Description

The William King Museum of Art (WKMA) proposes a project to build upon and share its seminal work in the field of Appalachian decorative arts by digitizing its Cultural Heritage Archive and sponsoring related scholarly research and teaching.  The WKMA is a unique institution committed to sharing arts and culture with truly under-served communities in Southwest Virginia and Northern Tennessee. In 1994, the museum originated the Cultural Heritage Project, dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating the region’s pre-1940 material culture and decorative arts.  Over the course of two decades, the resulting archive has come to hold information on more than 2000 examples of furniture, textiles, pottery, paintings, and metalwork. More than 300 of these objects have entered the WKMA’s collection and are newly installed in two dedicated Cultural Heritage Galleries. The museum now seeks to make the archive available on-line, and to expand it by supporting a two-year fellow who will carry out additional field work and research, publish on the holdings, and offer classes and workshops in partnership with regional colleges and cultural organizations. 
The WKMA is currently poised for something of a breakthrough, with recent successes in fundraising that have supported the creation of the two Cultural Heritage Galleries and two new curatorial positions, for Fine Arts and Craft, and Decorative Arts. The museum has also successfully funded a Center for Studio and Arts Education, complete with a Digital Craft Lab designed to introduce students to skills including videography, web design, and digital printing. The WKMA plans to maintain the Cultural Heritage Archive and the related collections as the core of its expanding programming and educational efforts. Its plan to make the archive fully accessible and searchable through the WKMA website will dramatically enhance awareness of the collection beyond the immediate region; and the planned collaboration with the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts will insure that the on-line resource will be as effective as possible. The two-year fellow position will additionally revitalize the archive, with new content and the extension of new research through publications and teaching. The entire project promises to deepen the work of the museum through more effective programming of the archive and collection for its regional audience, and by inviting specialists, collectors, and folk art enthusiasts from around the globe to consider and engage in dialogue around the creative production of this Appalachian region.  The grant, which is the result of a cold call from the WKMA, will allow the Foundation’s American Art Program a rare opportunity to work in a relatively remote region whose longstanding artistic traditions are too little known.