T he Henry Luce Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Texas Historical Commission, and private donors have provided funding to the Elisabet Ney Museum to support a comprehensive restoration of Elisabet Ney's former studio including the historic building and the remaining 2.45-acre historic studio landscape.

    Personally created by Elisabet Ney from 1892 to 1907 according to deeply held philosophical and artistic beliefs, the studio over time consisted of a classically styled building with romantic tower, a stable for her beloved horses and a four-acre naturalistic landscape that at one time included a small lake. Ney erected a rural wire fence around the property that was then located at Austin's northeast border in the newly-developing Hyde Park.

    Here, Ney created Texas's first outstanding sculptural monuments represented most notably in the life-size portraits of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin that stand in the Texas Capitol as well as in National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. Here, Ney also used her expansive, natural grounds to entertain friends and visiting celebrities including, at one time, the entire Texas Senate. A pioneer advocate of the arts, Ney- gathered together influential men and women who later founded the Texas Fine Arts Association and other organizations to support the arts in Texas that continue to this day.

    The Elisabet Ney Museum has been the recipient of numerous awards as well as grants including 20 funding awards since 1990 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Save Americas Treasures program, Texas Commission for the Arts, Texas Council for the Humanities and the Texas Historical Commission. The museum has also received multiple awards from the Austin Community Foundation and the Junior League of Austin in support of its programs.

    The Elisabet Ney Museum building and 2.45-acre site are registered national, state and local historic landmarks. In 2002, the Elisabet Ney Museum was designated a National Trust Associate Site as "one of the most significant historic artists' homes and studios in the country" [National Trust for Historic Preservation]. In 2003, the Save Americas Treasures program, a presidential initiative administered by the National Endowment for the Arts and