On behalf of the Maryland Museum Association (MMA), we respectfully request the inclusion of $5M for the Museum Assistance Program (MAP) in the FY 2025 operating budget. If recognized, this reactivation of the Maryland Historical Trust’s (MHT) Museum Assistance Program (MAP) would build urgently needed capacity within Maryland’s network of underfunded yet vitally important history museums. 

During this fraught time with many states restricting access to knowledge through book bans and restrictive history curriculums, Maryland has the opportunity to be a national leader in advancing inclusive, accurate, and empowering opportunities to engage with history. Our network of history museums is a critical part of the necessary work to bolster our larger cultural infrastructure in Maryland, but we need your support to continue our innovation and public service, leaving no history behind. 

MMA is a volunteer-managed alliance of institutions that collect, hold, interpret, and protect the material and cultural heritage of the Old Line State. We advocate for state museum funding, equity in the profession, and authentic interpretation of our shared histories in service of increased cultural understanding. MMA is helping coordinate a statewide advocacy initiative to reinstate funding for MAP and provide state funding to Maryland history museums when we need it most. 

MAP served the state’s then 300 (now 454) historical and cultural museums by providing operating grants, technical assistance, and networking opportunities from 1991 until 2011 – when the funding stopped. In 2016, the Maryland General Assembly required a report by MHT regarding museum and preservation funding. The #1 recommendation of that report was to reinstitute and fund MAP, which is still in statute at MHT despite receiving no funding for 12 years. 

Unlike other state-funded arts and environmental grant programs with identified funding sources, MAP was variable and subject to discretionary spending throughout its operation. Funding appropriated to MAP ranged from $200,000 to $2,250,000 at its peak over a decade ago. The State of Maryland is a national leader in supporting our fragile environmental resources and dynamic fine arts museums, but our lack of operating grants for historical museums and collections makes us an outlier in our region. 

In FY 2022, the New Jersey Historical Commission provided $4M in operating support grants to history museums. This year in FY 2023, the State of Pennsylvania is setting aside $15M in ARPA funding to provide operating grants to history and cultural museums. In FY 2022 and FY 2023, the State of Connecticut provided $24.6M in operating support to history and cultural museums. 

This type of operating support translates into the critical day-to-day activities that museums undertake to care for their collections and make them accessible to the public, including: 

• Competitive salaries for professional curators, historians, collections managers, and educators; 

• Specialized climate control, energy, security, and storage costs needed to preserve collections; 

• Outreach to incorporate community members and their voices into the work of museums; 

• Marketing and program costs to animate collections and bring history to life for all Marylanders. 

Without this essential and steady support, history museums of all sizes struggle to maintain baseline operations. Through a recent survey by MMA, we know that the majority of Maryland museums are housed within historic structures, they often do not have a historic structures report to prioritize maintenance, nor an emergency plan or succession plan. For example, struggling with heating costs and porous buildings, one local museum closes their facility in the winter sparing staff the cold but subjecting their archival collections to drastic temperature fluctuations that will ruin them over time. 

Our larger institutions struggle with frequent staff turnover losing invaluable institutional knowledge to state and federal cultural agencies offering higher salaries and benefits. In the worst-case scenarios, museums such as the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art or the Catonsville Historical Society have radically reduced their operations or shutdown altogether due to a lack of support and failing infrastructure. When a museum closes, their collections are frequently dispersed outside of their communities or into the hands of private collectors, and the fate of their historic structures becomes unknown or imperiled. 

A $5M appropriation for MAP in FY 2025 comes at a critical time as Maryland’s history museums struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic—all while sharing irreplaceable collections and providing educational opportunities available nowhere else. As we prepare for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in 2026, our state’s history museums need dedicated operating support to participate in a sustainable and meaningful way that advances diverse stories. We urge you to include this recommendation in your formal budget. Long-term, MMA aims to work closely with the Moore administration to identify a recurring funding source for MAP to bring stability to the sector and match the support peer states provide their history museums. 

Maryland’s history museums are national leaders that create space for dialogue, strengthen communities, and engage citizens of all backgrounds in telling our state’s diverse story. We know they have an important place in your vision of a Maryland that leaves no one behind. We are here to provide additional information and look forward to working with you. MAP already exists in statute within MHT and only requires funding prioritization to make a transformational impact on our history museum sector. MMA and the undersigned institutions thank you for your consideration and belief in this important work. 

• The state legislature created the Museum Assistance Program in 1990 to provide funding and technical assistance to museums; it remains in statute.

• Between 1991 and 2011 the Maryland Museum Assistance Program supported 125 museums with grants with awards ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.
  
  

• From 2001 to 2004, MAP provided general operating support for 35 museums, allowing them to address important administrative needs. In its last year of funding, 2013, the Program offered technical assistance to 35 museums.
  
  

• The Museum Assistance Program was always overwhelmingly popular, with demand holding steady at two to four times the available funds.
  
  

• The majority of Maryland’s museums are small non-profits, and some are unstaffed or staffed only by volunteers. Mid- and long-range planning will help a museum of any size set priorities and develop new capacity for education, equity, and the upcoming America 250 in 2026.
  
  

• The return of the Museum Assistance Program to the Maryland Historical Trust is the simplest solution to the challenge of providing support for the state’s history museums. Always a lean and efficient program, this approach would require the creation of no new legislative or implementation mechanisms.

• There are nearly 300 museums in Maryland including in every county.
  
  

• The Museum Assistance Program, alone among State funding programs, can support planning and staff salaries. Disaster planning for sites and collections is also difficult to fund through other project-focused grant channels
  
  

• The program appropriation fluctuated annually. Museum Assistance Program grant funding peaked in FY2007 and FY2008: in those two years together, over $3.5 million was made available for more than 80 projects.
  
  

• Maryland currently has no program funding or staff dedicated to supporting the important work of the state’s historical and cultural museums.
  
  

• The Museum Assistance Program has enabled Maryland’s history museums to provide educational services to more than 600,000 Maryland schoolchildren both in museums and through classroom programs.
  
  

• History museums are ineligible for most Maryland State Arts Council grant programs – including their operating grants – as their work is outside of its core mission.