GHHN awards $106,675  statewide in Conservation Treatment Grants for 2018

Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) is awarding $106,675 in conservation treatment grants to 24 organizations, located in 17 counties of New York State, in partnership with the  New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

From New York City to Niagara Falls, these funds will provide treatment by professional conservators to aid in stabilizing, preserving, and making accessible to the public an array of unique objects in collections of New York State's museums, historical and cultural organizations of all sizes. 
From the  Southern  Tier to the Adirondack foothills, 2018 grants will support conservation needs of the many types of artifacts typically found in art and history museums and historical societies throughout New York State, including a rare 18th century folding fan, Horace Greeley's umbrella, a helmet frontpiece from the Queens volunteer fire companies, rare early American games, a one of a kind mural, and a selection of works of art on paper, lithographs, paintings on canvas, and decorative arts. 

Grants are awarded for prioritized, urgently needed conservation of objects that, once treated, will impact public interpretive programs, exhibitions and education. Non-profit organizations with stewardship responsibility for cultural collections, (but without in-house conservation staff) were eligible applicants; state or federally owned collections are ineligible for support. Grant funding can treat paintings, works on paper, textiles, furniture, sculpture, ethnographic, historical and decorative objects, and may also support accompanying professional treatment of frames, supports, stands and mounts if integral to the final public presentation of the object after conservation. 

GHHN strives to provide support for conservation treatments that are executed on the highest professional level. The field of conservation is continually changing, with pioneering research an dissemination of findings on innovative materials and techniques. Although there are many paths into the field of conservation, we acknowledge practitioners who have demonstrated high levels of proficiency and advanced knowledge, adherence to the ethics and standards of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC), and are recognized for their expertise in the museum field. In 2018's grants, treatment will be provided by 17 individual conservators. 

These grants lead to public impact outcomes beyond the actual conservation of museum objects, including new interest in the state's incredibly varied collections, and increased public awareness of the museum's role as steward, and has proven a spark to further institutional, strategic, financial and long-range conservation planning.  Beyond these outcomes, grant recipients report that Conservation Treatment funding prompts greater use of collections (for exhibition, web content and loan), enhanced interpretive capability, and expanded opportunities to educate the public about art, history, humanities, the science of conservation, and museum work itself.
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This year 47 grant applications were received at GHHN from institutions from 28 counties in New York State, requesting an aggregate of $262,956 in grant support.  In all, requests were made for the treatment of 79 objects of which 24 organizational awards totaling $106,675 were recommended by a peer panel of conservators, curators, and museum professionals. Of the 24 institutions that received funding,17 received full funding and 7 partial funding. 2018 Conservation Treatment Grant awards range from $2,100 to the maximum amount of $7,500.
Of the 47 applicant institutions, twenty-three had budgets under $300,000, eight had budgets over $300,000 but below $1 million and sixteen organizations had general operating budgets over $1 million. Organizational operating budgets of 2018's grant recipients span a stunning range from $6,700 to $110 million.

Conservation Grant Recipients:

Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (Hamilton County)
$7,500 for the conservation of sketches of the Adirondacks by Alfred Pancoast Boller; work to be done by Leslie Paisley of Williamstown Art Conservation Center. 
 
Albany Institute of History & Art (Albany County) 
$4,550 for the conservation of a rare 18th century folding fan owned by Margarita Cuyler Ten Broeck; work to be done by Sarah Dove of Sarah Dove Fine Art Conservation.

Cayuga Museum of History and Art (Cayuga County)
$3,958 for the conservation of a graphite and paint image of a military parade on Genesee Street in Auburn, New York; work to be done by Moya Dumville of West Lake Conservators Ltd. 

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale (Bronx County)
$3,100 for the conservation of oil on canvas "Sunny Morning" by Viktor Ivanov; work to be done by Paul Himmelstein of Applebaum & Himmelstein.  

Everson Museum of Art (Onondaga County)
$3,600 for the conservation of acrylic on canvas "Number 7, 1968" by Harmony Hammond; work to be done by Thomas Branchick of Williamstown Art Conservation Center.

Historic Hudson Valley (Westchester County)
$3,925 for the conservation of a portrait of Thomas Wentworth Storrow, (1779-1862) by Gilbert Stuart; work to be done by Nadia Ghannam of Nadia Ghannam Fine Art Conservation and Roderick Thompson of Santo Spirito Restoration. 

