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April 6, 2020

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants $1 million to support collaborative conservation across three UW organizations

University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington

The University of Washington today announced a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance shared conservation services among the UW Libraries, the Henry Art Gallery and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

The goals of the five-year initiative, “Sustainable Cooperative Conservation Services at the University of Washington,” are to strengthen and secure a sustainable program for paper and photograph conservation at the UW, to expand shared conservation services, and to continue to leverage other Mellon-funded initiatives that further increase conservation capacity, conservation training and outreach in the Pacific Northwest.

The Mellon grant will help address the unmet conservation needs of the extensive collections of photographs, prints and other works on paper across all three institutions. Many of the items in these collections are especially vulnerable to deterioration due to their material composition, making conservation imperative for their continued use and preservation.

The project will bring together staff expertise around common problems and solutions; however, the scope of the grant extends beyond conservation of materials alone. Through internships and increased outreach to students, the program seeks to attract a broad student demographic to the field of conservation and to advance efforts to make collections more available for teaching, research and exhibition.

The grant will also provide support for outreach and education, enabling staff to participate in other Mellon-funded initiatives and to host workshops, classes, and other professional development opportunities.

Contacts:

  • Stephanie Lamson, director, Preservation Services, salamson@uw.edu 206-543-4890
  • Sandy Hawley, Libraries communications director, shawley1@uw.edu 206-543-9389
  • Tanja Baumann, associate director of Marketing and Communications, press@henryart.org 206-616-9625
  • Andrea Godinez, interim director of Communications, burkepr@uw.edu 206-616-7538

Related articles:

The Paper Protector, July 2019 – College of Arts and Sciences

$300,000 Mellon Grant for Joint Conservation

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