The Library of Congress and the American Folklife Center are thrilled to announce the opening of applications for the third round of Community Collections Grants, with a deadline of August 18, 2023 (2:00 PM Eastern Time).
These grants will support individuals or non-profit organizations in producing cultural documentation–photographs, interviews, audio or video recordings about their community from the community’s perspective. Materials gathered through this program will become part of the Library’s permanent collection, while locally-held copies can enhance (or seed) community archives. This exciting program is part of the larger Of the People: Widening the Path initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation that creates dynamic opportunities for more people to engage with the Library. All activity under the initiative will expand the Library’s efforts to ensure that our historical record reflects a diversity of experiences, thus weaving a more inclusive American story.
Formal Notices of Funding Opportunity can be found on Grants.gov for individuals and for organizations. The due date for applications is August 18, 2023 at 2:00PM Eastern Time. Grants will be up to $50,000, and will support projects of up to 12-months in length.
Support for applicants, including application materials, and links to register for informational webinars can be found here on the Community Collection Grants application webpage.
You can read more about the 2022 Community Collection Grant recipients here, and the 2023 grant recipients here, in addition to in-depth posts about recipients and their projects on this blog.
About the American Folklife Center
Since shortly after its inception in 1976 through the American Folklife Preservation Act (Public Law 94-201), the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has maintained a significant ethnographic archive. Now numbering about 6.5 million items and comprising just over 3400 distinct collections, the AFC archive contains documentation of diverse cultural communities and traditions spanning the late 1800s on through today. Beyond caring for these collections, the AFC has also actively built the collections by conducting large scale folklife survey projects between 1977 and 1998 around the country, training people in cultural documentation methods, and offering financial support through the Archie Green Fellowship program to build the Occupational Folklife Project. The Community Collections grant program builds on—and expands–such efforts.