In other news, the Wolfsonian–Florida International University has announced that it has been awarded a three-year, five-hundred-thousand-dollar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen the academic role of the museum’s collections and programs. Among the initiatives that the Wolfsonian will undertake with support from this grant is the establishment of a teaching gallery on FIU’s main campus in collaboration with the Frost Art Museum, in which objects from the Wolfsonian’s collection can be installed. The museum will hire a full-time Mellon Coordinator of Academic Programs, who will collaborate with faculty members and students on projects that engage the museum’s resources. “Since joining FIU in 1997, the Wolfsonian has worked hard to encourage use of its resources by faculty and students and to integrate the museum’s collections into teaching and advanced research,” said Cathy Leff, Wolfsonian–FIU director, upon learning of this award. “The Mellon grant will enable us to significantly strengthen the museum’s integration with the academic programs of the university.”
Good news for the Wolfsonian-FIU, sister instution to The Wolfsoniana in Nervi (Genoa), both of which house an important collection of late 19th and early 20th century design, including some very interesting examples of Futurist design.
