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Charitable trust awards $1.5M grant to Houston museum

Staff -- Interior Design, 11/14/2001 12:51:00 PM

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, www.mfah.org, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Louisa Stude Sarofim Charitable Trust to endow The Carol Crow Photography Conservator Chair.

Calling the position 'essential to the maintenance and growth of the museum's outstanding photography collection,' the Louisa Stude Sarofim Charitable Trust endowed The Carol Crow Photography Conservator Chair of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with a grant for $1.5 million.

The full-time position, which is unfilled, will work with Anne Wilkes Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, to preserve and conserve the thousands of photographs in the MFAH collection.

The chair is named after late Houston photographer Carol Crow. 'This endowment will make the photography department stronger and ensure its longevity,' said Peter Marzio, MFAH director. A consulting conservator had addressed the museum's photography conservation needs in the past, but the growth of the collection and the growing number of photography exhibitions has rendered that arrangement inadequate. Increased awareness in the museum's collection has also led to an increase in loan requests for other museum exhibitions and for reproductions in commerical and scholarly publications. A conservation evaluation is required before a loan is permitted.

Tucker has directed the department for its entire 25-year history. She was recently named 'America's Best Curator' by Time magazine and has accumulated more than 12,000 photographs from around the world during her tenure.

Currently on exhibit at the museum is 'A Love Affair with Picture: 25 years of Collecting Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston' until Dec. 30. Upcoming exhibits include 'A Louis Faurer Retrospective,' 'Postwar Italian Photography,' 'DANCER: Photographs by Irving Penn' and 'Americanos: Latino Life in the United States.'