The study of Indigenous art at the University of Virginia has made a huge stride forward with the help of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, known as the most significant collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art outside of Australia, is earning a growing reputation in the contemporary art world. The Fralin Museum of Art boasts a vast collection of art that celebrates a wide array of Indigenous cultures from around the globe. Now, an $815,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation will help the University take its study of the indigenous art of Australia and the Americas even further. The four-and-a-half year grant, awarded to a proposal spearheaded by the College of Arts & Sciences with The Fralin Museum of Art and Kluge-Ruhe Collection, has funded two new curators dedicated to the two museums’ collections of Indigenous art: Adriana Greci Green, PhD at The Fralin Museum of Art & Henry F. Skerritt, PhD candidate at Kluge-Ruhe. It also will support a residency program that will welcome scholars, artists and curators from around the globe. Likewise, the new program will support UVA faculty who choose to pursue arts-related research and scholarship, in addition to supporting graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds who choose to pursue curatorial opportunities. The University is supporting these efforts by contributing approximately $886,000 to this initiative, creating an initial investment of $1.7 million. “As we consider the crucial role to be played by the arts in the world’s leading public research institutions,” said Ian Baucom, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, “this proposal seeks to take advantage of the unique shared strengths of Arts & Sciences, and the University’s renowned collections at The Fralin Museum of Art and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection.” The grant was overseen by Francesca Fiorani, the Associate Dean for the Arts and Humanities and Professor of Art History at the University. “The new center aligns with the core mission of the University of Virginia and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences,” she said, “which aim to expand students’ opportunities for experiential learning via inventive – and inspired – forms of pedagogy.”