PROVIDENCE, RI, May 21, 2018 - National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $30,000 to the RISD Museum to support the upcoming exhibition Gorham Silver: Designing Brilliance 1850-1970. The Art Works category is the NEA's largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
"The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "Through the work of organizations such as the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are."
Commissioned to create everything from public presentation pieces to one-of-a-kind showstoppers for use in the private dining rooms of America, Gorham put uniquely American design and the aspirations of a youthful nation on the world stage. Gorham Silver: Designing Brilliance casts new light on the golden era of this company, first established in 1831 in Providence. Silver and mixed-metal wares produced from 1850 to 1970 are considered within social, cultural, industrial, aesthetic, and technological contexts. The RISD Museum owns over 2,200 pieces of Gorham silver and metalwork, the largest collection of objects by the American silver maker in a public institution. Designing Brilliance is the first multi-venue Gorham exhibition (it will also travel to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC), and the accompanying book, published by Rizzoli, is the first major comprehensive publication on Gorham since 1982.
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.