"We have a significant collection of prints," museum curator Anna Cannizzo said. She mentioned prints by Picasso, Dali and Rembrandt.

Several of the pieces require some restoration work, hence the need for grant money, she said.

"Some have been taped to matting board with damaging adhesive and need to be stabilized so they won't be damaged further," Cannizzo said.

She's working with three interns on the project, which requires tedious and careful extraction of tapes and other adhesives, all of which could be viewed by visitors to the museum.

"So often this is in the background," she said. "We are doing work on view for the public."

Cannizzo is the project manager, hired to oversee the work in the next two years.

Denison University has received a $66,379 grant through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Jeannine Mjoseth, Denison's public-affairs officer, said the university is expected to provide $91,447 as a match for the grant. The money would be used to "treat more than 7,500 prints and drawings from the museum's permanent collection. This collection consists primarily of 19th- and 20th-century American and European prints, including works by Winslow Homer and Pablo Picasso. The grant also would be used to produce a DVD that documents the project activities and to present a lecture by the conservators about the project, according to the IMLS.

Cannizzo had some training from representatives of the Intermuseum Conservation Association of Cleveland for the project, she said. She also has an intern from Queen's College in Canada who is training to be a paper conservator.

She said some of the treatments to remove adhesives are tricky. Removing a linen hinge is different from removing pressure-sensitive tape. A linen hinge could be removed via a process that absorbs water and activates the adhesive, making the linen easy to remove. The pressure-sensitive tape requires heat in the process, thus complicating the work, Cannizzo said.

She said the museum was honored to receive such a prestigious grant, which will help the university "consistently take care of these objects."

Cannizzo said she aims to display more of the university's permanent collections in the future. For now, beside protecting and preserving pieces, workers are trying to catalog all of the items so pieces could be pulled out for different exhibits.

"We have 8,000 pieces in our permanent collection and have one of the largest and most renowned collections of Burmese art," she said.

Several of the pieces, including the current Babylonian artifacts on display, might not have been displayed previously, she said.

"We're finding everything we have now and documenting it," Cannizzo said.

The museum is open through Aug. 17, when it will shut down to prepare for the visiting contemporary Korean ceramic display, which will begin in September. The museum is open daily from 1 to 4 p.m.