In the Fall of 2001, the New Mexico Association of Museums and the Museum of New Mexico received a Leadership Grant from the Institute of the Museum and Library Services to improve the infrastructure for cultural resource sharing in the state of New Mexico.

The Museum Infrastructure Project had the following goals:

1) Enable the staff of small museums to meet current professional standards for collections care.

• Provide a series of professional development workshops for small museum staff on museum security, collections care, exhibitions, and museum environments. 110 Museums have taken advantage of these workshops during 2002 and 2003. See map.
• Assist small museums that have not already participated in a Conservation Assessment (CAP) to apply for a CAP grant and to provide guidance to museums that have had CAPs to produce a long-range preservation plan pertaining to facilities upgrades.

2) Increase cultural sharing between museums of all sizes with particular emphasis on increasing the ability of small museums to host traveling exhibitions from the Museum of New Mexico.

• Provide environmental monitoring equipment for NMAM members. NMAM has two environmental Monitoring Kits that members may borrow for shipping and transportation costs to your site. For more information contact the NMAM Board Vice President.
• Promote Traveling Exhibitions as a way of sharing cultural resources.

3) Improve communications between museums large and small, through the use of electronic communications technology.

• As a member of NMAM you may also be part of the NMAM-List: To subscribe send a blank message to: NMAM-L-subscribe-request@unm.edu or click here.
• Encourage on-going mentoring relationships between project participants and workshop leaders.
  

4) We have also begun a NMAM Lending Library that is available to NMAM members free of charge. Members interested in getting a book list or borrowing book should contact: codenheim@frh.state.nm.us. Books may be borrowed for six week periods.