Preserving the History of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and its Contributions to Art History Scholarship

FAIN: PG-50849-10

Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, MN 55404-3506)
Janice Lea Lurie (Project Director: May 2009 to April 2012)

Funding supports the purchase of archival rehousing supplies to preserve the society's administrative records and manuscript collections, dating from 1883 to the present, including documentation of Plains Indian art and American printmaking.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) seeks support from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the amount of $6,000 for archival supplies to ensure long-term preservation of the museum's archival collections. Approximately 4,723 linear inches of important archival collections will be preserved for the long-term as a direct result of this grant. Founded in 1883 as the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, the MIA is the upper Midwest's premier encyclopedic art museum; the records related to its history and scholarship--and benefitting from the proposed grant--tell a unique and important story about the development of American art museums during the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. By preserving these archival collections, the MIA is also safeguarding a part of the world's cultural history.

Media Coverage

News from the Midwest - Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Audrey McKanna Coleman, Assistant Editor
Publication: MAC (Midwest Archives Conference) Newsletter
Date: 7/1/2010
Abstract: Grant announcement: The MIA Library and Archives has been awarded a “We the People” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funding supports the purchase of archival storage supplies to preserve the society’s administrative records and manuscript collections, dating from 1883. The records related to its history and scholarships tell a unique and important story about the development of American art museums during the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. They also document the institute’s role as one of the Twin Cities’ “founding father organizations” that transformed the Midwest prairie from a frontier into a vibrant cultural center.