Connecticut

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for exhibition support, and from Bank of America and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation in support of the museum’s conservation programs. From the NEA, the Wadsworth was awarded of $30,000 in support of the exhibition of By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500-1800, which features the work of Artemisia Gentileschi as well as introduces and celebrates the accomplishments of a diverse and dynamic group of talented but virtually unknown Italian women artists.

Following its temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quinnipiac University-owned Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum will not reopen. The university’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously in early August to permanently close Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum due to low attendance of fewer than 20 visitors per day and financial reasons as it only generated funds to cover nearly 25% of its operational budget. Connecticut's attorney general is investigating the closure of Quinnipiac University's Great Irish Hunger Museum. Attorney General William Tong's spokesperson Elizabeth Benton confirmed the probe to the New Haven Register, saying in a statement: “we have an open and ongoing inquiry into this matter.” Tong took up the investigation after a lawyer representing an organization dedicated to saving the Hamden museum sent a letter to his office, raising concerns about the prospect of museum artifacts being sold off.

Mystic Seaport Museum received federal funding to support the rebuilding of the museum’s Sustainable Maritime Trades and Skills Program. The museum will receive a grant award of more than $40,000 to rebuild this program to preserve heritage skills, crafts, and trades at risk of being lost due to pandemic-related staffing and budget cuts. The funding was authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Maine

In addition to celebrating its own 100th anniversary this year, the Wilson Museum of Castine celebrated the centennial of the Arctic Schooner Bowdoin. Built in Boothbay for arctic exploration, the vessel today is the Official Vessel of the State of Maine, and is the flagship of Maine Maritime Academy's Vessel Operations and Technology program. During the month of September, the museum offered a series of three collaborative programs for virtual and in-person audiences, one of which was in collaboration with the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum of Brunswick. Celebrating the Bowdoin’s centennial strengthened an existing relationship with Maine Maritime Academy and expanded opportunities for future programing.

Presque Isle Historical Society has received a grant from the Maine Office of Tourism with which to spearhead the marketing of a regional celebration of holiday events in central Aroostook County taking place throughout the month of December known as the Star City Spirit of Christmas Celebration. Partners include, but are not limited to, Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce, Wintergreen Arts Center, St, Apollonia Dental Clinic, and Northern Light AR Gould Hospital. The celebration will market events such as tree lightings, open houses, parades, Wintergreen Express, St. Apollonia’s Festival of Trees, Presque Isle Historical Society’s Victorian Christmas at the Estey and many more.

The Dyer Library and Saco Museum (DLSM) has been awarded an IMLS CARES grant in the amount of $59,159. Our two-year project, Closing the Digital Divide: Moving the Dyer Library Association into the Twenty-First Century, will help the library and museum improve their ability to provide digital access to their collections and improve virtual public programming. Additionally, the DLSM will be able to continue to remain a valued partner with the local school district by providing digital educational options for classrooms and support for the elementary curriculum during the COVID-19 recovery and beyond. Digitizing the collections will allow online access for visitors, enable DLSM to have the infrastructure to partner with other organizations in shared projects, and to virtually present new exhibits that adhere to social distancing guidelines. Our goal is to make digitally available our 150 years of collected resources in an efficient, accurate, and easily retrievable manner.

Museum L-A received an American Rescue Plan (ARP) grant from the NEH to support personnel costs associated with the museum's programming and educational outreach.

Massachusetts

Discovery Museum recently announced a 5-year, $1M challenge grant awarded by the Sheth Sangreal Foundation, founded by Brian Sheth and Adria Sheth, to support the museum’s sustainability plan—including conversion to solar electricity—paired with expanded environmental education and inclusion initiatives to help cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards. The museum’s sustainability plan goals, to be completed by 2025, include achieving carbon neutrality through on-site generation of solar power; improving campus building efficiencies and offering carbon offsets to visitors; accomplishing a 50% reduction in the Museum’s environmental footprint by reducing consumption, waste generation, and water usage; and educating and communicating these actions and impacts to a more diverse community of visitors to build environmental literacy and appreciation across the region. As part of the $1M gift to the Discovery Museum, the Sangreal Foundation is matching a $200,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, to fund immediate need for the Museum’s site preparation for on-site solar installation this year. The Foundation is committing an additional $800,000 as a multi-year grant challenge to the Museum community to contribute matching funds by 2025 in support of the Museum’s strategic sustainability, education, and DEAI objectives.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums announced that it has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The two awards provide essential funding to support the museum’s educational mission to better serve students, PreK through college, with authentic, accurate, and accessible histories from our nation’s earliest beginnings. A $163,742 “Institute for K12 Educators” grant from NEH enables Plimoth Patuxet to host Ancient Stories, New Neighbors: Decolonizing Indigenous Homelands and 17th-Century New England – a summer institute for 25 elementary, middle, and high school teachers in 2022. A $212,742 three-year "Museums for America” grant from IMLS entitled History in a New Light: Reimagining Wampanoag and Indigenous Museum Education enables Plimoth Patuxet to develop and implement a series of educational programs, resources, and events responding to increasing demand for nuanced and fact-based histories told from Indigenous perspectives. This new educational initiative supports programming around the 50th anniversary of Plimoth Patuxet’s Wampanoag Indigenous Program in 2023 and complements the museum’s forthcoming $2.5 million construction project – an interpretive initiative presenting centuries of cultural change and persistence in Patuxet, one of almost seventy Indigenous communities located along the south coast of Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands in the 17th century.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, has received a $51,000 grant from the Destination Development Capital (DDC) Grant program, a new competitive grant program created through the economic development bill signed into law by Governor Baker earlier this year. The DDC grants provide funding for projects that expand, construct, restore, or renovate Massachusetts tourism destinations and attractions, and aid in destination recovery and resiliency.

