https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/oha/maritime/amhpp.htm
A New Program for Alaska’s Maritime Heritage Preservation
To preserve and interpret Alaska’s rich maritime heritage the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the State Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAM) announce the launch of the Alaska Maritime Heritage Preservation Program. This program is designed to protect Alaska’s maritime resources and advance public awareness of Alaska’s nationally significant maritime properties, collections, traditional skills, and knowledge.
Alaska Maritime Heritage Preservation Program goals:
- Building a network of statewide partners dedicated to preserving Alaska’s rich maritime heritage and increasing public appreciation for Alaskans’ long and multifaceted relationship to the water.
- Continuing support and resources for projects that identify, document, and interpret Alaska’s maritime resources, such as historic, cultural, and archaeological properties, archival documents, oral history, folklore, and traditional lifeways.
- Increasing the visibility of Alaska’s maritime past (and present) by preserving and interpreting archaeological and historical properties and maritime cultural landscapes along Alaska’s vast coastline.
- Sharing the stories of Alaska’s longstanding human history that left a legacy of tangible maritime heritage and a diverse, yet often underrepresented, maritime culture.
- Encouraging the protection of Alaska maritime physical resources, collections, and seafaring and ecological knowledge to enhance understanding of Alaska’s maritime legacy and lessons learned for future generations.
New Program New Opportunities
The Alaska Maritime Heritage Preservation Program will offer Alaskans two new grant opportunities for preservation and education projects. Of the total $342,500 federal award, $15,000 will support in-house projects at the Alaska State Museum. The remaining $327,500 will be subgranted to support preservation and education projects statewide. The in-house and subgrant programs will empower communities to safeguard and share a maritime heritage associated with their unique region, culture, and lifeways.
Who Can Apply
The new competitive grant program will provide support, expertise, and resources to state governments, cultural and academic institutions, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, local governments, individuals, and Tribes throughout Alaska’s varied geographic and cultural regions.
Minimum and Maximum Grant Awards
Applicants for preservation grants can request from $10,000 to $50,000 and applications for education grants can request from $5,000 to $50,000. The SHPO anticipates $100,000 in available funds for preservation projects and $227,500 for education projects.
Matching Requirement
Yes. Both the preservation and education grants are 1:1 matching requirements. Each federal dollar must be matched by one non-federal dollar. Match may be in the form of cash or in-kind donations of time, goods, or services. So, a grant proposal for $10,000 must support a $20,000 project.
When to Apply
The SHPO will accept maritime preservation and education grant applications from August 1, 2023, to November 1, 2023. Projects should be ready to commence by February 1, 2024, and be completed by September 30, 2025.
Alaska Maritime Heritage Preservation Grants
The Program’s Preservation grants are for projects that advance Alaska’s maritime heritage through public education for a wide audience and at least one of the following elements:
1) Identify, document, and evaluate archaeological and historic marine resources;
2) Research, record, and plan for marine resource preservation;
3) Acquire historic marine properties for preservation purposes; or
4) Repair, rehabilitate, stabilize, or maintain historic maritime resources with limited reconstruction or other capital improvements per the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation and Standards for Historic Vessel Preservation Projects.
Eligible project examples include but are not limited to surveys that identify localized marine resources, National Register nominations, feasibility studies, architectural and engineering services, and acquisition of marine resources for preservation purposes.
To learn more about Alaska’s Maritime Preservation Grant, contact: State Historian Katie Ringsmuth at katie.ringsmuth@alaska.gov.
Alaska Maritime Heritage Education Grants
The Program’s Education grants are for projects that advance Alaska’s maritime heritage through public education and at least one of the following elements:
1) curation, interpretation, and public access to collections;
2) Planning, developing, interpreting, and maintaining definable geographic areas encompassing one or more cultural and historic themes expressed through the area’s remaining historic maritime properties;
3) Developing and implementing waterborne-experience programs that include instruction and hands-on participation;
4) Participatory programs interpreting current scholarship to enhance public understanding and appreciation of Alaska maritime history;
5) Activities designed to encourage preserving traditional maritime skills and teach continuing generations those skills, techniques, and methodologies, or
6) minor improvements to existing educational facilities and exhibit spaces of maritime museums, organizations, or historical societies.
Eligible project examples include but are not limited to participatory archaeology, treatment of and access to maritime collections, interpretive signage, walking tours, podcasts, oral histories, story maps, exhibitions, lecture series, poetry readings, storytelling, public demonstrations, shipwright workshops, art classes, sea shanties, and minor improvements to existing educational facilities and exhibit spaces.
To learn more about Alaska’s Maritime Preservation Grant, contact: State Historian Katie Ringsmuth at katie.ringsmuth@alaska.gov or Alaska State Museum Curator Mary Irvine at mary.irvine@alaska.gov.
How To Apply
Program staff held a “how to apply” interaction session via Microsoft Teams. The virtual session provided technical assistance to prospective applicants, discussed differences between the two grants, highlighted eligible projects, and explained the grants’ matching requirements. A section session will take place in early September. To view the recording click HERE.
To set up a Maritime Education or Preservation grant consultation with program staff, or request an invite to the next Maritime Grants Learning Session, email dnr.oha@alaska.gov.
Underwater Archaeology and Maritime History jobs 