SIUE University Museum Awarded Federal Grant From The Institute For Museum And Library Services

EDWARDSVILLE - SIUE, the College of Arts and Sciences and the University Museum proudly announce that the University Museum has been awarded a federal grant for $200,427 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to work on Stage IV of the Museum Collections Inventory Project!

Executive Curator for SIUE's University Museum, Erin Vigneau-Dimick, served as the sole grant writer for the University Museum. The federal Institute for Museum and Library Services offers multiple annual grant opportunities. The program is called Museums for America.

"Starting as a collection of public art integrated into the SIUE campus in 1963, the University Museum (UM) was incorporated as an independent unit in 1979 to manage and curate its fine art holdings. At that time, the collections numbered less than 4,000 and consisted of fine artworks such as paintings, prints, textiles, photographs and sculptures. Now, the museum is home to over 40,000 artistic, anthropological, architectural and archaeological objects and natural history items," writes Executive Curator, Erin Vigneau-Dimick.

According to Vigneau-Dimick, "The University Museum’s strategic plan describes the achievement of intellectual and physical control of the collections as the highest priority. Identified through a 2016 IMLS MAP Assessment it was found that the UM database of more than 31,000 records had not been verified with a full inventory."

"There were three previous stages of the Collections Inventory project that were grant funded. Stage I of the project, funded by a FY19 IMLS Museums for America grant, inventoried 10,000 items from the displayed collections, fine arts 2-dimensional collections and 50% of the Native American collections, was completed in 2021.

Stage II, funded by a FY21 IMLS Museums for America grant to inventory 10,000 items from Native American, Eurasian, African, and Oceania collections was completed in December 2023. Stage III, funded by a FY23 IMLS Museums for America grant to inventory 11,000+ objects of the South and Central American, American History, and 3-dimensional contemporary artwork collections was completed in December 2025.

This stage, Stage IV of the inventory, proposes to inventory 10,000+ objects of American Decorative Arts, Militariana, Fossils, Numismatics, American Architectural Ornament and other small collections. The expected timeframe for Stage IV completion is 24 months. This grant funding will allow the museum to temporarily increase project staff to inventory approximately 10,000 museum objects found in the museum archive while identifying and recording items that were previously undocumented. The data collected will provide a foundation for subsequent projects leading to greater preservation of the museum artifacts, as well as increased access via digital collections management systems," explains Vigneau-Dimick.

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Starting as a collection of public art integrated into the SIUE campus in 1963, the University Museum(UM) was incorporated as an independent unit in 1979 to manage and curate its fine art holdings. At that time, the collections numbered less than 4,000 and consisted of fine artworks such as paintings, prints, textiles, photographs and sculptures. Now, the museum is home to over 40,000 artistic, anthropological, architectural and archaeological objects and natural history items.

The University Museum’s strategic plan describes the achievement of intellectual and physical control of the collections as the highest priority. Identified through a 2016 IMLS MAP Assessment it was found that the UM database of more than 31,000 records had not been verified with a full inventory.

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