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NEH ISSUES CHALLENGE GRANT TO FUND RENOVATIONS AT RISD MUSEUM

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded The RISD Museum of Art a challenge grant to increase public access and improve the organizational design of the Museum’s Eliza Radeke Building, one of the four buildings making up its current complex.

Grant funds will be used for the reinstallation and reinterpretation of the museum’s permanent collection with a focus on the restoration of the interior spaces of the Radeke Building to display artwork previously unavailable to the public, and to improve the visitor experience by creating a logical progression for viewing exhibits.

This project marks the first time in six decades that the museum’s sequence of galleries will be systemically reinstalled, and the first time that it has been addressed in a comprehensive way.

The first phase of the reinstallation is timed with the opening of the Happy and Malcolm Chace Center, which will include major new galleries, program space and visitor amenities, in September 2008.

“NEH is delighted to award one of our prestigious Challenge Grants to The RISD Museum of Art,” says NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “The endowment is working to democratize the humanities and bring their benefits to all Americans. This $600,000 grant will further this goal, by allowing the museum to improve visitors’ access and make more of its outstanding collections available to the public.”

“This grant award offers critical support to help us bring our outstanding museum collections to the public,” said Hope Alswang, RISD museum director. “With renovations in Radeke and the opening of the new Chace Center on the horizon, the museum will become an even more important resource to the community than it is today. We are grateful to the NEH for investing in this project.”

NEH Challenge Grants are awarded with the requirement that they are matched with new sources of support. The museum must raise $2.4 million to meet the “challenge” of with $535,000 toward that goal has already been secured.

The NEH grant will be used to support the renovation of the third, fifth and sixth floors of the Radeke Building. In addition to the Radeke wing, Charles Pendleton House, 1907, Waterman Galleries, 1897, and the Daphne Farago Wing for Contemporary Art, 1991, currently serve as the museum’s permanent collection galleries and for special exhibitions. The redesign and improvements to Radeke will make it easier for visitors to negotiate and explore the space, while sharing more of The RISD Museum’s diverse collections of more than 84,000 works of art with the public.

The project will take just over four years to complete. The RISD Museum’s curators and educators will work with exhibition designer Stephen Saitas and Ed Wojcik Architects to bring the project to life.

The museum is at 224 Benefit Street. For information, www.risdmuseum.org or 401-454-6500.