Southern University at New Orleans December 16, 2015 NEH Awards $5K Grant to Museum Studies The Museum Studies Master's Program at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) has received a $5,234 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to develop a long-term plan to preserve the University's Norma Wolff Collection of African Art. Using the NEH grant, the Museum Studies Program, under the direction of Haitham Eid, would hire a consultant to conduct a preservation assessment and train museum staff on preventive conservation measures. In addition, the program would acquire preservation supplies. SUNO's Norma Wolff Collection of African art comprises 96 cultural objects (masks, jewelry, instruments and weapons) from West and Central Africa. The Wolff Collection has been featured in exhibits and scholarly publications. Highlights include a Bambara mask from Mali and Yoruba sculptures from Nigeria. Planned workshops would introduce museum studies faculty and students to strategies to manage and preserve the collection through effective storage, proper handling and the regular monitoring of temperature, light and humidity. The NEH awarded $21.8 million in grants for 295 humanities projects, including new grants to digitize historical materials held by individuals, give a second life to important out-of-print humanities books and support public programs on pressing contemporary challenges. These new NEH grants support vital research, education, and public programs in the humanities, including pioneering chemical testing procedures to safeguard fragile historical materials displayed in museums and the production of a documentary film on the Warsaw Ghetto's secret archive that preserved 30,000 pages of diaries, letters, and records documenting the Jewish community during the Holocaust. This round of funding also marks the first grant awards made under three new NEH grant programs: Common Heritage, Humanities in the Public Square, and Humanities Open Book. These three programs were created under the NEH initiative The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square<http://www.neh.gov/commongood>, which seeks to bring humanities into the public square and foster innovative ways to make scholarship relevant to contemporary life. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $21.8 million in grants for 295 humanities projects<http://www.neh.gov/files/press-release/nehgrantsdecember2015.pdf>, including new grants to digitize historical materials held by individuals, give a second life to important out-of-print humanities books, and support public programs on pressing contemporary challenges. "With these grants, the National Endowment for the Humanities continues its 50-year tradition of supporting excellence in the humanities," said NEH Chairman William D. Adams. "From scholarly books and humanities programs on college campuses to new digital humanities resources and preservation efforts at local museums, the projects receiving funding today will reach deeply into communities and expand access to our shared cultural heritage." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 Like us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance/ 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.