Description

Established in 1846, the St. Louis Mercantile Library (SLML) is the oldest continuously operating library west of the Mississippi, with collections focused on the phenomenon of western expansion and the history and culture of the St. Louis region.  The library also served as the city’s first art gallery, and has maintained art as part of its mission with a collection that now numbers over 3,000 works dating from 1784 to the present.  In 1996, SLML established its affiliation with the University of Missouri-St. Louis and relocated from downtown St. Louis to the UMSL campus.  Its art-focused mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the works of Missouri-based artists.
 
To mark the organization’s 175 th anniversary, SLML seeks support for a multi-faceted project that will enhance the exhibition of the permanent collection on-site, and extend its reach through online access and exhibitions.  Project work will include conservation; the production of high-quality, digital photographs of approximately 200 works; lighting upgrades; reinstallation of the museum’s main gallery; and the activation of a touch-screen kiosk to provide visitors with fresh introductory content to the collection.  An additional feature of the project will be the production of an updated, print handbook of the collection.
 
Both the reinstallation and the publication will provide an opportunity for SLML to demonstrate a broadening of its concept of the art collection, which has long been known for regionally significant paintings, prints and drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts; and for important works by major artists including George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton.  The reconsidered American collection will also include: Native American works, notably objects from a collection of Southwestern pottery, beadwork, and textiles assembled by the Missouri artist R. H. Dick; recently acquired works by 20th-century St. Louis women artists; and “window paintings” from Ferguson, Missouri, acquired from a local merchant after the events of 2014.
 
The 175th anniversary project will be led by Julie Dunn-Morton, Curator of Fine Art Collection.  She will be assisted by a paid graduate intern from UMSL’s program in Museum Studies.
 
The proposed grant would fully underwrite the published handbook and the majority of costs associated with conservation, digitization, gallery upgrades, and reinstallation.