The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery the prestigious Museums for America Award under the Collections Stewardship category. The grant of $58,385 brings total funds to conserve and display Scripps’ collection of Asian art to $178,385.
IMLS grants support the highest standards in the conservation and care of the United States’ cultural, historic, natural, and scientific heritage to benefit future generations. Past recipients include the Yale University Peabody Museum (2011) and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (2012).
Since 2007, the Williamson Gallery has raised funds to conserve Scripps’ collection of Asian art. Some of these pieces are now on display in the Clark Humanities Museum, located on the second floor of the Bette Cree Edwards Humanities Building.
“The College is fortunate to have nearly 200 Chinese paintings, dating from the 15th to 19th centuries,” says art history professor Bruce Coats. “We also have an extraordinary collection of Chinese textiles and garments.”
“Each year these works are shown in exhibitions and seminars on campus, and sometimes loaned to other museums, so being able to restore some of these treasures is both vital to teaching and essential for their long term preservation.”
Students in Coats’ Arts of Late Imperial China course are currently researching and writing about select paintings that will appear in a 2015 exhibition on the art and science of conserving Asian art. “Seeing digital images and examining actual Chinese paintings are two quite different experiences,” he says.
“To observe how artists have used brush strokes on silk or paper to achieve visual effects helps students understand the production and the contexts of these works. They then use this knowledge to create exhibitions about Chinese cultures. Teaching with ‘real objects’ is vitally important to art history and enlivens the classroom or museum experience.”
The IMLS’ mission is to support libraries and museums in the advancement of innovation, learning, and civic engagement. This mission is the backbone to their four-year strategic plan “Creating a Nation of Learners,” which aims to provide more communities better access to knowledge and ultimately inspire lifelong learning.
For more information, visit the IMLS website.