BRODHEAD — The Brodhead Area Foundation has awarded a major grant to the Kelch Aviation Museum at Brodhead Airport. 

The grant totals $135,000 over the next three years and will be used to help construct the new museum buildings.

The new museum will feature restored vintage aircraft from the “Golden Age of Aviation” (1920-1940) and a large rentable banquet space, in addition to an aviation art gallery and an extensive aviation library. The facility will be open to the public all year and will also include regular classes in STEM-related activities. A capital campaign launched in 2016 has raised over $630,000 to date and was recently awarded an additional $370,000 challenge grant. This latest contribution from the Brodhead Area Foundation brings the campaign much closer to completion and will hopefully allow for a 2019 groundbreaking.

The Alfred & Lois Kelch Aviation Museum, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit educational corporation with a mission “To establish and operate a museum that celebrates the golden age of aviation and cultivates an appreciation of its powerful impact on science, engineering and design, and humanity’s understanding of its own limitless potential.”

For more information, visit the Kelch Aviation Museum website at www.kelchmuseum.org or call museum Executive Director Patrick Weeden at 608-897-1175.