11/19/01

AUBURN SENATOR AWARDS COMMUNITY GRANT TO AU'S JCSM OF ART

AUBURN -- State Sen. Ted Little, D-Auburn, has presented Auburn University's Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art with a $5,000 check from a community service grant.

The grant, given to Michael De Marsche, director of The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, was awarded by a state review committee based on an application that substantiates educational criteria.

"I feel that it is an honorable priority to take a community service grant and put it into an institution such as a new art museum in my district," Little said. "The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art will offer individuals who appreciate works of art an opportunity to lift up their quality of life and the museum will be enriching for the entire community. "In times of national crisis and economic downturn, the arts become a sustaining force to individuals who want to appreciate the heritage this world has to offer."

De Marsche thanked Little for the grant, saying the museum is committed to providing education in the arts to all citizens.

"The museum will offer educational opportunities for all ages, including a lecture series of noted speakers, outreach programs coordinated within the school systems, museum tours locally and abroad and scholarly literature that will accompany exhibitions," says De Marsche.

"The museum is privately funded. Our educational efforts are entirely dependent on private donations and grants such as the one Sen. Little has provided."

The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art at Auburn University, located on South College Street, is currently under construction. Once completed in spring 2003, the 40,000-square-foot facility will be the only university art museum in Alabama.

Privately funded by Albert and Jule Collins Smith and other donors, museum urrently has 535 members. The goal is to reach 1,000 members by the time the museum opens.

The museum initiated its educational programming in October, bringing Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to campus.

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nov01: AU-Littlecheck

CONTACT: De Marsche, 334/844-1484.