The Museum of Russian Icons has been awarded re-accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest accolade given to the nation’s museums. Fewer than 5% of American museums are accredited. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to the museum-going public, and to governments, funders, and outside agencies.

Mass Humanities has awarded two grants to History Cambridge that will help us continue our anti-racism work that we began in earnest in 2020 with our new Strategic Plan. The first is a Black History grant in the amount of $11,726 that will help us bring Untold Stories of Black Cambridge to the community in four programs that will take place through 2022. The second is a $15,000 SHARP grant that will facilitate a whole new website that rethinks how people of Cambridge experience history.

Historic Deerfield is pleased to announce the completed conservation of a Plan of Battle, drawn by Major Moses Ashley, at West Point, New York, c. 1780. The project was funded by a generous grant from the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Major Moses Ashley (1749-1791) of Westfield, Massachusetts, served in the Continental Army for most of the American Revolution and was an original member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. This manuscript plan was his artwork as a military engineer for a large-scale battle that never happened on the Hudson River near West Point, New York. Acquired at auction in 2018, the Plan of Battle is an incredibly rare survival and an important addition to the museum’s growing collection of American Revolution material from western Massachusetts. Stored folded for many years, the Plan of Battle suffered creasing, splits, and losses and was in four pieces. Given its fragile condition, the document needed conservation treatment and care before it could be displayed to the visiting public.

An earmark was included in the Massachusetts state budget to aid the Springfield Museums with a new exhibit. A $100,000 grant through the state budget will help fund the construction of an International Space Station exhibit – part of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar effort to upgrade the entire Springfield Science Museum. The new exhibit will be a facsimile of the International Space Station module Destiny. The space station exhibit is tentatively scheduled to open to the public in the spring of 2022.

The Lexington Historical Society’s new Archives and Research Center officially Monday, November, 1, 2021.Attached to the back of the historic Munroe Tavern, the barn-style building is intended as an accessible place for researchers to make use of the society’s collections. Spanning more than three centuries of Lexington history, those artifacts — ranging from letters and photographs to farm equipment and clothing — are now available for researchers to explore. The new facility also will provide expanded workspace for staff and volunteers to catalog and process the collection, ensuring easier access to materials. The building was completed in 2019 and readied for use in early 2020, but its opening was postponed until now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following NEMA members received a Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF) grant from MassDevelopment and Mass Cultural Council, two state agencies that jointly administer the fund.

Old Sturbridge ($80,000) for the installation of an HVAC unit in the Visitor Center Theater and central air conditioning system in the Museum Education Center
Worcester Historical Museum ($110,000) for the integration of the 32 Elm Street property into 30 Elm for independent operations, and an office space for WHM
Cape Cod Museum of Art ($50,000) for the replacement and repair of HVAC units.

Congratulations to the following NEMA members that received a Mass Humanities Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) grant:
Amelia Park Children's Museum: $7,040; Andover Center for History & Culture: $14,707; Cape Cod Maritime Museum: $13,000; Danvers Historical Society: $10,043; Dedham Historical Society: $10,001; Duxbury Rural & Historical Society: $4,793; Falmouth Historical Society: $11,375; Hammond Castle Museum: $7,170; Hancock Shaker Village: $15,000; Historical Society of Old Newbury: $11,472; Historical Society of Old Yarmouth: $9,481; History Cambridge: $15,000; Martha's Vineyard Museum: $15,000; Needham History Center & Museum: $12,350; New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center: $13,000; New Bedford Whaling Museum: $13,000; Old Colony History Museum: $9,543; Old Sturbridge: $10,043; Paul Revere Memorial Association/Paul Revere House: $13,000; Peabody Historical Society and Museum: $12,435; Pilgrim Hall Museum: $13,000; Plimoth Patuxet Museums: $14,896; Revolutionary Spaces: $10,043; Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum: $9,945; Royall House and Slave Quarters: $15,000; Somerville Museum: $15,000; Springfield Museums: $7,800; Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute: $10,043; The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association: $12,807; The West End Museum: $10,043; USS Constitution Museum: $10,043; Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum: $11,050; Wenham Historical Association & Museum: $10,043; Westford Museum: $2,780; Willard House & Clock Museum: $8,043; and the Worcester Historical Museum: $15,000.

