21st Century Museum Professionals Program (2025)

The 21st Century Museum Professional (21MP) grant program supports projects that offer professional development to the current museum workforce, train and recruit future museum professionals, and identify and share effective practices in museum workforce education and training. IMLS recognizes the important role of strong local and regional networks in providing peer-to-peer learning, training, and mentoring opportunities for the museum workforce. Partnerships among museums, museum-serving organizations, and institutions of higher education are vital to expanding career pathways for broad groups of museum professionals throughout a city, county, state, region, or the nation. The 21MP Program encourages applications from museum associations, museum studies programs at institutions of higher education, and museums that serve as essential parts of the professional learning and training environment.