The Steffen Thomas Museum & Archives, Inc. (STMA) has announced that it has received a $95,400 grant to support the preservation of STMA’s nationally significant archives, which requires a dollar-for-dollar local match to complete vital conservation work.
This project is funded in part by a Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grant from the Historic Preservation Fund, as administered by the National Parks Service (NPS), Department of the Interior.
The Steffen Thomas Legacy Archive Conservation is being funded as part of over $25 million awarded nationwide. This two-year project will allow the STMA Archives to digitally catalogue thousands of non-art materials related to Steffen Thomas’ life, art, and legacy.
The grant will be supervised by Lisa Thomas Conner, the youngest daughter of Steffen and Sara Thomas, who will be working with a Museum Collections project manager.
Conner will provide a major portion of the matching funds by volunteering her time to detail and share stories about Steffen Thomas’s life. As of today, STMA has cataloged thousands of Steffen Thomas’ artworks in the collections management database (PastPerfect).
This project will focus on digitizing non-art materials to be included in the database, with accurate details of Thomas’ life and contributions.
The purpose of this award is to develop a more formalized collections management policy, and train museum staff on that policy, to ensure consistent arrangements and vocabularies as the museum moves forward, as well as to digitize, catalog, and publish the collection of Steffen Thomas' archival materials to save them for the future and make them accessible to the public.
Steffen Thomas Museum and Archives, DBA Steffen Thomas Museum of Art, a single-artist museum, preserves, exhibits, and teaches with thousands of works of art by German immigrant and master artist Steffen Thomas (1906-1990). The museum housing the art and archives is located in middle Georgia, near Madison, at 4200 Bethany Rd., Buckhead.
For more information, concerns, or questions about the grant and project, call STMA at 706-342-7557, email info@steffenthomas.org, or visit steffenthomas.org.