HUNTINGTON — Federal funding has been secured to help the Huntington Museum of Art complete a nature trail on its property that’s accessible to all.

Geoffrey Fleming, executive director of the museum, said from the beginning, the vision for the facility was to make it much more than just a museum.

“Herbert Fitzpatrick, who owned all this land and was our founder, wanted it to be a nature conservancy, a bird sanctuary, a museum, nature trails and much more,” Fleming said.

The museum was incorporated in 1947 and opened to the public in 1952. Today, as the only nationally accredited visual art museum of its size in the Tri-State, the museum encompasses a permanent art collection of more than 16,000 objects, 10 exhibition spaces, an interactive education gallery, an art reference library of nearly 27,000 volumes, a 287-seat auditorium, the only tropical and subtropical plant conservatory in West Virginia, a coral reef aquarium, two outdoor sculpture courts, five studio workshops, two miles of hiking trails and a quarter-mile paved accessible Sensory Trail for the visually impaired.

U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., recently announced $143,550 in annual appropriations from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to expand and enhance the current HMA Nature Trail System.

A key element of the grant project will be the expansion of the Teubert Sensory Trail, which is specifically designed to meet the needs of visually impaired individuals and people who use wheelchairs, according to Fleming.

“This trail was started over a decade ago,” he said. “It was meant to be a level, smooth surface to be used by people using wheelchairs and other disabilities to take part in the trail system.”

Fleming says the problem was the project ran out of funding and was never completed.

“The idea was that it was supposed to be a complete loop,” he said. “You go out one side and come out the other. But what happened is that it just stops. You can go down, but you have to come back up. So we are going to complete the loop, add some more sensory stations along the trail, and add lots of educational signage and other conveniences to the entire trail system.”

Fleming said these initiatives will double the length of the existing sensory trail.

“We are committed to making nature more accessible, inviting and engaging for individuals and families who visit the Huntington Museum of Art, particularly those who face barriers to participation, and to expanding the educational resources available to people of all ages,” he said.

The grant award is for a total project to cost $287,104, which will be executed over the next three years.

“Every individual, no matter their circumstance, should have the same opportunity and ability to connect with art and nature,” Miller said in announcing the funding.

Manchin said he was “thrilled” the Institute of Museum and Library Services is investing in the Huntington museum, which he called “a treasured institution in our state, combining the arts with nature.”

“West Virginia is nationally recognized for the beauty and splendor of our landscape,” Capito said in the announcement. “I’m glad to see the Huntington Museum of Art taking steps to make our state’s nature and trail systems more accessible for those with disabilities and increasing educational signage to enhance the visitor experience.”

Fleming said the funding is a matching grant, and museum officials are now busily working to identify partners to help secure the remainder of the funds for the project.

“We have identified some partners, who we’ve been talking with, but there are always people that love the trail that may not be as involved with the museum, so anytime we can connect with them it’s helpful,” he said. “We are willing to talk to anyone that might want to be a partner and help us bring funding in to match the project grant.”