Bennington Museum receives $46,000 NEH Challenge grant

Funding for a greener future!

Bennington Museum is proud to join the ranks of the 245 organizations across the country that are receiving new grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) totaling $33.17 million. Included in those awards was $52,173 for the state of Vermont, $46,173 of which was awarded to Bennington Museum for the purchase and installation of energy-saving windows for the historic building.

NEH funds were divided into 13 categories, the largest of which ($11 million worth) was reserved for 23 institutions taking part in the infrastructure and capacity building challenge – a category intended to leverage matching funds to support the literal building blocks of cultural organizations. This grant builds on a seed gift made by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation last summer, and with ancillary support from the Edwin S. Webster Foundation, brings Bennington Museum to within three-quarters of the window rehabilitation project goal.

“This is the first NEH grant to be awarded to Bennington Museum in over 20 years and stands to leverage further support and endorsement for the important work that we do to present the cultural treasures of this region,” says Martin Mahoney, executive director.

Consie West, board chair, agrees: “I am delighted to learn of the Museum’s success in obtaining the highly competitive NEH grant to help with the project to weatherize our windows. This will pay benefits in energy and cost savings for years into the future.”

Bennington Museum will begin the window insulation and repair work this coming July with the help of Willet Hauser, a national firm specializing in custom-built storm frames for church structures. Over the next few years the Museum will track energy use reduction using an Energy Star reporting system and will continue to make building envelope upgrades in service of improving their environmental stewardship and setting a ‘greener’ trajectory for the community.