Endow Senior Curator of Education and the Interpretive Strategies the Position Develops

FAIN: CH-50059-04

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA 19101-7646)
Danielle Rice (Project Director: May 2003 to September 2005)
Marla K Shoemaker (Project Director: September 2005 to November 2007)

Endowment for the position of Senior Curator of Education and for humanities programming.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art seeks a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for $800,000, to be matched with $3.2 million in private contributions, to endow the positon of Senior Curator of Education and support on-going development of humanities-based interpretive strategies and materials for the Museum's permanent collections. The Museum is a nationally recognized leader inthe field of museum education, encouraging visitors to use its collections to explore social, historical, and cultural lessons through the easily accessible medium of art. As the Museum embarks on its first building expansion since 1928, it has the opportunity to reinstall large segments of the permanent collections, both in the Main Museum Building and in the new galleries of Perelman Building. Constant changes and advances in scholarship make the regular reinterpretation and presentation of works of art in the collections a necessity.The capacity to have permanent, stable funding for the development of such materials would be beneficial to the Museum, particularly at this exciting time of expansion and reinstallation. The Senior Curator of education will play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of new humanities-based interpretive strategies for the Museum's growing permanent collections. The ability to secure the long-term financial stability of this position and the key role it plays in extending the Museum's collections to the general public, through an NEH Challenge Grant, would be instrumental to the Museum's future.