Wolfsonian-FIU receives Mellon Foundation grant


Three-year award will establish teaching gallery and fellowship program.

By Sissi Aguila

The Wolfsonian-FIU has been awarded a three-year, $500,000 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-FIU will undertake with support from this grant are the establishment of a teaching gallery at University Park in collaboration with the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum.

The museum also will provide stipends to faculty members so they can integrate objects from its collections in their teaching, as well as develop new courses based upon the museum’s resources. It will create a fellowship program for Ph.D. candidates in the Department of History, who will use The Wolfsonian-FIU’s resources in their dissertation research, and it will establish a semester-long visiting scholar program that will bring distinguished scholars from around the United States to the museum in order to work with faculty and students.

“Since joining FIU in 1997, The Wolfsonian-FIU has worked hard to encourage the use of its resources by faculty and students and to integrate the museum’s collections into teaching and advanced research,” said Cathy Leff, museum director. “The Mellon grant will enable us to significantly strengthen our integration with the academic programs of the university.”

In the fall, the Wolfsonian will hire a grant coordinator with the help of the Material and Visual Culture Group, a team of faculty members across many disciplines who meet regularly to incorporate advanced learning and teaching into the museum’s programs. For more information on this group and/or to join in their efforts, contact Jon Mogul at 305-535-2613.

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