A Night of Wine Tasting

A night of friends, fun and wine!

Southwest High School string quartet provided beautiful music all night

Last night the IVDM Society Board held their annual Wine Tasting event- and a great time was had by all!  125 museum members, guests, and wine lovers from across the county joined us at the El Centro Community Center for a night of wine, music, conversation, and high stakes bidding on a range of silent auction items. All wines were from Fernando Gaxiola and Baja Wine Food.  Beautiful chamber music was provided by members of Southwest High School's talented orchestra.Interim Director David Breeckner said "It was great seeing old friends tonight, but also really exciting to see so many new faces!"  More than half the people in attendance were at their first IVDM event.

Silent Auction- bidding war!

Over $13,000 was raised this year and all proceeds from the Wine Tasting go to the museum's Endowment Fund. When fully funded, the Endowment will support two permanent staff positions at the museum: a Head Curator and a Cultural Collections and Programs Manager.  These positions are vital to retain the necessary expertise for collections management and preservation on staff.  Every successful museum program stems from the preservation and accessibility of our local collections. Best of all, through 2019 all donations towards the Endowment are being matched by a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities!  The goal of this five year grant has been to raise $1 million for the Endowment Fund and before last night, we were less than $300,000 to our goal.  Through July, the NEH grant will match donations dollar for dollar, so everyone's contributions are doubled! If you are interested in donating towards this grant, please click here.

Edgar rocked the hair and the wine pouring all night!

Olla Project begins

-from Anne C Morgan, Head Curator

Frank Salazar placing small olla in new, archival, box

Today we began an exciting new project.  Thanks to funds from a National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Grant, we were able to buy archival supplies that will provide safer, more secure storage for many of the ceramics that are not currently on display in our Visible Storage exhibit.

Angelina Coble "This was so much fun!"

Cultural Collections and Program Manager, Frank J. Salazar III, a member of the Campo Kumeyaay Nation; Head Curator Anne Morgan; and Education staff Angelina Coble spent today building archival boxes, choosing ceramics that would fit the boxes, photographing them, updating their records in our PastPerfect database, and carefully placing them in the new boxes.  Archival, non-reactive foam padding placed inside the boxes will help to pad the ollas, meaning less jostling in the event of an earthquake.  Creating labels with photos on them means less handling of the artifacts, which means they are more secure.  And the ability of the boxes to stack means that storage will become easier, safer, and there will be more room for additional artifact boxes.

While it will take several weeks to complete, this project is a win-win for the museum and the artifacts entrusted in its care!

New boxes means more efficient, safer, storage!

Two NEH Grants Awarded

Today the National Endowment for the Humanities released the 2015 grant awards and we are elated to announce that the IVDM has been awarded two grants: 


Preservation Assistance Grant to bring in a consultant from the Arizona State Museum to evaluate storage layout and purchase supplies to improve storage and environmental conditions for the collections. $4,255

Challenge Grant to provide seed money for an endowment to support two permanent staff positions - the Head Curator and the Cultural Collections and Programs Curator 
Award of $260,000 upon a 3:1 match of $780,000 by 2019

We'd like to thank everyone who has given to the endowment over the past year. Developing a base of broad community support was important to show NEH that we can be successful if we won the grant, and it worked. The award of the Challenge Grant is an exciting development! We were one of 16 museums across the nation to receive this grant and at the end of the project we'll have over a million dollars to support staffing. Thank you for your support!

The National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence

The National Endowment of the Humanities supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities by funding top-rated competitive, peer-reviewed proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this blog, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.