Center for Community Heritage Resources
Utah Organizations
Museum Professional Associations & Networking Opportunities
Grant Sources
Museum & Heritage Resource Management Training Opportunities
Performance Standards & Assessment Programs
Organizational Operations
Digital Resources
Collections Management
Preventive Conservation & Disaster Preparedness
Exhibits & Interpretation
Exhibit & Storage Supplies
Education Resources
Oral History
Utah Organizations
Utah Humanities. Non-profit organization that empowers Utahns to improve their communities through active engagement in the humanities. UH offers a variety of programming, training, and grant opportunities, including workshops (museum interpretation, oral history, grant writing), and touring exhibitions from the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program.
Utah Division of Arts and Museums / Office of Museum Services. State agency that offers technical assistance, professional development, field services, museum grants, scholarships, research on the Utah museum sector, and special events. Sign up for electronic newsletter to get notified of opportunities.
Utah Division of State History. State agency dedicated to preserving and sharing Utah's past for present and future generations. Provides historic consultation, an annual conference, grants, History Day youth competition, historical research library, and amazing online historical resources specifically about Utah.
Utah Division of Archives & Records Service. State agency that manages records created by state and local government in Utah, including historic records. Occasional grants for historical records care and digitization.
Preservation Utah. Non-profit that works to preserve historical buildings through education, public awareness, and resources.
Utah Nonprofits Association. Provides workshops around the state on a variety of nonprofit topics, consultant list, annual conference, and a job board for all Utah nonprofits. Membership has additional benefits and discounts.
Utah Cultural Alliance. Sponsors panel discussions, advocacy, and legislative forums for Utah’s cultural organizations. Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.
Now Playing Utah. Provides free publicity for museums and special events.
Museum Professional Associations & Networking Opportunities
Utah Museums Association. Membership organization that connects museums to professional resources and best practice, and serves as an advocate for Utah museums. Professional development opportunities available at annual conference and networking events. Stay connected through website, blog, and electronic newsletter.
Western Museums Association. Membership organization that conducts annual conference each autumn for western states museums. Provides professional development, support, and resources for museums in their communities.
American Alliance of Museums. National membership organization with annual conference each spring, as well as publications, and many resources for the museum sector.
American Association for State and Local History. National membership organization that is an excellent source of information for small museums and historic sites, including StEPs self-assessment program, technical leaflets, online training and workshops, as well as annual conference in the fall. Connect to AASLH affinity groups including Small Museums, Visitor Voices, and others.
Small Museum Association. National organization for small museums.
Grant Sources
Utah Humanities / Grants. Grants for projects that directly involve the humanities and directly engage the community (e.g., oral history, interpretation, education, and many others). Technical assistance available and encouraged.
Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Grants for museum and arts organizations general operating support and projects.
Utah Division of State History. Grants for cemetery inventory, capital project, and CLG heritage projects.
Utah Division of Archives & Records Service / Utah State Historical Records Advisory Board. Grants for historical records conservation.
Institute of Museum and Library Services. Grants for a variety of museum projects and links to online resources.
National Endowment for the Humanities. Grants for collections care and preservation, exhibits, education programs, and digitization.
Museum & Heritage Management Training Opportunities
Utah Division of Arts & Museums / Office of Museum Services. This state agency offers workshops, training, and technical assistance throughout the year. See museums.utah.gov for more information or visit its Pinterest page for resources. Contact Emily Johnson, Museum Services Specialist, to be added to the newsletter list for up to date information.
Utah Humanities Heritage Workshops. This program supports Utah cultural organizations with free regional workshops that provide hands-on training in oral history, grant-writing, exhibit development, and more. Onsite mentored projects give participants the opportunity to apply their new skills.
Connecting to Collections On-line Community. Free live webinars and archived webinar recordings, resource lists, discussion forums. Partnership with IMLS, Heritage Preservation, AASLH.
Campbell Center. Offers courses in collections care, historic preservation, and conservation. Located in Illinois. Tuition for most courses includes lodging and meals.
Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts. Active calendar of webinars on a variety of preservation and preventive conservation topics, as well as periodic in-person workshops.
Museum Learning Hub. Nationwide initiative organized by the six U.S. regional museum associations and dedicated to providing free, self-paced training resources for small museums.
Museum Study. Online professional development in the form of courses in Administration, Exhibits and Public Programming, Facilities Management, Collections Management, and Preservation.
Northern States Conservation Center. Provides collection care services and offers a plethora of online museum classes.
Northeast Document Conservation Center. Specializes in preservation of paper-based materials and digitization. Free resources, leaflets, live webinars, as well as assessments and training.
Performance Standards & Assessment Programs
Utah Division of Arts & Museums / Preservation Assessment Service. An on-site, facilitated walk-through of your museum focusing on improvements for collections care and practices.
AASLH StEPS Program. Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations (StEPs) is a voluntary assessment program for small- and mid-sized history organizations that encourages awareness and achievement of national standards.
AAM Continuum of Excellence. AAM’s Continuum of Excellence provides multiple entry points and customized assistance for museums of all sizes to reach higher levels of professionalism.