Historic Red Hook (Dutchess County)
$3,200 for the conservation of an oil portrait of Benjamin Pier by Edward Ludlow Mooney; work to be done by Hallie Halpern of Hallie Halpern Art Conservation Studio. 

Livingston County Historical Society (Livingston County)
$1,200 for the conservation of an 1883 photograph entitled, "Steamers McPherson and Musette, At the Landing, Lakeville"; work to be done by Gary E. Albright.

Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (Monroe County)
$1,640 for the conservation of a work on paper "The Old Mill" by Harvey Ellis; work to be done by Patricia Hamm of Hamm Arts LLC.

Merchant's House Museum (New York County)
$3,400 for the conservation of a Tantalus Liquor Chest; work to be done by Kerith Kross Schrager from The Found Object Conservation. 

Middlesex Heritage Group (Yates County)
$6,000 for the conservation of a hand-colored photograph of Middlesex High School circa 1884; work to be done by Gary E. Albright.

New Castle Historical Society (Westchester County)
$5,935 for the conservation of Horace Greeley's umbrella; work to be done by Meredith Wilcox-Levine of The Textile Conservation Workshop Inc.

New York City Fire Museum (New York County)
$1,500 for the conservation of a leather helmet frontpiece; work to be done by Barbara Applebaum and Paul Himmelstein of Applebaum & Himmelstein.

New York Historical Society (New York County)
$5,940 for the conservation of a zampogna from the early twentieth century; work to be done by Linda Nieuwenhuizen of Give Me A Break Conservation Services Inc.  
 
Onondaga Historical Association (Onondaga County) 
$2,668 for the conservation of an oil portrait of Colonel Ezra Walrath, by George K. Knapp; work to be done by Chiara Kuhns, Erica Schuler, and Margaret Sutton of West Lake Conservators Inc. 

Oswego County Historical Society (Oswego County)
$7,500 for the conservation of two oil paintings and frames of Theodore and Louisa Irwin; work to be done by Susan Blakney and Chiara Kuhns of West Lake Conservators, Inc. 

Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation (New York County)
$2,500 for the conservation of oil on canvas "Untitled" (Dutra Taxi), c. 1945 by Sylvia Carewe; work to be done by Patricia Sherwin Garland of Patricia Sherwin Garland, LLC.

Seymour Public Library District (Cayuga County)
$5,869 for the conservation of a portrait of James S. Seymour by George H. Mathews; work to be done by Susan Blakney, Chiara Kuhns, and Ted Solum of West Lake Conservators, Inc.  

Sodus Bay Historical Society (Wayne County)
$5,152 for the conservation of a framed oil painting of the entrance to Sodus Bay and the Lake Ontario shoreline; work to be done by Susan Blakney, Margaret Sutton, Chiara Kuhns, Ted Solum, and M. Abbott Nixon of West Lake Conservators, Inc.  

The Buffalo History Museum (Erie County)
$7,500 for the conservation of a plaster bas relief depicting the "Marriage of Waters" ceremony marking the completion of the Erie Canal; work to be done by Helene Gillette-Woodward of Williamstown Art Conservation Center, Inc.

The Strong National Museum of Play (Monroe County)
$4,825 for the conservation of rare, early-American games, including "March to Richmond", "Coquette and Her Suitors", and "Railroad Game"; work to be done by Luisa Casella and Moya Dumville of West Lake Conservators, Inc. 

Thomas Cole Historic House (Greene County)
$2,118 for the conservation of two oil on canvas paintings, "Untitled (Landscape with Church)" and "Untitled (English Landscape)" by Sarah Cole; work to be done by Tom Yost of Yost Conservation, LLC.

Ticonderoga Historical Society (Essex County)
$7,500 for the conservation of a battlefield mural depicting the significant historic battlefields from Plattsburgh to Saratoga by Ernest Clegg; work to be done by Carolyn Frisa of Works on Paper, LLC.

Town of Pompey Historical Society (Onondaga County)
$5,595 for the conservation of a Covill portrait (1873) by John Calvin Perry; work to be done by Susan Blakney, Margaret Sutton, Chiara Kuhns, M. Abbott Nixon, and Nathan E. Sutton of West Lake Conservators, Inc. 

The NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Treatment Grant Program is made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.