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Museums Connect

A Museums Connect project “Common Notes: Connecting Folk Traditions through Technology” has created a unique opportunity for high school students in West Virgina and Romania to use technology to learn about each region’s history, culture and folk music. Source: Charleston Gazette. Photo: F. Brian Ferguson

Museums Connect: Building Global Communities

The Museums Connect program strengthens connections and cultural understanding between people in the United States and abroad through innovative projects facilitated by museums and executed by their communities. The program’s mission is to build global communities through cross-cultural exchanges while also supporting U.S. foreign policy goals, such as youth empowerment, environmental sustainability and disability rights awareness.

Through Museums Connect:

  • Communities in the U.S. and abroad develop a broader knowledge about and understanding of one another’s cultures.
  • Museums and related arts and cultural organizations create replicable models for international collaborations that reach beyond their physical walls to directly engage members of their communities.

Awards are offered on an annual basis (contingent on funding) in amounts between $50,000 and $100,000 and require a 50% cost-share match of direct or indirect expenses. Projects must be mutually beneficial, address critical issues and themes, and include community and museum staff travel between participating countries.

Museums Connect does not fund construction or projects focused primarily on staff/institutional development or capacity building, staff-to-staff exchange, traditional exhibit design or object exchange, or artist residencies

Museums ConnectSM is made possible by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the American Alliance of Museums

Visit the American Alliance of Museums site to learn more about applications and finding partners.