GAINESVILLE, FLA.- The Henry Luce Foundation recently awarded more than $13 million in grants that will advance the Foundation’s commitments to the development of intellectual leaders and public dissemination of knowledge. The Harn Museum of Art was one of seven institutions to receive an award from the Asia Program which is dedicated to fostering cultural and intellectual exchanges between the United States and the countries of East and Southeast Asia. The Harn Museum of Art will receive $282,000 for creating scholarly and public resources for improved understanding of Asia in the United States.

The Henry Luce Foundation funding will support the Harn Museum of Art’s David A. Cofrin Manuscript Series over the next four years. Four peer-reviewed volumes have already been produced between 2012 and 2015 which include “Collectors, Collections, and Collecting the Arts of China,” which will be translated into Chinese, “Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction, and Interpretation in the Arts of China,” “Tokaido Texts and Tales,” which is a finalist for CAA’s 2017 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for smaller museums, and “The Landscape Painting of China,” which won the LoPresti Award in 2013-2014. This four-year period of support from 2016 to 2019 will include the production of four volumes on art in Korea, South Asia and Japan, as well as a volume on women in the arts and archaeology of Asia.

“With the support of the Henry Luce Foundation and being based at the University of Florida, a tier-one institution, this manuscript series is positioned for excellence in education, new research and peer-reviewed scholarship from an array of diverse, internationally recognized scholars,” said Harn Director Rebecca Nagy. “It is an honor for this project to be supported and to be recognized in the company of other great institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.”

The David A. Cofrin Asian Art Manuscript Series was established in 2008 and is co-edited by Jason Steuber, Cofrin Curator of Asian Art and Allysa B. Peyton, Assistant Curator of Asian Art. Published by the University Press of Florida, the series is dedicated to Dr. David A. Cofrin (1923 – 2009) who supported the construction of the original Harn Museum building as well as the additions of a contemporary and Asian art wing which hold many of his gifts. “The generous multi-year grant support by the Henry Luce Foundation ensures that the David A. Cofrin Asian Art Series will continue to produce peer-reviewed contributions to Asian art histories and canons,” said Steuber.

University of Florida President W. Kent Fuchs said “The Samuel P Harn Museum of Art has grown over the last quarter century into a museum that is well known among international art scholars. The Harn’s talented curators have been crucial in building this reputation, as they have helped the museum reach beyond its doors through pivotal projects like this one.”