The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and the Conserving Black Modernism Program, awarded a grant—one of only five this year—to address the urgent needs of the iconic 2500 New Hackensack building, erected after designs attributed to the late Jeh V. Johnson and his collaborators.
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation has awarded Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections Library, under the leadership of the Head of Special Collections, Ron Patkus, a grant to preserve the records of Vassar’s Communications Office, which date from 1915.
The United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region awarded a Community Fund Grant to the Office of Community Engaged Learning (OCEL), led by Elizabeth Cannon, Director of OCEL, to support the Vassar English Language Learners Outreach Program (VELLOP), part of the Vassar Education Collaboration now a core program of OCEL.
Dutchess County Youth Services funded a grant to the Environmental Cooperative, led by Director Jennifer Rubbo, for a new outdoor recreation club for local youth, which in partnership with Poughkeepsie-based Community Matters 2, Inc., will offer guided hikes at the Preserve.
The Preserve at Vassar was awarded a grant through the NYS-funded Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquaria (ZBGA) Capital Program in support of the construction of a pavilion to serve as a visible anchor for the site while providing needed shelter for education and outreach programs, including those of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was awarded funding by Tokyo-based Sumitomo Foundation toward the restoration of a 17th-century Japanese painted screen. A rarity and a cherished work in the Loeb’s Asian art collection, the screen was painted by Unkoku Toeki in the early 1600s. Its conservation will allow it to remain a popular teaching object for Art History at Vassar.
The George I. Alden Trust of Worcester, Mass. has awarded Vassar a grant toward the Vassar Libraries’ ambitious Learning Commons project, which will renovate over 11,000 square feet in the Main Library’s north wing to repurpose and optimize available space and improve accessibility.
The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) provides funding to support an at-Risk scholar. For 2025–26 Vassar’s Drama department welcomes an award-winning writer, director, and producer with multiple publications, Patricia Achiro Olwoch. Achiro was previously an at-risk scholar at Barnard University.
Keri VanCamp, Director of the Field Station and Ecological Preserve, and her collaborators received another grant from the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (LH-PRISM).