Museum Assessment Program (MAP). Helps small and mid-sized museums strengthen operations, plan for the future and meet national standards through self-study and a site visit from a peer reviewer. MAP grants provide $4,000 of consultative resources and services to participating museums.
Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP). Grants for small and mid-sized museums to conduct general conservation assessments of their sites and collections.
Organizational Operations
StEPs-UT Workshop Series. Partnership between Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Utah Humanities, and Utah Division of State History based on the AASLH Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations (StEPs) to offer training and resources in six areas of organizational operations. Workshop materials are open source for educational use.
Small Museum Toolkit. Set of six books from Alta Mira Press: Book One – Leadership, Mission, and Governance; Book Two – Financial Resource Development and Management; Book Three – Organizational Management; Book Four – Reaching and Responding to the Audience; Book Five – Interpretation: Education, Programs, and Exhibits; Book Six – Stewardship: Collections and Historic Preservation.
Board Source. Nonprofit boards play a critical role in overseeing their organization's mission, finance, and strategic direction. Find trainings, online publications, and other resources (many of them free) to help your museum.
The Participatory Museum. Practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, essential places. Book by Nina Simon available for purchase and download.
Thinking about Starting a Museum? A discussion guide and workbook on museums and heritage projects from Museums Alberta that provides an overview of museum functions and required resources, as well as tools for identifying goals and needs.
Digital Resources
Mountain West Digital Library. A central hub for digital collections of the Intermountain West.
Utah Digital Newspapers. A central hub for historic Utah digital newspapers.
Omeka. Freeware for online exhibits.
Collections Management
Museums & Galleries NSW. Policy templates, fact sheets and technical information geared to small museums on collection management, conservation, storage, and many other issues.
AMaGA Victoria Resources. Resources specifically for small museums, including collections policy template, interpretive policy template, and information sheets on variety of topics.
Nomenclature. Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging is a structured and controlled list of object terms organized in a classification system to provide a basis for indexing and cataloging collections of human-made objects.
Small Museums Cataloging Manual (5th edition). An excellent resource designed specifically for small museums about how to register and catalog collections.
Significance Assessment. Roadmap for research and a tool for going beyond descriptive cataloging to establish the meaning of an object and make a judgment about why it is important.
Guidelines for Collaboration. Resource for museums and Indigenous communities planning and carrying out collaborative work involving tangible and intangible heritage.
Standards for Museums with Native American Collections. A guide to all aspects of work within museums holding Native collections from the School for Advanced Research.
Preventive Conservation & Disaster Preparedness
Connecting to Collections Care. Connecting to collections care online community hosted by the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation -- free webinars, recordings, and other resources for small to mid-sized museums.
reCollections: Caring for Collections Across Australia. Written by practicing conservators and intended to provide a sound guide for the preventive care of cultural items.
American Institute for Conservation (AIC). Resources on how to find a conservator, how to care for treasures, frequently asked questions.
Department of the Interior Museum Program. Offers the Museum Property Handbook Volume I: Preservation and Protection of Museum Property and Museum Property Handbook Volume II: Documentation of Museum Property. Home of the classic NPS ConservOGrams brochures on collections care.
Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute. Has links to sources for care of specific items.
Exhibits & Interpretation
Utah Humanities / Museum Interpretation Workshop Series. Workshop materials to help you learn how to research, design, create, an evaluate interpretive exhibits and educational activities. Workshop materials are all open source for educational use.
Exhibit Makeovers. Book by Alice Parman with worksheets and directions to purchase.
Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Book by Beverly Serrell on just what it says.
Everyone's Welcome: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Museums. Book by John Salmen on how to use Universal Design and make museums and exhibits compliant with ADA.
John Veverka & Associates Interpretive Consultants. Great resource for interpretive planning, training, and evaluation.
National Association of Interpretation. Nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing the profession of heritage interpretation.
Exhibit & Storage Supplies
Archival Exhibit and Storage Supplies
Gaylord Brothers.
University Products.
Hollinger Metal Edge.
Cases, Mounts, Display Furniture
Acrylic Display Manufacturing - Acrylic Display Cases.
Advance Displays & Store Fixtures (Utah based).
Art Display Essentials - Display Furniture and Stands.
Displays2Go.
Custom Printing, Posters, Signage
Life-Size Cardboard Cutouts.
PosterBurner.
Education Resources
Museum Education Roundtable. Provides scholarship and professional learning for museum educators to inform, engage, and inspire through comprelling educational experiences.
Museum Ed – Connecting the Museum Educator Community. Provides tools, resources, and docent training by and or the museum education community.
National Park Service: Teaching with Historic Places. Offers free tools and classroom-ready lesson plans for teachers of all levels to teach and learn about history, historic preservation, and American heritage and culture.
Smithsonian Learning Lab. Resources, training, and support to assist caregivers, teachers, and students as they face new learning challenges.
Utah State Core Curriculum. Utah core standards by subject area and grade.
Visitor Studies Association. Provides reseources and tools related to the learning experience in informal settings.
Oral History
Oral History Association. A membership organization with goals, guidelines, and evaluation standards for oral history interviews. Provides tools and resources related to oral history best practices.
Storycorps. Organization with a commitment to collecting, sharing, and preserving people's stories. Provides resources and tools to help lead a successful oral history interview.
