NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Wilner & Company announced a continued commitment of funds from several private benefactors to assist not-for-profit or government supported institutions with their framing and frame restoration needs. For projects of significant historical importance, these patrons are often able to offer substantial matching funds towards a curatorial team's available budget.
As of January 2019, the available funding is not as generous as in prior years, so institutions are advised to submit their projects with some urgency. Reframing and frame restoration proposals are currently being received and reviewed on a near daily basis by the Wilner gallery staff who hope to be able to accommodate as many projects as possible.
In 40 years of business, Mr. Wilner and his staff of frame historians and studio artisans have accomplished dozens of complicated, unique, and important framing projects for some of the most famous institutions in the United States. Some of the most notable among these include the recreation of the lost frame on Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, twenty two projects for the White House during the Clinton Administration, and a trio of large-scale paintings by Thomas Moran in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
More recently, the firm has continued their philanthropic outreach with a focus on smaller regional institutions, including university museums and historic houses who often have limited financial resources to put toward proper framing services. In 2018, with the help of this program, Wilner created historically-appropriate replica frames for the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, the Allentown Art Museum, the Rockwell Museum of Art in Corning, NY, the Palm Springs Art Museum, the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY and the RISD Museum, among others. In addition, important frame restorations were completed for the University of Denver Art Collections, the Historic Charleston Foundation’s Aiken - Rhett House, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City.
While in progress many of these projects became lively topics of discussion during the highly popular guided tours of the Eli Wilner & Company studio in Long Island City, NY. These behind-the-scenes tours offer a rare insight into the frame-making and
restoration processes, and guests are even given the opportunity to try their own hand at carving and gilding, following demonstrations by Wilner’s highly skilled staff. Over the years, these types of educational and social events have been arranged for a variety of groups including the Neue Galerie’s Junior Council, the Met Museum’s Apollo Circle, various museum docent groups, representatives of fine art shipping companies, Christie’s Education, Sotheby’s Institute, and many of the private collectors in Wilner’s longtime client base.
Eli Wilner & Company looks forward to another year of collaborating with curators and directors across the country to preserve history and help publicly display important art and artifacts, in order to ultimately benefit the museum-goer’s experience for generations to come.
Institutions are invited to send proposals to info@eliwilner.com with subject line: “Museum Funding Submission, [Name of Institution]”
Here are the Basic submission requirements:
● Images of the artwork(s) in need of historically-appropriate replica framing
● Images of the frame(s) in need of restoration
● Approximate sizes
● Any relevant historical information that might be of particular interest to the project benefactors (optional)
● Deadlines such as exhibition openings or other notable events (optional)
● Retail pricing, budgets, and available funding are usually discussed immediately following a review of the submitted proposal.
