Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), has received a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program.

The funds are expected to support a $1,100,000 project to replace the aging climate control systems in the largest structure on the institution’s campus, the Life in the Adirondacks building. The 45,000-square-foot building, dating to 1969, houses ADKX’s new interactive exhibition, Life in the Adirondacks.

Awards were made this year to only 14 applicants from across the nation. The funding is expected to enable ADKX to provide the temperature and humidity controls required for long-term preservation of artifacts. The existing chillers, air handlers, boilers, generators, control systems, and other equipment currently protecting them are between 49 and 29 years old and require replacement, an announcement from the museum said.

The total cost of the climate control upgrade project is expected to be $1.1M. In addition to the NEH grant, in December 2017 ADKX received a $500,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.  Construction is slated to begin in the fall of 2018 and be completed by the end of 2019.

Photo of Life in the Adirondacks exhibit provided.