NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Jan. 5, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov

TULSA ORGANIZATION AWARDED GRANT TO PRESERVE
OUR NATION’S CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL TREASURES

Oklahoma City, OK – The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture has been awarded a federal competitive grant from the Save America’s Treasures organization. Save America’s Treasures provides vital capital funds for museums, libraries, archives and historic structures and sites around the nation to preserve American culture, identity and heritage.

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture holds architectural drawings, renderings, specifications, tracings, photographs/slides, periodicals, and books that document the history of architecture, particularly the Art Deco period that is evident in many of Tulsa’s buildings designed by leading architects of the period.

Lee Anne Zeigler, executive director of the Tulsa organization said the $150,000 grant will be used to preserve and conserve “at risk” collections and provide greater public access via technology to scholars, architects, historians, and researchers. “Working with our special collections is its own reward, but the award of this prestigious grant and the recognition of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture Archives’ national significance are very exciting,” said Zeigler.

“My congratulations to the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture for winning this prestigious award. This organization is an ideal vehicle to illustrate, interpret and embody the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to our nation’s history and culture,” said Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Suzanne Tate.

Tate also encourages other Oklahoma cultural institutions to apply for the 2009 grants to preserve our culture for future generations of scholars, artists, historians and citizens. Guidelines and online applications for the 2009 Save America’s Treasures will be posted in January on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities website at www.pcah.gov.

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, National Park Service, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded $10.52 million in federal Save America’s Treasures grants. Through the congressionally-appropriated program, awards were made to 23 historic properties and sites and 17 nationally significant collections of artifacts, documents and artistic works.

ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL

The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.

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