Centenary's Meadows Museum to benefit from $100,000 improvement grant
February 15, 2017
SHREVEPORT, LA — An anonymous donor has provided a generous grant to fund a variety of improvements at Centenary’s Meadows Museum of Art. The $100,000 grant will transform the interior of the museum with new hardwood floors and will also cover upgrades in security and climate control systems.
According to Meadows co-directors Bruce Allen and Lisa Nicoletti, the security and climate upgrades allow the Meadows to fulfill a major aspect of the museum's institutional plan approved by its accrediting organization, the American Alliance of Museums.
“Having a state of the art security system is the hard-to-realize dream of every museum,” say Allen and Nicoletti. “It allows museums to host higher profile traveling exhibitions. Hard flooring also makes it easier to move objects when installing new exhibitions, like temporary walls, pedestals, and shipping crates."
Installing hardwood floors throughout the Meadows will improve the environment for the art since it is less likely to harbor mold and pests than carpet. The Meadows is also a popular venue for receptions and events, so durable hardwood floors are a good long-term investment for the museum. Other improvements, including adding more security cameras and installing energy-efficient digital thermometers, may go unnoticed by visitors but will help preserve and protect both traveling exhibits and the Meadows’ extensive permanent collection of over 1,600 art works.
"We host such beautiful exhibitions at the Meadows; now the flooring will be worthy of all the art we preserve and display, and will complement the great curatorial work of Centenary students,” adds Nicoletti.
Current offerings at the Meadows include two exhibits highlighting the art of East Texan Lee Baxter Davis and that of his former students, who went on to become internationally acclaimed artists, and an exhibition examining the art and science of color in the work of Jean Despujols, whose Indochina paintings form the core of the Meadows’ permanent collection. Centenary students and faculty from biology, neuroscience, psychology, art, communication, and design collaborated to create this exhibit that examines the role of color in both perception and art while showcasing Despujols’ beautiful, bold paintings.
Planned exhibitions for 2017-2018 include Unraveled by South Carolina artist Jim Arendt, who uses reclaimed denim to explore changing landscapes of work and labor; a portrait series by Nathan Madrid that investigates our culture’s perception of “otherness” and exposes how prescribed labels often determine behavior toward certain social groups; and a retrospective of abstract prints by Shreveport native and college educator William Scarlato. Information about current and upcoming exhibitions is available at centenary.edu/meadows.
About the Meadows Museum of Art:
The Meadows Museum of Art is located on the campus of Centenary College of Louisiana at 2911 Centenary Boulevard in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Museum is free and open to the public Mondays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesdays from noon to 7:45 p.m., Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon, Fridays from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4:00 p.m. The Museum is closed on Saturdays and during all school holidays. For more information or to schedule field trips, call the Museum at 318.869.5040 or visit centenary.edu/meadows.