TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Museum of Art has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Bank of America for the conservation of its recent acquisition of Haitian art. The collection consists of paintings, sculptures, and framed maps bequeathed to the Tampa Museum of Art by the Arthur R. Albrecht Revocable Trust last August. Albrecht was a devoted collector of Haitian art and was also active in philanthropy on behalf of the country.
“This grant by Bank of America is an example of how businesses can collaborate with the arts to preserve rich cultural heritage,” said Michael Tomor, Ph.D., the Penny and Jeff Vinik Executive Director at the Tampa Museum of Art. “We are always in pursuit of opportunities to work with private institutions to ensure these works can be enjoyed for generations to come.”
At the time of the acquisition, the Museum also received a $1 million endowment gift from the Albrecht Trust in support of the collection and programming. The new $100,000 grant from Bank of America will go toward preservation projects and allow for a larger portion of the Albrecht Trust to be used for educational programming related to the newly acquired artwork.
“The private sector has a role to play in keeping the arts thriving in our communities, which is why we partnered with the Tampa Museum of Art to help preserve the historical and cultural impact of this art,” says Bill Goede, president, Bank of America Tampa Bay. “We believe that investments in arts and culture help to build our Tampa Bay community and have a positive impact on the lives of our clients and employees. We are committed to preserving these pieces that celebrate Tampa’s strong Haitian population.”
This support is part of Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project (ACP), a unique program through which the bank provides grant funding to nonprofit museums and cultural institutions around the world to help conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of deterioration. Since it began in 2010, Bank of America has funded the conservation of individual pieces of art through more than 237 projects in 40 countries across six continents, conserving paintings, sculptures, and archaeological and architectural pieces that are critically important to cultural heritage and the history of art.
The combined gifts and grants accompanying the collection complement ongoing fundraising efforts by the Museum’s Centennial Campaign for Renovation and Expansion. The Museum completed renovations of the Vinik Family Education Center last summer, growing the education space from 1,400 to 8,000 square feet, including four classrooms, a lobby, orientation spaces, and a secure entrance. With these improvements in place, the Museum anticipates quadrupling the number of students it serves per year, and the school tour program alone can grow from 6,000 students to 24,000 each year.
In 2021, the Museum announced it was embarking on its $100 million+ Centennial Renovation and Expansion to expand the Museum’s gross area from 69,000 to 125,000 sq. ft. On April 26, the Museum celebrated the completion of its renovations, with all exhibitions in new gallery spaces open to the public.
See some of the artwork that recently underwent conservation in the exhibition Reframing Haitian Art: Masterworks from the Arthur Albrecht Collection on view now through May 2024.
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