IMLS GRANT Preserving Our Collection

In the Fall of 2016, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), through its Museums for America program, awarded The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art a prestigious grant in the amount of $120,650 to help improve storage conditions and consolidate the museum’s large collection of paintings. Over the past year, The Ringling has successfully completed the requirements of the grant thanks to the museum’s Collections Team.

A highly competitive funding process, The Ringling submitted an application and was awarded a grant that adhered to one of the specific IMLS goals: supporting the unique role of museums and libraries in preserving and providing access to collections and content. This grant allowed The Ringling to upgrade its primary storage vault by installing new painting racks which accommodated 130 paintings from an off-site storage facility. Stainless steel rolling screens, specially designed to safely store paintings, were installed over a two-week period in April 2017. While most paintings were easily moved to the new space, more than 50 paintings were too fragile to move, so conservators executed emergency stabilization treatments on-site before packing.

Photographic records were created that serve not only as documentation of the current condition of the paintings and frames, but also enable the works to be shared with the general public through The Ringling’s eMuseum website. A collection of the images is currently available for viewing online under Painting Storage Project.

About The Imls

Each year, top-tier institutions from around the country compete for these funds, with applications undergoing a strict peer review process. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation's approximately 120,000 libraries and 35,000 museums and related organizations.