The Art Galleries at St. Norbert College will receive a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions  from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The award is for $6000 to support the purchase of storage furniture and preservation supplies for the St. Norbert College Art Collection.  The project includes the purchase of shelving and storage equipment for sculpture, additional flat files for unframed works on paper and slotted storage for large paintings.  It also includes the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment to assist us in monitoring the UV light, visible light, temperature and relative humidity in the galleries, collection storage area and other spaces on campus where art from the collection is displayed.

This is the second Preservation Assistance Grant awarded to the Art Galleries.  The first was also a $6000 grant, awarded in 2013 in support of a Preservation Needs Assessment Survey of the Art Collection.  The survey was completed in 2014 by the Midwest Art Conservation Center.  The survey included a list of short, medium and long term recommendations which we used to develop a preservation plan.  The project currently being funded by the NEH was developed as part of this plan.

Other recent strides made in ensuring the preservation of the St. Norbert College Art Collection include the installation of a new climate control system in art collection storage facility, cataloging the collection using PastPerfect museum database software, and participating in a Museum Assessment Program Organizational Self-Study and Peer Review.

The permanent collection at St. Norbert College is comprised of approximately one thousand works of art.  Works in the collection range from 13th c. illuminated manuscript pages to contemporary paintings and prints.

We are grateful to the NEH for its support of the humanities and the preservation of our cultural heritage.