Funding Opportunities

The Maine Semiquincentennial Commission, chaired by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, is thrilled to announce the awarding of grants to 14 community groups across Maine. The grants will support communities, organizations, and institutions in commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Funded by the Maine State Archives and the Maine State Cultural Affairs Council, this one-time grant opportunity will assist the selected groups in creating meaningful commemorations that honor Maine’s past and inspire its future. The primary purpose of this grant program is to support inclusive, community-centered research, events, programs, projects, or exhibitions offered by museums, heritage areas, history organizations and sites, other nonprofits, and state, county, municipal, and tribal entities. The grants do not require any fund matching or cost sharing.

Bangor Public Library

America’s History Seen Through a Community’s Neighborhoods is a digital access project that brings Bangor’s remarkable 1935–36 WPA building survey to the public for the first time. In partnership with the Bangor Historical Society, Bangor Public Library has digitized more than 5,750 original photographs and 2,520 mid-century property record cards. The project’s next phase will make this collection widely accessible through a digital archive featuring interactive maps, transforming a historic records collection into a living, neighborhood-level exploration of local and national history.

Brick Store Museum

From Many, One: Results of Revolution is a year-long initiative at the Brick Store Museum commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary by exploring the consequences of the American Revolution through history, art, performance, and community engagement. Serving as a regional hub for southern Maine’s coastal communities, the Museum will connect contemporary audiences to the revolutionary ideals that shaped local lives—and continue to inform civic identity today.

Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust

Salt Bay Farm: A Walk with History is an interpretive signage project at Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust’s Salt Bay Farm Preserve, inviting visitors to explore how natural resources have shaped human life in the Damariscotta region for thousands of years. Set along a popular trail overlooking Great Salt Bay and home to the Trust’s education center, four illustrated signs will connect past and present land use through the stories of oysters, alewives, timber and shipbuilding, and salt hay and fertile soils. The project encourages visitors of all ages to see themselves as part of an ongoing relationship with the natural world, fostering stewardship, pride of place, and a deeper understanding of how local history connects to Maine’s and the nation’s broader story.

Maine Public

Assignment Maine: America@250 is a year-long storytelling initiative from Maine Public that spotlights Maine’s heritage, communities, and civic spirit in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Building on the beloved Assignment Maine series, the project will produce at least ten short documentary films (3–8 minutes each) highlighting stories of place, people, and history from across the state. Together, these visually compelling stories will connect viewers to Maine’s role in the American story, highlighting the power of place, the power of people, and the enduring relevance of civic engagement.

nibezun

Honoring wolamon in pɑnawɑhpskek: the confluence of Wabanaki nations since time immemorial is a Wabanaki-led interpretive signage project at nibezun, a sacred 85-acre site along the Penobscot River in Passadumkeag with direct access to Olamon Island—an ancient Penobscot village and source of prized red ochre and blue clay. For millennia, this place served as a gathering point where Wabanaki peoples met, traded, held ceremonies, and stewarded the land and waters. To share this history with the public, nibezun will convene a spring 2026 storytelling and research gathering with Native knowledge keepers, community members, and partners. Insights from this gathering will inform the design of the site’s first educational trail signs, incorporating Penobscot/Wabanaki language and historical context. The effort will foster greater public understanding of Wabanaki history in Maine while inviting all who visit to experience a deeper relationship with the land.

Osher Map Library & Smith Center for Cartographic Education

Founding Memories: America at 250 — A Lecture Series is a public program at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (USM, Portland) accompanying the exhibition Founding Memories: America at 250. From January through June 2026, OML will host four free evening lectures that explore how Americans have remembered, interpreted, and commemorated the Revolution over time, using maps and material culture as windows into changing ideas about patriotism, progress, and civic life.

Presque Isle Historical Society

250 in 365: Presque Isle’s Year-Long Tribute to 250 Years of U.S. History is a community-wide Semiquincentennial celebration led by the all-volunteer Presque Isle Historical Society. Spanning all of 2026, the initiative features monthly programs, partnerships, and public events that invite residents and visitors of all ages to explore Revolutionary history through lectures, exhibits, readings, hands-on demonstrations, and family activities. Together, these accessible, multi-generational events foster shared understanding, cross-generational dialogue, and a deeper appreciation of the diverse stories that shaped the American Revolution while strengthening community connection and civic pride across Aroostook County.

The Third Place, Inc.

