The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will receive a nearly $200,000 covid 19-relief grant that will help retain five curatorial and collection staff members, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced Monday.
The $195,374 award is part of $87.8 million in American Rescue Plan grants announced nationwide, money sourced from the $1.9 trillion federal legislation signed March 11 by President Joe Biden.
In the only other Arkansas grant this round, the City of Little Rock received $82,474 to retain a full-time staff member and support scholars who maintain the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The arts museum, located in MacArthur Park in Little Rock, is undergoing a $142 million expansion and renovation project expected to wrap up in about a year. The grant will support staff members responsible for "planning and implementing" the redone museum's first exhibitions.
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Executive Director Victoria Ramirez said Monday that officials were "especially grateful" for covid-related relief funding in the past year -- in which the pandemic's economic affects were layered onto already pared-back money-making opportunities during the overhaul project.
Speaking during the museum's annual meeting, Ramirez said government assistance comprised 18% of the museum's $4.4 million revenue in the budget year that ended June 30.
The museum received close to $250,000 in covid-related grant funding in the last budget year, according to information later provided by Devin Hancock, the museum's foundation relations and grants manager.
Those sources included the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Arkansas Humanities Council, the Arkansas Arts Council and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston.
Awards announced Monday were part of a broader relief campaign overseen by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency tasked with distributing $135 million in total American Rescue Plan grants to cultural institutions affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
In June, the agency provided a $759,297 grant to the Arkansas Humanities Council, which is offering $25,000 maximum awards to museums, libraries and other cultural institutions across the state.