Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Museum receives grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services
The grant will allow the museum to inventory and catalog its collection, which is estimated to total more than 50,000 artifacts and works of art.
Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Museum has received a grant in the amount of $246,233 as part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Museums for America program. The grant will allow the museum to catalog and inventory its collection, which is estimated to contain more than 50,000 artifacts and works of art.
According to an article on Western Kentucky University’s website, Brent Bjorkman, who serves as the Director of the Kentucky Museum, was quoted as saying of the importance of this work, “Inventories are a critical step in collections care. The project benefits our campus and community because we will be able to make the collection records available in KenCat, our online collections portal – which visitors use to learn about our collections, faculty and students use in research and class projects, and which we use in creating exhibitions and programs. The information we gain will also allow us to plan for storage upgrades and conservation work and to begin working with campus and community members to research the history and provenance of each artifact. Overall, an inventory is what helps us to not only understand our collection but also our community’s history and, in turn, ourselves as Kentuckians.”
Bjorkman added, “The Kentucky Museum is grateful and honored to receive this IMLS grant as it builds squarely on our continuing goal to advance our ability to share our rich expressive archival collection. This project will be central to assisting the Kentucky Museum to better serve our wide base of constituents that include WKU students and faculty, museum members, and provide new avenues for intimate archival exploration by researchers from across the Commonwealth and beyond.”
The Kentucky Museum was first established in 1929 when the university became home to a 371-piece collection of donated art from a university alumnus, C. Perry Snell. In the near century that has passed since that donation, the museum is estimated to have collected roughly 50,000 pieces, though most of those pieces are held in storage off site and are not available to be viewed in the museum.
The grant funding will allow for the hiring of a full-time Inventory Assistant and student interns who will work to catalog each piece of the collection and input its information into a cataloging system called PastPerfect. The goal is to have every item in the museum catalogued and accessible for further research by Western Kentucky University faculty and students.
The funding will also allow the university to begin planning for a new storage system for the Kentucky Museum, as it will be gaining a better understanding of the sizes of each piece during the cataloging process. This will allow them to plan for museum cabinetry and acid-free boxes that will accommodate all of the pieces the museum possesses.
For more information about Western Kentucky University, visit the school’s website.