Arts & Entertainment
Arlington's Dallin Museum Awarded $55K In Grants
The funding will be used to redesign the entryway and Indigenous Peoples gallery and digitize the museum's archives.
ARLINGTON, MA — The Cyrus Dallin Art Museum was awarded a $50,000 grant from the state's Office of Travel and Tourism to redesign its entryway and the Indigenous Peoples gallery, as well as digitize the museum's archives and build an online searchable database.
"This grant is truly transformational for the Dallin Museum," Heather Leavell, museum director/curator, said in a statement. "These high-priority projects will enhance the museum’s inclusivity and accessibility and promote continued community conversations about the impact of Cyrus Dallin's work in both the past and present."
The museum received an additional $5,000 Partnership Grant from Freedom's Way National Heritage Area to support the redesign. Museum staff are working with Indigenous stakeholders to ensure the spaces accurately represent the histories, cultures and resilience of those who were the subjects of Dallin's works, according to a statement from the museum.
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The project, which includes revised floor plans, new pedestals, refreshed paint finishes, colorful window graphics, interpretive panels, an audio program and an interactive display, will be designed by Somerville-based Proun Design.
The museum's archives, which consist of more than 6,000 photographs, correspondences, sketches, journals, exhibition catalogs, news clippings and poems written by Dallin's wife Vittoria, will be digitized in partnership with Concord-based Museum & Collector Resource.
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The materials will be available to the public through a searchable database at Dallin.org.
Funding for the projects was facilitated by State Rep. Sean Garballey, and assisted by a team from the museum, including Chair of the Friends of the Dallin Museum Stephen Gilligan, Board of Directors President Geri Tremblay, Nancy Blanton, Dan Johnson, Andrew Jay, James Charnley and Heather Leavell.
"The Dallin Museum sincerely thanks Representative Garballey for his leadership in securing this important grant," Tremblay said in a release.
Both projects are expected to be completed by May.
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