At the Fall CMF Board Meeting, California Missions Foundation grants totaling $102,650.00 were awarded to 11 missions, the Royal Presidio Chapel at Monterey and CMSA (California Mission Studies Association). Requests for funding totaled $276,610.00 and the CMF Grants Committee faced a difficult task of choosing the requests that most closely met CMF guidelines as determined by the Grants Committee and Grants Chairperson Tina Foss.

 

CMF Board Member Janet Bartel presents Fr. David Gaa with a 2012 CMF grant at Mission San Luis Rey

Missions Santa Inés and San Antonio de Padua, and the Royal Presidio Chapel at Monterey received grants for restoration of historic paintings. Mission Santa Barbara was awarded a grant for consultation and collections management for the Huerta Garden, which preserves a variety of plants typical during the mission era. Missions Soledad and San Rafael received CMF grants for archaeological testing. 

CMF Board Member Ruben Mendoza presents Joan Steele with a 2012 CMF grant at Mission San Antonio de Padua

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Missions San Buenaventura, San Diego and Santa Cruz received grants related to the conservation of historic statues. Mission San Luis Rey will direct its grant toward restoring the Peyri Courtyard (below). Mission San Juan Bautista requested and received a grant to have its mission complex digitally archived by CyArk (San Juan Bautista CyArk Project). Mission La Purísima received a grant to replicate a historic bell clapper, and CMSA received a grant to support its upcoming mission studies and research conference at Santa Barbara February 15-17.

Mission San Luis Rey

 

CMF staff will be working closely with each of the 2012 grant recipients during the work phases for which the grants were requested. CMF grants are awarded based on compatibility with CMF guidelines for "preserving the landmark California Missions and their associated historical and cultural resources for the public benefit". CMF is dedicated to preserving and conserving California's national and historic mission treasures, their archives and related resources. Additional grants will be awarded throughout the 2013 calendar year.

 

  

 

 

 

 

St. Gabriel Statue at Mission San Diego de Alcalá

 

 

A 2012 CMF Grant is being used to restore this historic, centuries-old statue of San Gabriel, which sits on the left wall adjacent to the Mission San Diego altar.

 

The close up picture shows the damage to the statue on the left side of San Gabriel's face. Once restored, the statue will be returned and will once again be standing inside the Mission San Diego church.

 

  

California Missions Foundation has relocated its office to Santa Barbara and will be moving into its new location at historic El Cuartel (right) this month. El Cuartel is the second oldest building in California with only the Serrra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano built prior. In conjunction with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, which operates the El Cuartel Building as part of its State Historic Park, El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara (below), CMF is helping to establish a Mission and Presidio interpretative room inside of El Cuartel.

 

 

El Presidio de Santa Bárbara

"It will be great for CMF to be housed in such a historic building," said CMF Executive Director David Bolton. "This building is part of the Presidio complex -- a site where Father Junípero Serra last raised the founding cross at what he said at the time was the founding of the 'Presidio y Misión de Santa Bárbara.' It is fitting that CMF is now calling home a section of the complex that a man so important to our state's mission history played such a key role in establishing."

 

The CMF office will be open throughout the week during regular business hours. Please call CMF at (805) 963-1633 if you are able to stop by to see our new historic CMF office space.

  

California Missions Foundation is working closely with Missions San Luis Rey and Old Mission Santa Barbara administering the SAT (Save America's Treasures) grants for each historic site that have been awarded by the National Park Service in conjunction with several national foundations including President Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

 

The scaffolding at Mission San Luis Rey has come down as the SAT grant and seismic retrofit are now complete.

 

The SAT grant at Mission San Luis Rey covered seismic retrofitting of the mission church, while the SAT grant for Old Mission Santa Barbara is covering, among other projects, the seismic retrofit of the historic crypt below the church altar, the only such crypt at any of the California missions.

 

CMF has also assisted other missions, including Missions Carmel and San Miguel, with their SAT grants and continues "to do everything possible to make the process as smooth as possible for the missions," according to CMF executive director David Bolton.

 

A rare inside photo of the historic crypt below the altar at Old Mission Santa Barbara. Among those buried in the crypt are former Alta California Missions Treasurer, or Sindicato, Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega, his wife, son Pablo, former California Governor José Figueroa and several distinguished Franciscans who served the Mission during the 1800's.

 

 

All SAT grants are matching grants with each mission required to raise at least half of the necessary funds through local fundraising. 

 

 

 

 

Scaffolding on the Mission San Luis Rey church facade during the seismic retrofit.