The effort to create the Sing Sing Prison Museum began in the late 1980s. Initially seen as a boost to the local economy, the concept for the museum dovetailed with the emerging cultural imperative to understand and learn from the troubled history of mass incarceration in the US. Like Alcatraz in San Francisco, which has become a national park dedicated to preserving the stories of those incarcerated at the notorious prison, the museum will be located in historic, unused buildings on the site of Sing Sing Correctional Facility (Sing Sing). Unlike Alcatraz, Sing Sing is still a working, maximum security prison, housing nearly 2,000 men. This grant provides general operating support for the museum as it begins the transformation of historic buildings at Sing Sing into a museum where visitors can come to learn about this prison and its history. Funds from this grant will be matched by the National Endowment for the Humanities.