Faculty Fanfare: Kari Schleher

UNM Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kari Schleher was awarded a $349,999 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a pottery storage project that will safeguard important cultural objects.

The NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage grant will allow the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM to better care for archaeological and ethnographic collections with new compact shelving in the Hibben Center for Archaeological Research. It also will allow the museum to relocate collections from ethnology and the Maxwell’s off-site archaeological storage facility. 

“This NEH grant will help facilitate research on the archaeological and ethnographic collections at the Maxwell by making them more accessible and relocating more items from our off-site, not climate controlled facility,” said Schleher, the curator of archaeology at the museum.

Maxwell Museum Senior Collections Managers Karen Price and Lauren Fuka co-authored the grant.

“This grant is especially important now as we are running out of space to care for new collections. The Maxwell cares for collections from other groups, as ‘repository’ collections, including a number of local tribal communities who do not have their own museums to care for their objects,” Schleher said. 

“This new compact shelving will allow the Maxwell to work with communities to help to better preserve their heritage.”  

The museum works with more than 100 community, student, and professional researchers a year and the increased access to collections will facilitate additional collaboration, she said.