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Pesellino and Workshop, Seven Liberal Arts, about 1450, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Birmingham Museum of Art

Pesellino and Workshop, Seven Liberal Arts, about 1450, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Birmingham Museum of Art

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation devotes its resources to advancing the study, conservation, and enjoyment of the vast heritage of European art, architecture, and archaeology from antiquity to the early 19th century.

Our Mission

Our mission at the Samuel H. Kress Foundation (est. 1929) is to sustain and carry out the original vision of our founder, Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955).

We support the work of individuals and institutions engaged with the appreciation, interpretation, preservation, study and teaching of the history of European art and architecture from antiquity to the dawn of the modern era.

We serve the field of art history as practiced in American art museums and institutions of higher education, and in an array of research centers and libraries throughout the world. We further support training and research in art conservation as well as the professional practice of art conservation.

We make grants in defined program areas and offer professional development fellowships for historians of art and architecture, art conservators, art museum curators and educators, and art librarians.