SANTA FE, NM.- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has donated $196,000 dollars to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation to develop the internet business of its five museum shops. The money will be used to create three new web sites that will showcase the museum´s products, reported New Mexico Business Weekly. Museums included in the foundation are: the Museum of International Folk Art, The Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Palace of the Governors and the Folk Art Museum.

Two sites will be launched on July 1st. The first will be www.shopmuseum.com which will update the existing museum shops site. "It also features museum-inspired products created through the Foundation's licensing department, which develops home decor items and other products based on museum collections," reported New Mexico Business Weekly.

The second site, www.newmexicocreates.org, will show contemporary arts and crafts made by artists from New Mexico. There are approximately 656 artists particpating in a project called New Mexico Creates.

The third site, www.worldfolkart.org, will open in September and will feature works by international folk artists. Tom Aageson, MNMF's executive director, says the Web sites will strengthen the incomes of artists in New Mexico and around the world by bringing their work to national and global markets. "The result will be enhanced livelihoods for the artists and increased financial support for the museums and other foundation-supported institutions," he said in a prepared statement to New Mexico Business Weekly.