Enhancing Access and Preservation at the Great Plains Art Museum

FAIN: ZPA-283741-22

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)
Casey Seger (Project Director: May 2021 to May 2024)

Partial payment of salaries for two staff, the hiring of a student worker, and contracting the services of a professional photographer to digitize over 2,000 works of art at the Great Plains Art Museum, enabling new virtual exhibitions and education and outreach programs using art as a tool for humanities education. 

Great Plains Art Museum (GPAM) is requesting $177,000 in grant funding from the NEH-ARP to start Phase 1 of our digitization project: the creation of approximately 2,000 digital images of artwork in our permanent collections. Digitizing these artworks will enable us to create virtual exhibitions and programs that highlight specific themes and parallel what is on view in the museum. For example, digitized images of the Indigenous art in our collection will increase access to and expand the impact of our Native American Art from the Permanent Collection exhibition opening fall 2021. We also plan to develop in person and virtual education and outreach programs aimed at addressing contemporary issues on the Great Plains by using art as a learning tool. Additionally, by collaborating with UNL Libraries, we will share our collection more widely through an online database to audiences and researchers across the world.