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A Challenge of The Best Kind: Museum
Awarded Matching Grant for Collection Care
By William J. Hennessey, Museum Director
The Chrysler's Permanent Collection is what we are all about.
Every activity and program at the Museum grows out of the
collection and leads back to it. The 30,000 treasures in our
care are a priceless resource that brings delight and inspiration
to visitors and provides us all with a window into other times
and other places.
Ensuring the long-term well being of the collection is one
of the top priorities of the Campaign for the Future.
It is for that reason that I am delighted to be able to announce
that the Chrysler has been awarded at $500,000 Challenge Grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities specifically
to support enhanced collection care.
One of the major goals of the NEH Challenge Grant program
is to leverage a Museum's ability to engage new donors. In
the Chrysler's case we must secure $2 million in additional
funds in the next three years in order to gain access to the
Challenge money. This is a challenge to be sure, but in the
end, when we are successful, we will have raised a total of
$2.5 million that will ensure that our collection is here
for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.
More specifically, the $2.5 million generated through the
Challenge Grant will allow the Museum to create two $1 million
endowments. Income from one will underwrite the salary of
the Museum's conservator. The second endowment will provide
support for an ongoing series of public education programs
designed to highlight the humanistic and scholarly implications
of fine art conservation. An additional $500,000 will be used
to upgrade the Museum's conservation laboratory and to create
a new study/storage area. This will be a place where the public,
curators, and conservators can gather to explore the physical
history, condition, subject matter, and meaning of works of
art from the Museum collection.
A Bright Future: Major Donors Honored
This year's Major Donor Dinner, held November 13, 2003 was
different than in past years. Instead of singling out for
special recognition one organization or person who has made
a particularly significant difference in the life of the Museum,
all major donors were honored. These donors of $2,500 or more
have greatly contributed to the success of the Campaign
for the Future, which has secured pledges of $30 million.
"These gifts are an investment in the future of the Museum.
They provide secure endowment that will support programs and
operations in perpetuity," Museum Director William Hennessey
told the 270 guests who attended the dinner.
The theme of the event was "A Bright Future." "None
of what you see around you would be possible without your
continuing support. This is true now and it will be true in
the future," Hennessey said.
Lack of Storage Makes it Hard to
Access, Care for Collection
The Chrysler Museum has over 30,000 items in its collecion.
But less than 50 percent of these objects are on display at
any one time. The rest of the collection is in storage in
locations within the Musueum building. "What you see
on display is sort of the tip of the iceberg," said Museum
Paintings Conservator Mark Lewis. Part of the reason not everything
is shown is because gallery space is limited. But, also, some
artworks such as prints, drawings, photographs, and textiles
are shown in rotation because they would deteriorate if constantly
exposed to light. One of the fundamental roles of the Museum
is to preserve the art in its care. "We want these things
safely housed in storage so that they will last for hundreds
of years and be available for future generations to enjoy."
Lewis said.
| Because storage is so important,
raising money to improve collection care facilities
is a major goal of the Campaign for the Future.
According to a recent independent assessment, the Chrysler
does not have enough storage space. And, the space it
does have needs to be reconfigured with better furniture
for housing artworks, such as racks and cabinets.
Lack of storage has forced the Museum to turn away
some gifts of art that would have added to the collection,
Lewis said. Tight space and lack of proper storage fixtures
has also prevented staff from being able to safely get
to every piece of art in the collection to study each
one, monitor their conditions and make sure each is
propoerly framed or housed, he said. For example, the
Museum has a lot of oversized contemporary paintings
that should be stored on sliding storage screens. Instead,
they're currently stacked on the floor one against the
other with sheets of corrugated cardboard in between
them. "Not only is it bad for the art, but you
can't get at things if you have paintings stacked 10-deep,"
Lewis said. The Museum needs a system that permits not
just safe storage, but also allows specific works to
be made available to scholars as well as allowing works
to be easily rotated into the galleries where they can
be enjoyed by visitors, he said.
The Campaign's goal is to raise $2 million to improve
its collection care facilities. If this goal is met,
the Museum will get an additional $500,000 from the
National Endowment for the Humanities through a Challenge
Grant. |
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In addition to upgrading storage, this money would create
an endowment to support public education programs on conservation,
and would support the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment
such as an x-ray machine and an infra-red video camera for
the conservation laboratory. These tools help staff determine
an artwork's authenticity, how best to restore and house it,
and how to interpret it for the public. "A number of
technologies are available that will help us better understand
our colleciton and help the ongoing efforts to preserve it."
Lewis said.
For more information, please contact the Campaign office
by e-mail or
call 757-965-2049. |
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