News and Updates
MUSEUM LOAN NETWORK AWARDS GRANTS TO FUND THE LONG-TERM LOAN AND SURVEY OF OBJECTS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE AT MUSEUMS ACROSS THE U.S.
Latest Grants Continue MLN’s Mission to Help Museums Serve Their Communities with Enhanced Installations and Programming
(Cambridge, MA) August 7, 2003 – The Museum Loan Network (MLN) has awarded grants totaling $339,677 to 16 institutions, funding the long-term loan of 127 objects of cultural heritage between museums of diverse size and discipline. In addition to supporting the exchange of works, this latest grant cycle will also fund the research and cataloguing of over 14,000 objects, 1,450 of which will be included in the MLN’s illustrated online database of over 10,000 objects available for long-term loan to museums.
Since its inception in 1995, the MLN has awarded 304 grants to 210 institutions in 156 cities in 51 states and territories, bringing the total funding awarded to $4.8 million. Over the past eight years, the MLN has funded and facilitated innovative collaborations between different types of institutions throughout the United States, enriching the cultural vitality of communities. Through two complementary components—the MLN grant programs and the MLN Directory—the Museum Loan Network works with a broad spectrum of museums to create opportunities for institutions to enhance their permanent collections and present long-term exhibitions that are relevant to their audiences.
"This latest round of grants continues to advance the MLN’s mission to foster the exchange of objects between museums, when access to and movement of our nation’s cultural resources is becoming increasingly limited," comments Lori Gross, director of the Museum Loan Network. "In addition to serving as an important advocate for collaboration, MLN grants also support the much-needed survey and research of works in storage at museums. Long-term loans facilitated through the MLN Directory allow these works to be brought into public view at other institutions."
Among the 16 new grants, the MLN is funding and facilitating the following grants:
• Save Ellis Island!, Inc. (Gladstone, NJ) for the loan of 16 medical artifacts relating to the immigrant health experience from the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, and the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania. All of these objects are from the period of greatest immigration through Ellis Island (1910-1930) and will be featured in their inaugural exhibition exploring the subject of public health in connection with the immigrant arrival experience, as well as the historical significance of the Ellis Island hospital complex.
• Dennos Museum Center (Traverse City, MI) for the loan of thirty-four 18th – early 20th century American paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts, which will create new opportunities for collaboration with Traverse City educational and cultural institutions, as well as for partnering with regional organizations on related programming. The loan will enable the Dennos Museum to supplement its holdings of 20th-century American art and present a broader range of works to local audiences, providing a special opportunity to see American masterworks drawn from one of the preeminent museums in the nation.
• Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House (Ukiah, CA) for the loan of 30 Pomo baskets from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, PA. Located in the heart of the Pomo people’s homelands, the Grace Hudson Museum is focused on preserving and presenting the art and history of the Pomo culture. Representing a legacy of the Pomo people, celebrated throughout the world for their superlative basketry, the loaned artifacts will enable the museum to present a long-term exhibition of Pomo basketry and culture to the community where they were created.
This recent round of survey grants will also provide for the cataloguing and research of a large number of works currently in storage, and identify a diverse collection of objects that will be added to the MLN Directory. The June 2003 survey grants will enable a variety of objects to be added to the database, including: Islamic cultural objects from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; artifacts and ephemera from the Negro League Baseball collection of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, NJ; historic glass lantern slides of gardens from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Wellesley, MA; and objects and ephemera related to the 1939-40 and the 1964-65 New York World’s Fairs from the Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY.
June 2003 recipients of the MLN travel grants, which provide museums with an opportunity to travel to prospective lending institutions to research and identify objects for potential loan, include the Anasazi State Park Museum, Boulder, UT, to travel to the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archeology, MA, and the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, to explore the loan of archeological Anasazi objects from the Coombs site, the McElmo Canyon area, and the Poncho House excavation.
Building on its continuing success, the Museum Loan Network has also implemented a range of new initiatives that extend the scope and impact of its grant programs, including: Virtual Exhibitions of MLN-facilitated projects on the Museum Loan Network Web site, which allow viewers to navigate through innovative installations supported by the MLN at museums throughout the United States; and 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 affecting collaboration and today's museums.
Museum Loan Network grants are awarded on a semi-annual basis. A full listing of the June 2003 grants and information about grant applications and deadlines is available through the MLN Web site. The next deadline for application is December 5, 2003.