A National Park Service grant program is helping the National Model Aviation Museum preserve irreplaceable artifacts. AMA has been awarded a Save America’s Treasures Grant that is the result of a collaboration between the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant creates an additional position that focuses solely on digitizing collections.
Marissa Coleman, the museum’s new image digitizing specialist, began working at the Muncie, Indiana, museum on February 12, 2024. Her position is funded by the grant. The AMA Foundation applied for the two-year grant on behalf of the museum and was awarded it.
Marissa kindly shared some information about herself:
I moved here from Louisville to accept the Museum Image Digitizing Specialist position at the National Model Aviation Museum. I have a background in collections database management, exhibit planning, and historical research. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in history and African and African American Diaspora Studies at Bellarmine University, I’ve held positions at the Carnegie Center for Art & History (New Albany, Indiana), the Smithsonian National Museum of African and African American History and Culture (NMAAHC; Washington, D.C.), the Filson Historical Society (Louisville), and the Speed Art Museum (Louisville).
Basically, what I do at the museum is digitize slides, photographic prints, negative rolls, and other materials within the collections specified under a two-year grant. I applied for and accepted this position because I love working with museum collections and archives, and I wanted to push myself by not only taking on a project that would allow me to work independently, but I also wanted the opportunity to experience life in a new city. I enjoy working at the museum because it directly aligns with my career aspirations, but also because of how friendly my coworkers have been.
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