The Mellon Foundation is supporting two Fellowships at the University of Miami to promote and facilitate object-centered learning and research at the University of Miami Libraries and the Lowe Art Museum through the Mellon Foundation CREATE Grants Program and other educational initiatives related to teaching, research, and scholarship on artwork, artifacts, and archival materials.
Clara Huisman, Mellon Foundation Fellow for Academic Engagement, focuses her conservation efforts on paper-based collections at the University of Miami Libraries and the Lowe Art Museum. She works closely with conservation staff on CREATE Grant projects that require conservation of paper-based objects.
Christina Larson, Mellon Foundation Fellow for Academic Engagement, promotes the Mellon Foundation CREATE Grants Program and develops partnerships with faculty members to enhance teaching, research, and scholarship that focuses on the cultural resources–artwork, artifacts, and archival materials–at the University of Miami Libraries and the Lowe Art Museum.
CREATE is an inter-disciplinary, cross-curricular committee designed to encourage and oversee the integration of the University of Miami Libraries and Lowe Art Museum (“UMLLAM”)’s cultural resource collections into the teaching, learning, and research agendas of UM faculty, students, and external constituencies. To that end, CREATE will assist with the recruitment and appointment of two new Mellon Foundation Fellows (one for Paper Conservation and one for Academic Engagement). Once appointed, these Fellows will be supported by CREATE, who will advise on the prioritization of the Fellows’ projects and provide critical input on the Fellows’ undertakings to ensure that they fulfill stated goals and objectives (which CREATE will also help to articulate and refine).
CREATE will refine application criteria for faculty seeking support from a newly established programming fund. This fund, generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, is specifically designed to more closely align the conservation, education, and engagement initiatives of the Libraries and the Lowe while also ensuring that their collections are explored, “exploited,” and commingled in new and innovative ways that further UMLLAM and the University’s missions. To ensure that these objectives are met, CREATE will solicit submissions from across the campus, provide advice to faculty who are developing proposals, review applications, making funding awards, and review the final reports of completed projects. CREATE will also address broader topics brought to the Committee by the co-chairs related to the overall project goal of creating a platform for cultural resources support at the University of Miami. Further, the Committee will be responsible for working with the project PIs on qualitative and quantitative assessments of the work of the Fellows as well as projects funded through the process described above on a regular basis (annually for Fellows and for the programming fund generally; at the conclusion of each funded project, which will occur on a rolling basis).
