Tulsa World
James Watts
Two rarely seen collections at Gilcrease Museum may soon yield all their secrets, thanks to a $890,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
The grant, from the foundation’s American Art Program, will help Gilcrease Museum in researching, conserving and digitizing two extensive groups of works on paper that, because of their delicacy, have rarely been put on display at the museum or loaned to other institutions.
One collection is that of works by famed American landscape artist Thomas Moran, as well as works by his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, herself a talented artist and printmaker. The combined collection of prints, sketches, watercolors and archival material, such as letters and catalogs of works, number more than 2,300 items.
The other collection is more than 1,500 works by Plains Indian artists from the mid-1800s to the present day, ranging from drawings on hides to contemporary paintings.
The Henry Luce Foundation was founded in 1936 by Henry Luce, who created the magazines Time, Fortune and Life.