FLORENCE -The deadline to apply for the next round of Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area community grants is Friday, Sept. 15.
Grant awards from $1,000 up to $10,000 are available for heritage-focused projects in MSNHA’s six counties: Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone and Morgan. To be eligible, proposed projects must focus on assessment, preservation activities, interpretation, archiving or workshops and training sessions and be connected to one of the MSNHA’s themes: music, Native American culture or the Tennessee River.
Guidelines, applications and instructions are at msnha.una.edu.
In the previous grant cycle, which closed in April, MSNHA received 15 applications and approved 11 grant awards totaling $53,310. That’s the highest number of applications and awards since MSNHA opened its grants program in 2015.
Those grant awards were for the 51st annual Tennessee Old Time Fiddlers Convention, in Athens, submitted by the Athens State University Foundation; installing ultra-violet protective film on windows of Belle Mont, in Tuscumbia, submitted by the Colbert County Historical Landmarks Foundation; digital and interpretive panels at the Florence Indian Mound Museum; exterior restoration of the Jackson House, in Moulton; Oka Kapassa—Sharing the Legends, in Tuscumbia; removing graffiti from the Old Railroad Bridge, Sheffield; outdoor interpretive signage at Pond Spring, the General Joe Wheeler Home, Hillsboro; African-American oral histories, submitted by Project Say Something and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library; historic district survey, downtown Russellville; interpretative signage for the Tuscumbia Singing River Sculpture Project; and a Cherokee Trail of Tears Walking Tour brochure, Decatur, submitted by the Trail of Tears Association.
“We were thrilled to have so many applications as the word spreads about what the MSNHA is and what we want to do,” said interim director Carrie Barske. “We look forward to growing our grants program and continuing to help preserve, protect and promote northwest Alabama’s cultural heritage.”
For more information on MSNHA or its grants program, email msnha@una.edu or visit msnha.una.edu.
Media Release/Cathy Wood, media coordinator & grants administrator
Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area
