On April 21, The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal grantmaking agency and a member of a historic U.S. government cultural mission to Cuba, announced it will provide a grant to a distinguished group of U.S. art conservators to visit Cuba to learn about preservation challenges and methods. The $30,000 grant will go to the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, one of the leading conservation programs in the United States. The grant will support a delegation of students and professors who will visit Cuba to have a cultural exchange with their Cuban counterparts about conservation methods and practices. NEH supports preservation and conservation projects as part of its grantmaking in the humanities to help ensure that materials that can illuminate history and culture are available for future generations. The delegation will be led by Professor Debra Hess Norris, and Jocelyn Alcantara-Garcia, Ph.D., a bilingual conservation research scientist. These professors and their graduate students plan to talk with their Cuban counterparts about their preservation challenges and methods, see Cuban collections, and visit museums, libraries, and archives. The Delaware art conservation program is run jointly with the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, a museum of decorative arts with a collection of nearly 90,000 objects made or used in the United States between 1640 and 1860. Graduates of the program have assisted with the preservation of notable treasures such as the world's first photograph, the Declaration of Independence, decorative murals in the United States Capitol and at Radio City Music Hall, and works by artists ranging from Rembrandt to Picasso and Andy Warhol. NEH supports preservation and conservation projects as part of its grantmaking in the humanities to help ensure that materials that can illuminate history and culture are available for future generations. NEH Chairman William D. Adams was a member of the U.S. government cultural mission to Cuba from April 18 to 21. Adams visited cultural sites and met with Cuban officials and cultural leaders to begin a new U.S.-Cuba cultural exchange. "As I've visited Cuban museums and talked with scholars and curators this week, it's clear to me that we have much to learn from the ways in which museum professionals in Cuba approach the important work of collecting and preserving Cuban culture and history," said National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman William D. Adams. "I am honored that the National Endowment for the Humanities will provide a grant to this distinguished group of art conservation professionals and students from the United States to visit Cuba to observe conservation practices concerning photographs, manuscripts, and other collections. This trip will offer important insights and lessons that will enhance and broaden American conservation practices." For more information visit NEH site:
http://www.neh.gov