A new federal grant will enable the Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State to digitize and expand access online to its archive of 25,000 items documenting the work of Charles Burchfield.
The $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will be used to increase the center’s capacity to catalog, digitize, bring online and publicize availability of the Charles E. Burchfield Archive, its primary archive.
It’s one of three grants awarded to Western New York arts organizations by IMLS last week: The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum will receive $77,118; while the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will receive $49,500. Nationwide, a total of grants were awarded totaling nearly $26 million for 217 museum projects across the country. The recipients were selected from 583 applications requesting a total of $74 million and were awarded through the competitive Museums for America and National Leadership Grants for Museums programs.
Institutions receiving the awards will match them with nearly $34 million in non-federal funds.
For the Burchfield-Penney, the grant supports collections management and care, and a goal of increasing scholarly and public accessibility and use of the museum’s collections through technology. It also supports a Burchfield Archives exhibition on view Feb. 12-June 19.
The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum will use its grant to introduce a program for school children that meets state education standards and Common Core curriculum. That includes workshops and field trips to the North Tonawanda museum, as well as lessons onsite at local schools.
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