CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston will use a $150,000 grant for a gallery to display its renowned collection of miniature portrait paintings.
The museum announced on Monday that it has received a grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation for the project. The museum earlier this year began a 16-month, $13 million renovation project.
The new grant will allow for a much larger gallery to display miniatures. Prior to the renovation, the museum could display only about 35 at a time. The new gallery will allow visitors to view as many as 300.
Museum officials say its collection of 600 miniatures is considered among the finest such collections in the nation. The first miniature portraits painted in America were painted in Charleston.
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