Congressman Danny Davis to Appear at Field Museum on Aug. 31 to Present IMLS Museums for America Grants to Four Chicago Area Institutions

• The Field Museum ($119,803), for securing DNA-rich animal tissue samples in the Museum's new cryogenics storage facility, and to expand the accessibility of the samples by updating searchable databases so researchers can efficiently query the collections and make loan requests.
• The Chicago Architecture Foundation ($106,224), for developing and piloting a docent training program in five Chicago neighborhoods. The goal of training community docents to give architecture tours is to strengthen community identity and pride while increasing the neighborhoods' social and economic value.
• Unity Temple Restoration Foundation ($82,852), to provide interpretive opportunities for visitors, including the addition of signage, a new audio tour, updated website, and staffing and training. The project will also fund visitor studies and evaluations to measure the project's effectiveness. (Unity Temple, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is considered endangered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.)
• Gallery 400, a non-profit arts exhibition space at the University of Illinois at Chicago ($82,356), to redesign its website to increase and more deeply engage target audiences and build organizational capacity. The 26-year history of Gallery 400 will be digitized to make it publicly available for the first time.

Congressman Davis will take a short tour of The Field's cryogenics facility, where animal tissue samples are kept frozen and available for DNA analysis. He will also review the other institutions' grant-funded projects at display tables set up nearby.