Endowment for Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art

FAIN: CH-50246-06

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO 64111-1818)
Deborah Emont Scott (Project Director: November 2004 to May 2009)

Endowment for the position of Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art as well as related expenses for research travel and conservation.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art requests $500,000 in support from the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant program to help establish an endowment for the position of Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art. This important post has been vacant since 2001, but the Museum plans to hire a new curator in May 2006. The collection contains 945 objects, including sculptures in stone and bronze, manuscripts, and textiles. It includes works from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions, from the first century B.C.E. to the 19th century C.E., from the areas covered by modern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand. The new curator will serve as a catalyst for the use of the collection of South and Southeast Asian Art, by re-thinking, re-interpreting, and re-presenting the collection and working with colleagues to embed our collection in the humanities teaching in the region. He or she will strengthen the humanities activity of the Museum by researching and publishing this important collection, organizing exhibitions and scholarly symposia related to it, giving public lectures, and teaching college and university students in the classroom and the Museum. Income from the $2 Million endowment created by the $500,000 grant and $1.5 Million match will pay for the curator's salary and benefits, and will contribute towards research travel and assistance, staffing, and conservation of objects.