For more information on the Andrew W. Mellon Challenge Grant please contact:

Brian Reddington
Director of Institutional Advancement
Office of Development
Smithsonian Institution
1000 Jefferson Drive, SW, Room 490
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 035
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Tel: 202-633-5019
202-786-2516
E-mail: ReddingtonB@si.edu

Robert J. Koestler, Ph.D.
Director
Museum Conservation Institute
Smithsonian Institution
Museum Support Center, Room D2005
4210 Silver Hill Road
Suitland, MD 20746-2863
Tel: 301-238-1205
Fax: 301-238-3709
E-mail: KoestlerR@si.edu
Web site: www.si.edu/mci/

Mellon Grant Launches Campaign for Directorship

The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) was awarded a challenge grant of $1.75 million by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to establish an endowment for the MCI directorship. In order to realize the challenge, MCI must raise $3.25 million to fully endow at $5 million the directorship at MCI.  With this challenge grant the institution has the ability to permanently name the directorship for a single gift of $3.25 million.

The Museum Conservation Institute, located just outside Washington, D.C., in Suitland, Maryland, is the Smithsonian Institution’s center for advanced scientific study and conservation of museum collections.  As a pan-institutional unit, MCI serves as a critical resource for most of the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, and offices, first and foremost by providing them with the scientific expertise they need to carry out their responsibilities for the diverse collections under their care.

MCI’s work is interdisciplinary.  Our highly skilled teams of scientists and conservators, state-of-the-art instrumentation, and a history of significant research have combined to establish MCI’s standing as a major contributor to the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide.  
MCI conducts in-depth studies of artistic, anthropological, and historic objects using state-of-the-art analytical techniques to elucidate the provenance, composition, and cultural context of Smithsonian collections, and to improve our conservation and collections storage capabilities.

The endowed Directorship will allow MCI to increase its investment in high priority research areas, such as developing new methods of nano-scale analysis for museum materials; understanding the degradation of modern museum and industrial materials; applying genomic, proteomic, and isotopic technologies to biological materials in museum collections; and detecting and controlling the biodeterioration of cultural heritage, by hiring new research scientists and supporting their work.  Also, it will allow MCI to support scientific analysis throughout the Smithsonian by developing a fully-accessible research core with state-of-the-art analytical capabilities by acquiring new instruments and secure operating funds. 

MCI, now occupying 25,000 square feet, currently has a staff of twenty one, including research scientists, conservation scientists, conservators (in furniture, objects, paintings, and textiles), and administrators.  Annually, MCI handles more than 125 requests for analysis and conservation assistance and completes more than 7,500 scientific analyses, which lead to 58 publications in 2008. MCI has unique analytical capabilities and collections knowledge, as shown by requests for consultations from within the Smithsonian, from Smithsonian affiliates, and outside organizations, such as the White House, U.S. House of Representatives, Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Secret Service, World Monuments Fund, and other federal, museum, and academic organizations.