The Delaware Art Museum received a $130,000 Museums of America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant will help fund a two-year Collections Stewardship project, which will make over 5,000 works on paper from the museum’s collection available to the public through a new searchable digital database.

In June 2013 the Delaware Art Museum received funding from the Welfare Foundation to begin a five-phase Collections Accessibility Plan. The recent IMLS grant will fund the second phase of the initiative. The institution plans to have most of its collection available online by 2018. The goal of the project is to reinforce the Delaware Art Museum’s mission “to connect people to art.” The Delaware Art Museum boasts a large collection and one of the most comprehensive groupings of Pre-Raphaelite art outside of the United Kingdom.

Margaretta Frederick, Chief Curator and Curator of the Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art, said, “This is an incredible opportunity for the Museum. Putting the collection online allows us to serve our diverse audiences more effectively through expanded access to collections-related information, images, and scholarship.”