Press Release

PRESS RELEASE
April 10, 2008

MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO FOUNDATION RECEIVES $750,000 KRESGE FOUNDATION GRANT FOR NEW MEXICO HISTORY MUSEUM


Prestigious Kresge Challenge Grant, Other Recent Gifts Fund History Museum Exhibits

Santa Fe, N.M. - The Museum of New Mexico Foundation has been awarded a $750,000 challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation to help build exhibitions at the New Mexico History Museum, currently under construction adjacent to the historic Palace of the Governors in downtown Santa Fe. The prestigious award is part of the private, Michigan-based Kresge Foundation's Challenge Grant Program, which is designed to assist nonprofit organizations to fund capital projects by providing grants that challenge them to raise the additional funds needed to meet their respective capital campaign goals.

The Museum of New Mexico Foundation is a private nonprofit organization that provides funding for the History Museum and other museums and monuments owned by the State of New Mexico. The Museum Foundation-History Museum award was the only one given in New Mexico during The Kresge Foundation's most recent award cycle. The Kresge Foundation will grant $750,000 to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation once the Museum Foundation has raised all but $750,000 of its $6.5 million campaign goal. To date, the Museum Foundation has raised $4.45 million in private gifts for the History Museum, leaving $1.3 million to be raised by June 2009, the Kresge Foundation's deadline to fulfill the award.

"We applaud your efforts to build paths of opportunity within your community," says Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation, which supports nonprofit organizations in areas of health, environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. "Ensuring the health and vitality of nonprofit organizations such as yours is central to building strong, vibrant communities. We are proud to help advance your very important work." New Mexico History Museum Director Frances Levine says the Kresge award acknowledges the hard work of the museum's staff, the Foundation and other supporters to extend the reach of the museum by attracting new constituencies, growing visitation, and serving museum visitors with expanded programs and visitor services.

"The Kresge grant is not only a prestigious award for the work we have done to plan the New Mexico History Museum, it is national recognition of the level of effort that has gone into exhibition design, and more importantly, the work of reaching our constituents," Levine says. "We are grateful for the support of Kresge and the many, many people who are joining us in our work on the History Museum as a result of the Kresge challenge." The Kresge Foundation grant is one of a number of recent major gifts that will help build the innovative exhibitions at the heart of the History Museum's visitor experience. Among these are:

  • $1 million: Messengers of Healing Winds Foundation, Santa Fe
  • $750,000: Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, Houston, Texas
  • $500,000: The Frost Foundation, Santa Fe
  • $500,000 Eddie and Phyllis Gladden, Santa Fe
  • $100,000: Brindle Foundation, Santa Fe
  • $100,000: The Delle Foundation, Santa Fe

These gifts, and others, are all part of Museum of New Mexico Foundation's $22 million "Shape the Future" campaign to support endowment and capital projects for cultural initiatives and growth at the following Museum Foundation-affiliated institutions: New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, six state monuments and the Office of Archaeological Studies. Private gifts totaling $17.5 million have been raised through the Shape the Future campaign to date, including the $4.45 million for New Mexico History Museum exhibitions.

"We are grateful to the many foundations and individuals who have so generously supported the History Museum, the cornerstone of our Shape the Future campaign," says Museum of New Mexico Foundation Trustee Eileen Wells, Chair of the Shape the Future Campaign. "With continued support we will meet the Kresge challenge so that all New Mexicans can look forward to the opening of the History Museum." The 96,000-square-foot New Mexico History Museum is scheduled to open in May 2009. Located adjacent to the centuries-old Palace of the Governors, which has served as the state history museum since 1909, the New Mexico History Museum will anchor a cultural complex that includes a restored Palace of the Governors, the Fray Angelico Chávez History Library and Photo Archives, and the Palace Press. As the repository for the state's historic patrimony-including more than 800,000 artifacts, historical documents, photographs, and books representing key periods in New Mexico history-the innovative new museum will stand as the largest cultural investment ever made in historic downtown Santa Fe.

To learn about the Shape the Future campaign, contact Museum of New Mexico Foundation Development Director Colleen Kelly at 982-6366, ext. 107, or colleenk@museumfoundation.org or visit www.museumfoundation.org * * *

Founded in 1962, the private, non-profit Museum of New Mexico Foundation provides funding for exhibitions, education, collections, capital improvements and other valuable programs and projects at the Museum of New Mexico. More than 12,000 foundation members statewide and across the U.S. support the Palace of the Governors and the New Mexico History Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of International Folk Art, and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology; six state monuments; and the Office of Archaeological Studies. For more information about the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, call 505-982-6366 or visit www.museumfoundation.org