Luther College receives grant to review, preserve and protect humanities collections

Luther College is receiving more than $9,000 to review, preserve and protect their humanities collections that include fine art, archives, textiles, rare books and other special collections. Archivist for the college, Hayley Jackson, applied for the Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was happy to hear Luther was selected for funding.

"This grant award recognizes the value of our collections at Luther College. As a campus, we are fortunate to have such rich and varied resources available for use in research, teaching, exhibition and programming," said Jackson.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awards grants to top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. Specifically, this money will be used to bring a conservator from the Midwest Art Conservation Center to Luther to assess the current state of the college's collections including policies, practices and storage conditions affecting the long-term preservation of the pieces. The conservator will then provide recommendations and a conservation plan based on their findings.  

"Plans resulting from the grant will ensure that these collections are preserved in such a way that students can continue to study and learn from them as part of their Luther experience," said Jackson. "They will also ensure that our local Decorah community, campus visitors and researchers can continue to learn from these unique resources through exhibits, lectures and publications."