Rep. McNally Announces $4,000 grant for the Butler Institute of American Art
COLUMBUS – State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) today announced the awarding of $4,000 to the Butler Institute of American Art from the America 250-Ohio Grants Program which supports educational and commemorative programming about the two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the independence and founding of the United States.
“The Butler Institute of American Art is a necessary attraction and a dedicated museum for preserving the earliest forms of American Art,” said Rep. McNally. “I’m happy to see that efforts are being made to not only support this project but to honor both its founder, Joseph B. Butler, Jr., as well as 300 years of American history.”
Opened in March of 2024 the Trillium Local Activity grants, one of two grant programs within the broader America 250-Ohio Grants Program created by the Ohio Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial, awards up to $5,000 to only Ohio-based non-profit, educational, and local government organizations to support the development of projects with a local or community-wide impact. Individual artists, authors, and/or performers with a fiscal agent/sponsor were also eligible.
More than 170 entities statewide applied during the grant program’s spring 2024 funding cycle. America 250-Ohio awarded approximately $600,000 in total grants to communities and organizations across Ohio as part of the commission’s second funding cycle. Combined with the approximately $400,000 in grants awarded in January 2024, the America 250-Ohio Commission grants program has worked with Ohio Humanities to distribute $1 million in grants to 84 organizations across the state. The Trillium Local Activity Grants funded 39 spring awardees for a total of $147,000, including the Butler.
The Butler Institute of American Art’s, one of Americas earliest museums dedicated to collecting, preserving, and showcasing over 300 years’ worth of American art history,
project titled, “Jospeh B. Butler, Jr. – Collections of Our Nation” includes an exhibition honoring 300 years of American history in connection to Joseph G. Butler, Jr., an Ohio native and the museum’s founder, as well as his accomplishments as a philanthropist, civic leader, and patron of the arts. It includes new biographical didactics about Mr. Butler that will be designed and installed throughout the permanent collection galleries. This is in addition to the creation of a digital and printed exhibition publication and public lectures from contributing historians.