Samuel H. Kress Foundation

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation is an independent foundation in New York City, United States. It devotes its resources to advancing the study, preservation, and enjoyment of European art, architecture, and archaeology from antiquity to the early 19th century, and offers a range of grants and fellowships in defined program areas for historians of art and architecture, art conservators, art museum curators and educators, and art librarians. The Kress Collection encompasses more than 3,000 works of European art and is distinguished for its abundance of Italian Renaissance paintings. Grants can only be awarded to American organizations registered as non-profits with the Internal Revenue Service; the Foundation does not award grants directly to individuals.

Guided by a dual purpose – a sense of the public responsibility imposed upon great wealth, and a belief in the moral force of great art – Samuel H. Kress and the Kress Foundation created between 1929 and 1961 a series of unprecedented programs to share the artistic legacy of Europe with the American people. In the depths of the Great Depression, a touring exhibition of 55 pictures from Samuel Kress's private collection introduced Italian art to an eager public in 25 American cities, and throughout the 1930s his gifts of art placed the first Old Master paintings on the walls of local and regional museums in many parts of the country. By 1941, his role as a Founding Benefactor of the National Gallery of Art reaffirmed both the stature of his collection and his constancy of purpose. A more expansive vision evolved as a staggering number of incomparable European masterpieces entered the Kress Collection during and after World War II. Rearrangement of the 34 Kress galleries at the National Gallery of Art made a great many museum-quality paintings available for viewing elsewhere. This opportunity gave rise to a novel, generous, and logistically complex program that offered representative surveys of Italian art to selected museums across the country. Through this national program in art philanthropy, the Kress Foundation ultimately donated more than 700 Old Masters to regional museums in eighteen American cities during the 1950s. Another 200 paintings were divided into study collections for twenty-three colleges and universities. Major gifts of special collections were also bestowed on the Metropolitan Museum of Art (French...). The Kress Foundation was an early leader in advancing the use of digital technologies in the field of art history, establishing the Digital Art History (DAH) grant program in 2008. The program was created in response to the Foundation's recognition that, while digital technologies were poised to transform scholarship, teaching, and learning across the humanities, the field of art history had yet to fully embrace these new innovations and methodologies then. Between 2008 and 2025, the Foundation awarded more than 200 grants within the DAH program, providing over $9 million in support to projects that have helped define and expand the digital future of the discipline. In 2016, the Foundation published a report on the first decade of the DAH program. Effective August 2025, the Digital Art History grants program and the Interpretive Fellowships for Art Museums program have been integrated into the History of Art grants program.

• 2025

  Digital Art History grants and Interpretive Fellowships integrated into the History of Art grants program

  [3]History of Art Grants | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
• 2016

  Publication of a report on the first decade of the DAH program

  [4]Digital Art History | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
• 2008

  Establishment of the Digital Art History (DAH) grant program

  [4]Digital Art History | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
• 1941

  Samuel H. Kress became a Founding Benefactor of the National Gallery of Art

  [2]History of the Kress Collection | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
• 1929

  Beginning of Kress and Kress Foundation programs to share Europe's artistic legacy with the American people

  [2]History of the Kress Collection | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org

A grantmaking foundation supporting the study, preservation, and enjoyment of European art, architecture, and archaeology from antiquity to the early 19th century.

• History of Art Grants program

  Supports scholarly projects that will enhance the appreciation and understanding of European works of art and architecture from antiquity to the early 19th century, including archival projects, scholarly databases, documentation projects, museum exhibitions and publications, photographic campaigns, scholarly catalogues and publications, and technical and scientific studies.

• Digital Art History (DAH) grant program

  Established in 2008; between 2008 and 2025 the Foundation awarded more than 200 grants within the DAH program, providing over $9 million in support.

• Kress Collection

  Encompasses more than 3,000 works of European art, distinguished for its abundance of Italian Renaissance paintings.

• Integration of Digital Art History grants and Interpretive Fellowships into the History of Art grants programOther

  Source

1. 1Kress Home | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
2. 2History of the Kress Collection | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
3. 3History of Art Grants | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
4. 4Digital Art History | Samuel H. Kress Foundationkressfoundation.org
5. 5Samuel H. Kress Foundationwikidata.org