Access to the Humanities

FAIN: CH-50413-07

Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI 02903-2717)
Hope Alswang (Project Director: May 2006 to August 2009)
Ann Woolsey (Project Director: August 2009 to November 2011)

Renovation of and additions to existing galleries on the three public floors of the museum's historic Eliza Radeke Building, renovation that will allow the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the permanent collection.

The RISD Museum requests an $800,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to dramatically improve access to the humanities in the Museum's historic Eliza Radeke Building. NEH funds, along with matching gifts, will be used to renovate and add galleries on the three public floors of this building. The Museum's internationally significant collections of art will be reinstalled and reinterpreted to promote greater understanding of the humanities. Improved object presentations, graphics, explanatory labels, maps, videos, and an audiio tour will elucidate the context of works of art within the framework of the humanities for students, scholars, family groups and the general public.This project represents the first time in the institution's 129 year history that the permanent collection will be reinstalled in a comprehensive way with a unified vision for its interpretation.