WKU News

The Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University has received a $246,233 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Museums for America program, to support inventorying and cataloging the Museum’s collection.

This grant will empower the Museum team to conduct an inventory of its extensive holdings, which began in 1929 when WKU alumnus C. Perry Snell donated a collection of 371 artworks and decorative arts items. Today, nearly 100 years later, the collection is estimated to contain over 50,000 artworks and artifacts, most of which are held at the Museum’s off-site storage facility. With funding from IMLS, the Museum will hire a full-time Inventory Assistant and several student interns, who will enter information about each artifact into the Museum’s collections management system, PastPerfect. This information will provide critical data related to the location, condition, and size of their artifact holdings that the Museum will utilize to further research and care for the collection.

“Inventories are a critical step in collections care,” shared Brent Bjorkman, Director of the Kentucky Museum. “The project benefits our campus and community because we will be able to make the collection records available in KenCat, our online collections portal – which visitors use to learn about our collections, faculty and students use in research and class projects, and which we use in creating exhibitions and programs. The information we gain will also allow us to plan for storage upgrades and conservation work and to begin working with campus and community members to research the history and provenance of each artifact. Overall, an inventory is what helps us to not only understand our collection but also our community’s history and, in turn, ourselves as Kentuckians.”

Notably, the IMLS-funded project will further several of the Kentucky Museum’s strategic goals, which are aligned with WKU’s Climbing to Greater Heights strategic plan. By securing staffing and funding for the inventory, the Museum will produce publicly accessible collections that incentivize research and creative activities, especially through expanding artifacts available for research, Close Study sessions, and collaboratively produced exhibitions. At present, only about 25% of the collection is estimated to be in KenCat, and this grant will help the Museum to substantially increase the number of artifacts that are catalogued and therefore searchable. This, in turn, will increase faculty participation in programming, enhance active learning across campus, and increase awareness of WKU faculty and students’ abilities to undertake projects, internships, fellowships, and service-learning work that prepares them to be engaged professionals.

Additionally, the inventory will empower the Museum to undertake planning for renovations to its artifact storage systems, building on prior IMLS and National Endowment for the Humanities-funded work that upgraded the facility’s mechanical systems. By detailing the size and condition of each object, the Museum can prepare for funding “box in a box” storage – a combination of acid-free boxes and new museum-grade cabinetry – that will create microclimates to protect artifacts from fluctuations in temperature and humidity without the need for expensive mechanical system replacements or high-energy-cost controls, thus meeting both museum needs and the university’s energy efficiency mandates.

 “The Kentucky Museum is grateful and honored to receive this IMLS grant as it builds squarely on our continuing goal to advance our ability to share our rich expressive archival collection,” said Bjorkman. “This project will be central to assisting the Kentucky Museum to better serve our wide base of constituents that include WKU students and faculty, museum members, and provide new avenues for intimate archival exploration by researchers from across the Commonwealth and beyond.”

About IMLS

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and X.

About the Kentucky Museum

The Kentucky Museum celebrates all aspects of southcentral Kentucky’s art, history and culture. “Kentuckians need to know Kentucky” was the Museum’s earliest conceptual framework, which took shape under WKU’s founding President, Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry. Today, the Museum is a steadfast educational campus partner helping to inspire innovation, elevate community and transform the lives of WKU students and the region. To learn more, visit wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/

For more information, contact Brent Bjorkman at 270-745-6261.