back to the community. The twelve students commit four hours each day, Monday through Thursday, to working in the Museum. On Friday, students learn from their service projects, which have included work with the local Head Start program, research into domestic abuse in the area, and an exploration of the needs of homeless shelters. Sixty museum staff members volunteer twelve hours a week to teach job skills and mentor the students. A local community resource center provides counseling, parenting classes and other assistance to the students and families. Results have been impressive–student attendance

New Jersey Historical Society – Newark, NJ
Year: 1998
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The New Jersey Historical Society is undergoing a remarkable transformation from an “antiquarian” organization to an “open” institution, by targeting children and adults in Newark who have not visited the Society in the past. The Historical Society has developed a program that reaches children in their worlds-school, after school, family and peers. Its after school program provides a safe place for children to learn, and is based on partnerships with a number of social services agencies and groups. The Society’s new building, which opened this year, was introduced to students as a community resource, a safe place to visit with family and friends. The Society also has a new series of family programs that attracts a new audience of families from the after school groups. In a city where the population faces many economic and social challenges, the students’ willingness to return to the Society for free family programs is a testament to their understanding and commitment to their new “comm

Children’s Museum of Indianapolis – Indianapolis, IN
Year: 1997
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has a long tradition of going beyond traditional museum programs to help its inner city neighbors, both children and adults, be strong, healthy, and vital. Community service activities include free admission for inner city children, after-school activities and clubs for youth, family involvement programs, and construction of a Festival Park with open access to neighbors for gatherings. The Museum also recently allocated staff and funding to establish a community initiatives department, which is collaborating with social services agencies, corporations, and the city to develop a vision for serving the community-including child care, urban beautification, economic and housing development, and a master plan to create a “new village” in the museum neighborhood.

Museum of Fine Arts – Houston – Houston, TX
Year: 1997
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston was established in 1900 as an outreach program for the public schools, since then it has developed into a major art museum. Education and public programming remain at the heart of the museum, and the museum draws upon the diversity of the community. One successful program is “Artists and Schools at Work”, in which local artists, teachers, students at area schools, and community leaders work together to create new works of public art to be displayed at community centers.

National Aquarium in Baltimore – Baltimore, MD
Year: 1997
Amount:
Grant: National Award for Museum Service
From its beginning, the National Aquarium in Baltimore has been committed to serving the diverse needs of the Baltimore community. Programs such as AccessAquarium, Deaf Awareness Day, and First Saturdays and Sundays offer exclusive access to (and activities for) physically and mentally challenged visitors. Unique educational opportunities–on-site tours, gallery and classroom activities–are available to 200,000 Maryland students and teachers. Other partnerships with local citizens include the Henry Hall program’s scholarships; the training of teen-age “ocean ambassadors” in YouthALIVE! – Aquarium on Wheels; and free teacher training and classroom materials for participants in the Adopt-a-School program. Undergraduate and graduate internships and a high school employment/volunteer program are additional offerings for young residents.