Grants and donations surge, promoting improved collections care

The museum last year attained a record level of funding.

We earned grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’s Inspire! Program, Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, Colorado Wyoming Association of Museums, and Boulder County Community Foundation.

These grants totaled some $54,000, much of which will be received in 2024.

Further, the museum’s funding from SCFD, a cultural funding clearing house serving several counties in Northern Colorado, increased as well.

The museum also benefitted greatly from generous donors; last year we received more than $10,000 in donations. Of that total, the museum received nearly $2,500 generated by Colorado Gives Day, more than double the proceeds from our 2022 campaign

Using monies from the 2022 Greenwood Fund Denver Foundation grant, we took major strides to rehouse our collection of historic clothing.

We also began flattening and rehousing maps in the Louis Gaz Mine Map Collection with funds provided by the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board.

Moreover, we began the large-scale effort to conduct a formal inventory of the museum’s entire array of 4,000 artifacts, an endeavor funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

To that end, in October, we used grant money to hire a part-time employee, Kota Fleming, to carry out the project. She has a strong curatorial background and brings experience carrying out inventories, leading teams, and creating effective work processes.