Governor Adds $1.5 Million to Museum Campaign

Erie, PA, August 30, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Governor Ed Rendell and other state and local officials lined the steps of the Erie Art Museum as the governor announced a $1.5 million dollar boost to the Erie Art Museum Capital Campaign, Friday, August 25.  The $1.5 million grant puts the Museum halfway to its $9 million goal for the capital campaign, which will fund the Museum’s planned expansion.

Rendell touted the Museum’s expansion saying the planned cultural facility is an important component in the growing tourism industry in Erie.  With the Bayfront Convention Center currently under construction, the Museum’s new building will provide conventioneers with an additional downtown hot spot.  It will also act as a stand-alone destination for the millions of cultural tourists looking for new and exciting places to go every year.

The Erie Art Museum is northwestern Pennsylvania's leading arts institution.  The Museum features an ambitious schedule of 18 to 20 changing exhibitions annually. Embracing a wide range of subjects, both historical and contemporary, exhibitions encompass folk art, contemporary craft, multi-disciplinary installations, community-based work, and public art as well as traditional media. Exhibitions are installed on the main floor and ground floor galleries of the Museum, in the Frame Shop Gallery, in the  Annex gallery, and at other sites in throughout the community. The Museum holds a collection of 5,000 objects which includes significant works in American ceramics, Tibetan paintings, Indian bronzes, contemporary baskets, and a variety of other categories. The Museum also organizes a variety of traveling exhibitions available to other museums and galleries. Through the traveling exhibition program, Erie Art Museum exhibitions have been displayed all over the country and beyond.

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