Finding Place: Maine’s Black Presence Then and Now is a multidisciplinary public history and cultural engagement project in Lewiston that centers the long, complex history of Black life in Maine. Bringing together scholars, artists, and community historians, the series highlights the contributions, experiences, and legacies of Black Mainers—both free and enslaved—while connecting past narratives to present-day questions of identity, place, and belonging.

Tides Institute & Museum of Art

Creating a Dynamic Eastport Central Neighborhood National Register Historic District is a preservation, interpretation, and community engagement project centered on Eastport’s historic residential core. The effort will complete and submit a National Register nomination for a 200+ building Neighborhood Historic District by fall 2026, complementing Eastport’s existing Downtown Historic District and recognizing the architectural and cultural significance of the city’s historic neighborhoods. The project extends through the summer with a lecture series on art, architecture, and cultural history; bilingual English and Passamaquoddy signage and banners developed with Passamaquoddy cultural leaders; a walking tour guide; and the creation of a contemplative park. Together, these elements will celebrate Eastport’s layered history, elevate Indigenous perspectives, and create an accessible, place-based experience that connects residents and visitors to the city’s architectural and cultural heritage.

Town of Montville Cemetery Committee

Montville’s Revolutionary War Veteran Program is a community-centered public presentation honoring Montville residents who served in the Revolutionary War and are memorialized in local cemeteries. The program will feature live narratives from local historians, Montville Cemetery Committee members, Historical Society volunteers, and Mt. View High School students, highlighting the lives, genealogies, and military service of 20 area veterans, with special focus on the Penobscot Expedition. Public presentations are planned for Mt. View High School and Montville’s Historic Town House in 2026. The project aims to deepen local understanding of Montville’s role in the Revolutionary War and its place in the broader story of America’s 250-year history.

Viles Arboretum

Sharing the Story of Augusta’s Hospital Farm is a research and interpretive project at Viles Arboretum focused on the history of the property as the working farm of the Maine Insane Hospital (later Augusta Mental Health Institute) from 1840–1960s. The project will develop informational signage along a new 1.27-mile accessible loop trail, providing historical context and honoring the patients who labored on the farm. The resulting signage and interpretive materials will connect visitors to both Maine’s local history and broader narratives of care, labor, and resilience. 

The Wilson Museum

Recentering Wabanaki Narratives in Castine: Five Penobscot Biographies is a public history project that will create five outdoor interpretive panels to highlight the lives and legacies of key Penobscot individuals connected to Castine. The panels will introduce visitors and community members to Madockawando, Pidianiske, Clair Meunier, White Francis, and Charles Norman Shay, exploring their roles in Indigenous history, colonial interactions, and American military service. The project’s goals are to deepen public understanding of the long-term presence and agency of the Penobscot Nation, contextualize European colonial history within millennia of Indigenous history, and honor Penobscot contributions to local and national events, including the Penobscot Expedition.

 Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment

ReDiscovered & ReConnected: Penobscot People in Casco Bay and the Formation of America is a community-centered research project led by Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment (WNC) through its Casco History Lab. This project seeks to recover and amplify Penobscot and Abenaki histories in the Freeport and Casco Bay region, emphasizing their central role in Maine’s past and the founding of the United States.

The project will fund collaboration with Penobscot Nation experts to conduct archival research, interpret archaeological sites, and trace Indigenous lifeways, diplomacy, and military contributions—particularly during the Revolutionary era. The goals are to challenge historical erasure, document Penobscot and Abenaki presence in Casco Bay, and open dialogue about the ongoing relationships between Tribal nations and federal and state governments. Outcomes include creating best practices for archival and land-based collaborations with the Penobscot Nation, expanding public understanding of Maine’s complex history, and connecting Indigenous histories to the land and waters of Casco Bay.

Youth Journalism International

From Independence Hall to the Streets of LA is a youth-led journalism project by Youth Journalism International that engages high school and college students in Lewiston and Auburn to explore what America’s founding values mean to immigrant communities today. Participating students will conduct interviews, produce stories, and record oral histories with young immigrants, highlighting their perspectives and experiences. The resulting work will be published on YJI’s website and shared with the Lewiston Public Library, Androscoggin Historical Society, and Maine MILL. The project will culminate in a public forum where student reporters and their subjects can share their insights, offering a contemporary view of how the ideals of America’s founders resonate with new Mainers.