Housatonic Museum of Art receives grant for online collection database

The Housatonic Museum of Art has received a $40,824 Inspire! Grant for Small Museums from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) designed to increase access to its collection.

The museum, which located on the Housatonic Community College campus in Bridgeport, will use the grant funds in documenting, digitizing and archiving 600 objects into an online collections database, thus expanding visitor access beyond the limited number of collection items that are available for viewing during in-person visits.

“We are grateful to IMLS for this generous support that will allow the museum to make the collection available to both scholars and the public allowing access to many more inaccessible works of art,” said Robbin Zella, former director of the Housatonic Museum of Art. “This funding will also allow us to update object records and condition assessments, as well as add digital assets to the collections database.”

IMLS is a special initiative of the Museums for America program designed to help small museums implement projects that address priorities identified in their strategic plans.

Photo: Pablo Picasso”™s “Picador with Broken Nose,” (1903), part of the HMA collection; a gift of S. Herman and Wendy Klarsfeld.