LONDON.- Bank of America Merrill Lynch today announced that its 2014 global Art Conservation Project is open for applications. Submissions are welcome from non-profit arts and cultural institutions that have significant works of art, across all media, requiring conservation. Submission deadline is 17 January 2014 and applicants can submit proposals here.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation Project is a unique programme that provides grants to non-profit museums throughout the world to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of deterioration. Since the programme’s launch in 2010, the company has provided grants to museums in 25 countries for 57 conservation projects. These include Gustave Courbet’s monumental The Painter’s Studio at Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Pablo Picasso’s Woman Ironing at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, a 16th century eight-fold screen by Kanō Eitoku, designated as a National Treasure by the Japanese Government at the Tokyo National Museum and a collection of paintings by Gerard Sekoto at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

“Art has a unique ability to both connect people across cultures and help communities thrive,” said Rena DeSisto, International CSR and Global Arts and Culture executive at Bank of America. “This programme allows us to have a direct impact on art conservation worldwide while highlighting the ongoing need to preserve cultural treasures for future generations.”

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation Project is a key component of the company’s global commitment to supporting the arts, which includes a multi-tiered programme of sponsorships and grants as well as loans of full exhibitions from its own collection to non-profit museums around the world.

Previous grant recipients in the UK include the National Portrait Gallery for the conservation of three Tudor portraits (Queen Elizabeth I, King Edward VI and Edward VI and the Pope), the Courtauld Gallery for the restoration of Rubens’ Cain Slaying Abel, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery for the conservation of three paintings from Esteban Murillo (The Flower Girl, Invitation to a Game of Argolla and Three Boys).