Preservation Furniture and Supplies for St. Norbert College Art Galleries and Collections

FAIN: PG-233653-16

St. Norbert College (De Pere, WI 54115-2099)
Shan Bryan-Hanson (Project Director: May 2015 to September 2017)

The purchase of preservation furniture, environmental monitoring equipment, and rehousing supplies as recommended in the Preservation Needs Assessment survey completed in 2014 with NEH support. The St. Norbert College Art Collection comprises approximately 1,000 works of art dating from the 13th century to the present. Approximately 60 percent of the collection consists of works on paper, with an emphasis on modern prints, drawings, and photographs. The remainder consists of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, textiles, and decorative objects. Highlights include a small collection of 20th-century Native American pottery, a painting by Salvador Dali, and the complete portfolio suite of “Rainer Maria Rilke, For the Sake of a Single Verse” by Ben Shahn.

The Art Galleries and Collections serve to inspire, enhance and culturally enrich scholarship at St. Norbert College and within the greater community through the collection, preservation and exhibition of art. The art collection, comprised of approximately one thousand objects, supports humanities research by providing students direct access to original art. Works such as Ben Shahn's, For the sake of a single verse.... from the Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, and a collection of 13th c. Illuminated manuscript pages support the traditions on which the College was founded. The Art Galleries have actively engaged in a series of steps designed to ensure best practices in collections and organization management. This project focuses on preservation furniture and supply needs recommended in a General Preservation Needs Assessment of the SNC Art Galleries and Collections, completed by Midwest Art Conservation Center in 2014 and funded by the NEH.