Norman Rockwell Museum
Honored by National Endowment for the Humanities

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum's Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt announced today that the work of Norman Rockwell Museum has received institutional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Museum has been awarded a grant of $225,446 through the Endowment's "We the People" program in support of the Museum's comprehensive archival digitization project, ProjectNORMAN (New Media On-line Rockwell Management Art & Archives Network).

The Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Honorable Bruce Cole, spoke at today's presentation at Norman Rockwell Museum in the gallery dedicated to Norman Rockwell's original "Four Freedoms" paintings, an iconic quartet of images created by Rockwell in 1943 that have inspired American ideals of democracy and freedom ever since.

"Norman Rockwell's singular artistry captured the American experience with warmth and humanity. The National Endowment for the Humanities is delighted to support the Norman Rockwell Museum's efforts to organize its archives and make them more accessible to curators, scholars, and the general public," said Chairman Cole. "The NEH is also proud to include one of Rockwell's greatest paintings, 'Freedom of Speech,' in our new "Picturing America" initiative, which distributes reproductions of great American art to schools and public libraries nationwide."

The goal of the "We the People" program is to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture through the support of projects that explore significant events and themes in our nation's history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America. "Picturing America" is an NEH initiative to encourage the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through some of the country's greatest works of art.

According to Norton Moffatt, ProjectNORMAN will provide online access to the Norman Rockwell Museum's original art collection, which numbers over 600 works and to the some 4,000 artworks created by Norman Rockwell throughout his career. In addition, much of Rockwell's extensive archives and ephemera holdings, film and audio footage of the artist, his models and family, and a large collection of reference materials, including his reference photographs (more than 18,000 acetate negatives and 26,000 positives) will be comprehensively catalogued and digitized.

The Norman Rockwell Museum Archives and Reference Center is universally considered the authority and source for Norman Rockwell scholarship. The Archives receives hundreds of inquiries annually from students, scholars, researchers, biographers, illustrators, teachers, curators, media, copyright holders and the general public.

"Our strategic plan identifies ProjectNORMAN as the most important strategic goal to serve national audiences through exhibition, education outreach and electronic media access to collections and archival information," said Norton Moffatt. Through the 'Picturing America' program, Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" will be distributed along with works by such noted artists as Mary Cassatt, N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Frank Lloyd Wright, as a large, high-quality reproduction, with additional materials and lesson plans for use by educators. The NEH states that "by bringing some of our country's finest works of art directly to the classrooms and providing the educational context for these images, we can open more eyes to the legacy of our great country."

"Freedom of Speech" is part of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms," an enduring series of paintings created by the artist during World War II. Rockwell hoped to represent the four basic freedoms President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had envisioned for a postwar world in a speech given in January of 1941; the paintings were originally published in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1943, and were so well-received that they were included as part of a national tour which helped earn 133 million dollars worth of war bonds and stamps. The original "Four Freedoms" paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

"We are honored to have Norman Rockwell's 'Freedom of Speech' represented in this visionary program from the National Endowment for the Humanities," notes Norton Moffatt. "Rockwell's iconic image communicates our basic democratic principles with strength and elegance, and illuminates our understanding of American history and culture through the visual image."

To learn more about the "Picturing America" educational initiative, please visit their Web site at http://PicturingAmerica.neh.gov, or call 1.800.NEH.1121

The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The study of the humanities‹history, literature, philosophy, and the arts‹helps us explore what it means to be human. The humanities enable us to understand the world and our place in it.

Because "democracy demands wisdom," NEH serves and strengthens our Republic through promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. Through its programs, NEH provides opportunities for all citizens to embrace the humanities and benefit from their wisdom.

For more information about NEH, visit http://www.neh.gov.