Collecting in a Changing World

Though painted nearly 90 years ago, the watercolor landscape recently donated to the Museum of Northern Arizona remains vibrant with washes of red dirt, blue skies, and orange sunlight glinting off the Piestewa Peaks. But lift the mat holding this painting and you’ll spot a problem. Natural acids in the mat have begun to discolor the edges of the paper. Luckily, now that the painting is part of the museum collections it is one of 2,044 works on paper about to be rehoused through a $343,812 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This three-year project will preserve these artworks for future generations, by creating a more stable environment to slow the chemical processes of degradation.