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The Gallery is one of 788 not-for-profit organizations nationwide recently selected to receive an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The $15,000 award will be used to conserve 37 Depression-era drawings by Rochester artist Carl Peters (1897–1980).
The works to be conserved are studies and preparatory drawings for murals at three Rochester landmarks, all funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Shown above is a study, ca. 1938, for a mural at Fairport Library (now Fairport Historical Museum).
In May 2011, the Gallery announced that a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will target conservation of an important Renaissance tapestry titled Battle of the Animals. Woven in Flanders in the mid-16th century, this large work features a variety of exotic, real and fantastic animals in a lush landscape dotted with castles and lodges and populated by hunters, dogs, and horses. MAG was one of only three museums in the state to be funded, the others being the Museum of Natural History in NYC and the Strong Museum.
Pictured: Marlene Eidelheit, director of the Textile Conservation Laboratory at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and Nancy Norwood, MAG’s curator of European art, with Battle of the Animals.
The award is the second from IMLS in three years. In May 2009, the organization awarded MAG a grant to conserve Trellised Garden with Animals, considered the most important Renaissance tapestry in the collection. After more than a year of treatment, it went back on view April 18, 2012. Read the whole story and see pictures
Trellised Garden with Animals goes back on the wall on the Gallery’s second floor in April 2012. Read the press release
City newspaper readers have spoken! At the November 1 Best of Rochester awards ceremony, the Memorial Art Gallery was recognized twice. In the arts & entertainment category, MAG was voted Best Art Gallery/Museum, and in the local color category, the M&T Bank Clothesline Festival was chosen Best Outdoor Art. Complete list of winners
In March 2011, the Memorial Art Gallery website won top honors for its category (nonprofit/cultural) at Rochester Business Journal‘s annual “Best of the Web” awards. Launched in November 2010, the Gallery’s redesigned website was a joint effort of MAG and UR’s communications and IT departments. Among the new features: online shopping at the Gallery Store and improved graphics and navigation.
In May, the site also won a 2011 Bronze Award in the Individual Sub-Website category at the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards Program. “With 89 other sites up for consideration,” says Stephen Dow, UR acting director of creative services, “this is a great honor.”
Pictured: Michael Osadciw, graphics coordinator at UR communications and designer of the MAG website (front row, green shirt) holds the “Best of the Web” plaque. To his left is Patti Giordano, the Gallery’s manager of marketing/communications.