Conservation Department Endowment: Head of Conservation position

FAIN: CH-50328-07

Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, CA 94118)
Donna K. Strahan (Project Director: November 2005 to February 2010)
Amory Sharpe (Project Director: February 2010 to December 2011)

Endowment for the museum's full-time Conservation Department Chair position.

The Asian Art Museum respectfully requests a $625,000 NEH challenge grant to help establish a $2.5 million endowment for its Conservation Department. The annual interest on the $2.5 million endowment, calculated at four percent per the museum’s endowment policy, will yield $100,000 per year. These funds underwrite the Head of Conservation position. The museum will then use monies previously allocated for this position to expand staffing levels, address ongoing and specialized conservation needs, conduct analysis on individual objects, and make the entire collection more widely available for exhibition, educational purposes, and scholarly study and interpretation.