Preservation of Works of Art on Paper and Other Works in MNA’s Fine Arts Collection in the Easton Collections Center

FAIN: PF-280884-21

Museum of Northern Arizona, Inc. (Flagstaff, AZ 86001-8348)
Elaine R. Hughes (Project Director: January 2021 to May 2022)
Anthony Thibodeau (Project Director: May 2022 to present)

A project to rehouse 2,202 works of art on paper from the fine arts collection, many of them by Native American artists, in acid-free presentation mats and in new storage furniture, and to make them available through the museum’s online collections portal. 

The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) requests $343,812 from NEH to support a three-year rehousing project focused on 2,202 works, many Native American, in MNA’s fine arts collection. Largely consisting of works of art on paper (watercolors, drawings, etc.), they are in the state-of-the-art, platinum LEED certified Easton Collections Center (ECC). The works remain in acidic boxes and mats in which they have been stored for decades in old storage. At preservation risk in these containers, they were moved to the ECC in 2019 where they are stored on temporary racks or leaning against storage walls. MNA will improve physical access to works on paper by rehousing them in acid free presentation mats and storing them in new containers in mobile storage furniture purchased during this project. Intellectual access will be improved as collection data is posted through the Argus.net public web portal to a new audience including Native American, the public, and scholars from around the nation.