FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
May 10, 2007
Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, jmjoseth@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
Institute of Museum and Library Services Awards Almost
$5 million
For Critical Conservation at Nation’s Museums
Washington, DC--Anne-Imelda
M. Radice, Ph.D., Director of the U.S. Institute of Museum
and Library Services (IMLS), announced the 65 museum recipients
of the 2007 Conservation Project Support (CPS) grants
totaling $4.9 million. The grant program, which began
in 1984, helps museums identify conservation needs and
priorities and perform activities to ensure the safekeeping
of its collections. Today, Heritage Preservation also
announced participants of their IMLS-supported Conservation
Assessment Program (www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP).
“The Conservation Project Support
awards help museums develop comprehensive strategies for
the care of their collections, safeguarding pieces of
our nation’s story, now and for future generations,”
Radice said. A 2005 report conducted by IMLS and Heritage
Preservation found that immediate action is needed to
prevent the loss of millions of irreplaceable artifacts
held by archives, historical societies, libraries, museums,
and scientific organizations.
In addition to its ongoing support of conservation
through grants, the Institute has launched Connecting
to Collections: A Call to Action. This multi-year conservation
initiative aims to increase public awareness of the importance
of collections care. The initiative will begin in Washington,
D.C., with a June meeting of library and museum representatives
from every state
Conservation Project Support grant recipients
will match their awards with an additional $8.9 million.
This year, the Institute received 172 applications for
a wide range of projects, including conservation treatment,
training, and surveys. Eighteen of the 65 grant recipients
are first-time CPS grantees. Ten of the recipients won
additional funding for a public education component to
their conservation project. Museums nationwide of all
disciplines, from art to zoo, are among today's recipients.
Click here for
a full list of grant recipients by state.
Conservation Project Support grant recipients
include:
The Museum of Northern Arizona, in
Flagstaff, will conduct a detailed condition survey of
100 textiles and 90 to 135 Hopi katsina dolls. The grant
will allow the museum to better assess the effectiveness
and appropriateness of its current storage practices and
develop storage and mounting plans to prevent deterioration.
Grant amount: $8,924. Cost share: $8,924.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation,
in Washington, D.C., will conduct an environmental survey
of the Woodrow Wilson House’s building and existing
mechanical systems to develop priorities for collections
improvements and a strategy for mechanical upgrades. The
Woodrow Wilson House is a national historic landmark and
house that focuses on President Woodrow Wilson’s
Washington Years (1912-1924). Grant amount: $76,022. Cost
share: $77,760.
The Chicago Zoological Society in Brookfield,
IL, will conduct research to learn more about basic behavioral
and physiological patterns of male and female okapi, a
forest-dwelling hoofed mammal. The goal of this project
is to develop management recommendations to improve the
well-being of the captive okapi population. Grant amount:
$249,922. Cost share: $320,174.
The National Museum of Mexican Art in
Chicago will purchase and install new storage furniture
in which to properly rehouse the museum’s folk art
collection. Represented in this collection of more than
700 objects are items indigenous to Mexico such as amate
(hand-made bark paper), papier-mâché or cartoneria
(an ephemeral form of papier-mâché used for
festivals and holiday celebrations), and extremely brittle
ceramics. Grant amount: $83,595. Cost Share: $90,000.
The University of Iowa’s Museum of Art
in Iowa City will use its grant to conduct research on
important components in 15th - 19th-century western paper,
the results of which will allow conservators and other
preservation specialists to make better-informed treatment
and collections care decisions. The project will augment
the William Barrow Laboratory’s pioneering 1974
analysis of 1,500 historical papers, but include certain
analytical techniques not used or unavailable 30 years
ago. Grant amount: $184,740. Cost Share: $220,938.
The Kansas State Historical Society
in Topeka will treat two Kansas Civil War battle flags
carried by Kansas regiments at Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
The flags are painted and depict numerous battle honors.
One of the flags is from the 1st Kansas Battery, commanded
by James Lane, one of the first U.S. Senators from Kansas
and a fervent antislavery soldier. His unit attacked and
looted Osceola, Missouri, an event that incited Confederate
guerilla William Quantrill to later attack the town of
Lawrence, Kansas, where Lane lived, killing 150 men and
boys. Grant amount: $25,837. Cost Share: $25,913.
The Louisiana Museum Foundation in New
Orleans will purchase compact shelving, conservation materials,
and supplies to rehouse the museum’s collections.
These collections will be returned to the museum from
temporary storage where they were stored due to damage
caused by Hurricane Katrina. Grant amount: $150,000. Cost
Share: $1,087,186.
The New Orleans Museum of Art will purchase
and install new storage cabinets to rehouse the museum’s
diverse permanent collections of furniture, photography,
framed works on paper, textiles, small-scale sculpture,
ethnographic, and decorative art that was removed from
storage areas due to damage caused by hurricanes Katrina
and Rita. Grant amount: $94,600. Cost Share: $97,900.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will
treat wooden and polychromed wooden material excavated
from an Egyptian tomb dated to about 2000 B.C. The tomb,
filled with funerary equipment of a local governor and
his wife, comprises one of the largest, most important
reference collections for the study of ancient cultures
along the Nile Valley. Grant amount: $131,537. Cost Share:
$230,003.
The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT,
will provide mid-career on-the-job training for a staff
conservator and an advanced internship for a recent conservation
graduate in folk art conservation. The intern will assist
in the conservation of 27 painted folk art panels from
the museum’s rare intact 1902 carousel built by
the Gustav A. Dentzel Carousel Company, and a 1920’s
Artizan Factories carousel organ. This grant will also
help to design, fabricate, and mount an exhibit on the
conservation of the 900-piece hand-carved Arnold Circus
Parade, the Dentzel carousel animals and rounding boards,
and the Artizan Factories carousel organ. Preventive conservation
actions taken throughout the museum’s 27 collections
buildings will also be highlighted and explained. Grant
amount: $82,029. Cost Share: $89,114.
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