The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History just received a grant from the Bay and Paul Foundations that will help the museum better preserve its collections.

The Bay and Paul Foundations, an independent private foundation located in New York City, is the product of the merger in January 2005 of The Bay Foundation and the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation. Established in 1950 and 1962, respectively, the foundations were related organizations, each having distinct — though at times overlapping — program interests. As a result of their shared interests, the foundations occasionally jointly funded or collaborated on projects.

Matt Edwards, executive director of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, said he learned about the grant opportunity through the North Carolina Federation of Historical Societies (NCFHS). The museum received the Newsome Award from the NCFHS last year.

“They are primarily a New York and New Jersey foundation, but they have a broader interest in small museum collections care and maintenance. We received a $5,000 grant from them for collections management, digitization and archival supplies and equipment,” said Edwards.

“We weren’t funded for the full amount of our request, nearly $10,000, but partial funding is great. It allows us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” he said.

Edwards said the grant was not easily obtained. “In a time when grant funds are getting harder to find and the number of applicants for smaller pools of money is increasing, we’re honored to have been funded by this program.”

Since museums rely on making collections last, he said, this grant will help the museum preserve this area’s past for generations to come.

“The archival supplies covered by this grant are the kinds of things we have been forced to cut from our budget in recent years in order to balance the budget,” said Edwards. “This grant is going to allow us to make some significant purchases for the long-term care of our collections.”

Reach Mondee Tilley at mtilley@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1930.