NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Wilner & Company extends another fully-funded frame restoration grant opportunity to museums and other non-profit cultural institutions. Frame restoration projects are often among the last initiatives considered for inclusion in often limited conservation budgets, especially during the past year with the impact of pandemic related revenue losses.

In 2020, Wilner awarded two fully-funded grants to museums for important historical framing projects. The first grant was also open specifically to frame restoration projects, and was awarded to the Museums at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington Virginia, for the frame on a 1779 portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, by Charles Willson Peale, 49 x 40 inches, originally commissioned by George Washington to hang in Mount Vernon. The second winning project was a grant for the creation of a period-appropriate replica frame for the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, to reframe their Alfred Jacob Miller painting “Our Camp,” c. 1846-1860. Both of the aforementioned framing projects are currently in process at the Wilner frame restoration studio in Long Island City, NYC.

Submissions for Wilner’s 2021 frame restoration grant will be accepted until April 1, 2021, with the winner announced in the late spring. As with their past grant programs, submissions will be reviewed and the winner selected by an independent panel of jurors.

Institutions who applied for Wilner’s 2020 frame restoration grant are welcome to re submit projects to the 2021 competition, but should note that the application guidelines have been updated.

Detailed application guidelines can be found here.

While only one institution will be awarded a fully-funded grant at this time, all entries will be considered for Wilner's ongoing matching funds for museums program. Eli Wilner & Company hopes to support as many institutions as possible as they continue their mission to preserve our shared cultural history.

Eli Wilner & Company has completed over 10,000 framing projects for private collectors, museums, and institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and 28 projects for The White House. In 2019, Wilner was honored by the Historic Charleston Foundation with the Samuel Gaillard Stoney Conservation Craftsmanship Award, for their work in historic picture frame conservation.