News and Updates
$2.75 MILLION GRANT AWARDED TO MUSEUM LOAN NETWORK BY KNIGHT FOUNDATION
7 Year-Old Museum Loan Network Program Has Facilitated Long-Term Loan of over 4,000 Objects Among 191 Museums
MLN Online Database Has Increased to Over 8,000 Objects Available for Long-Term Loan
(Cambridge, MA) August 23, 2002 – The Museum Loan Network (MLN) announced today that it has received a $2.75 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to continue its unprecedented program that funds and fosters the long-term loan of art and objects of cultural heritage between institutions throughout the United States. Knight Foundation has supported the MLN with more than $6 million in grants since 1995. This latest grant demonstrates Knight’s continued commitment to the MLN and its mission to help museums create programming that is specifically relevant to local audiences.
Funded by Knight Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts since its inception in 1995, the MLN has facilitated and funded the long-term loan of over 4,000 objects to 191 institutions in 48 states. The MLN has also built an online database of over 8,000 objects that serves as a shared permanent collection for museums nationwide. Through its multifaceted programs, the MLN helps to bring objects out of storage and into public view at different museums, and responds to such challenges facing the museum community as the shrinking availability of many categories of museum objects, the greater control over the import of objects of cultural heritage, and changing public demands for relevant long-term exhibitions.
"This innovative program has proven to be a great success in getting museums to share works with each other and making cultural resources more accessible to institutions of all sizes and disciplines," said Lori Gross, director of the Museum Loan Network. "On behalf of the participating museums and the public - the ultimate beneficiaries - we would like to thank Knight Foundation for its continuing support, which helps to extend and enhance the educational role and impact of museums in communities across the country."
"The enthusiastic participation of the museum community has confirmed the need and value of the MLN program. It is a pleasure to be able to continue support of this outstanding venture," said Hodding Carter III, president and CEO, Knight Foundation. Established in 1950, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities.
The MLN manages two complementary programs: MLN Travel, Survey, and Implementation Grants, which help fund research and loans between institutions; and the MLN Directory, which serves as a free resource and shared permanent collection for museums nationwide. Over the past seven years the Museum Loan Network has successfully implemented and advanced this unique program, which provides institutions of all sizes and disciplines throughout the U.S. with access to the wealth and diversity of resources of our nation's museums.
MLN Travel Grants provide museums with an opportunity to travel to prospective lending institutions to research and identify objects for potential loan; Survey Grants fund the research and identification of a wide range of objects for the MLN Directory - an illustrated online database of over 8,000 objects available for long-term loan by museums around the country; and Implementation Grants are available to borrowing institutions to cover the direct costs associated with actual loans of objects, including programming.
Over the past seven years the MLN has awarded a diverse array of grants to a range of institutions, including: The Skyscraper Museum, New York, NY, to support the conservation and display of the only extant architectural model of the World Trade Center Complex, from the collection of The Octagon—the museum of the American Architectural Foundation—in Washington, DC; Turtle Bay Museums and Arboretum on the River, Redding, CA, for the homecoming presentation of 57 artifacts from the Wintu tribe of Northern California; and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, for the installation of a permanent 9,000 square-foot multimedia African gallery including Egyptian, Nubian, and sub-Saharan objects in addition to contemporary African art. These grants are representative of the broad-range of creative collaborations between institutions of all size and disciplines that the Museum Loan Network supports.
Building on its continuing success, the Museum Loan Network has implemented a range of new initiatives that extend the scope and impact of its grant programs, including: Virtual Exhibitions on the Museum Loan Network Web site, which extend the impact of MLN-facilitated projects and allow viewers to navigate through innovative installations supported by the MLN at museums throughout the United States; Museum as Catalyst for Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Beginning a Conversation, a publication documenting a series of MLN-hosted meetings in 2000/2001 between leaders from different disciplines to explore a number of interrelated issues, challenges, and opportunities affecting collaboration and today's museums; and "Museums, Composers, and Communities," a successful pilot program supported by the Museum Loan Network in partnership with the American Composers Forum, which seeks to bring new music and the creative energy of composers directly into museums and their communities, creating a new model for interdisciplinary collaboration.