Congratulations to the following NEMA members that received a Mass Cultural Council Cultural grant:

Investment Portfolio
Andover Center for History & Culture: $8,500; Berkshire County Historical Society: $6,300; Boston Children’s Museum: $60,000; Cape Ann Museum: $27,500; Cape Cod Museum of Art: $13,700; Cape Cod Museum of Natural History: $19,400; Concord Museum: $25,400; Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State: $15,000; Davis Museum and Cultural Center: $15,000; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum: $40,800; Discovery Museum: $27,600; EcoTarium: $41,000; Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art: $33,300; Fitchburg Art Museum: $19,100; Fuller Craft Museum: $20,200; John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library Foundation: $4,000; Nantucket Historical Association: $4,000; New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center: $4,000; and the Worcester Historical Museum: $4,000.

Cultural Investment Portfolio
Gore Place Society: $17,500; Hancock Shaker Village: $26,900; Harvard Art Museums: $15,000; Historic Deerfield: $51,100; Historic New England: $60,000; Historic Newton: $7,300; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: $60,000; Massachusetts Historical Society: $46,200; MassArt Art Museum: $14,400; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: $60,000; Museum of Science, Boston: $60,000; New Art Center: $18,600; New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks!: $10,600; New Bedford Whaling Museum: $37,300; New England Museum Association: $11,900; New England Quilt Museum: $9,700; Northeast Document Conservation Center: $37,300; Old Sturbridge Village: $60,000; Paul Revere Memorial Association: $17,900; Peabody Essex Museum: $60,000; Plimoth Patuxet Museums: $60,000; Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association: $17,100; Provincetown Art Association and Museum: $22,000; Revolutionary Spaces: $38,400; Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum: $10,500; Smith College Museum of Art: $15,000; Springfield Museums: $51,700; Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute: $60,000; The Mount: Edith Wharton’s Home: $25,900; USS Constitution Museum: $33,000; Worcester County Horticultural Society: $40,400; and Zoo New England: $60,000.

New Hampshire

In 2021, the Wright Museum of WWII received a $60,000 matching grant challenge from Boston’s Biber Foundation. The Wright Museum also received an $8,000 grant from the NH Charitable Foundation to assist in the purchase of new technology. 0From July-October 2022, the Wright Museum will host the exhibit Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank. This exhibit was created by the Anne Frank Center, NYC and the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.

The Montshire Museum of Science and The Family Place have been awarded a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to launch a new education initiative, STEM Learning Together: Strengthening a System of Support for Young Families. Through this three-year program, both partner organizations will support the education and well-being of two generations within families (parents and their young children) through science programs that help meet participants’ education goals, and provide meaningful engagement in STEM, worksite job training, and empowering experiences that will prepare participants for parenthood and the workplace.

Squam Lakes Natural Science Center has received a $25,000 gift from The Meredith Rotary Club for the Education Matters Capital Campaign. The gift will be used to enhance the quality of education that the Science Center provides.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) and Rhode Island History Day (RIHD), have been awarded a $16,633 grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Regional Grant program managed by Waynesburg University, TPS Eastern Region. The grant project, titled Using the Library of Congress Archives in Student Research and Historical Argumentation, supports a four-part virtual teacher workshop series aimed at teachers who participate in the National History Day (NHD) program, though any teacher or school librarian of grades six through twelve are invited to attend.

Newport Restoration Foundation recently received the Noreen Stonor Drexel 2020 Partner in Education Award from the Newport Public Education Foundation this past September. It is awarded to individuals and organizations that significantly contribute to the students of Newport’s public schools. NRF was recognized for our ongoing support of the art education program at Rough Point, where we have welcomed Newport fourth graders, eighth graders and high school students to the museum for over twelve years.

Preserve RI and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission awarded the Friends of Hearthside was awarded the Antoinette F. Downing Volunteer Service Award for their dedication to interpreting and preserving the Federal-style mansion known as “Hearthside” and their leadership in preserving significant historic resources along Lincoln’s Great Road. They also received the Audience Award.

Congratulations to the following NEMA members that received RI Culture, Humanities and Arts Recovery Grant (RI CHARG), a historic collaborative partnership between the State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (Humanities Council):
Coggeshall Farm Museum; Friends of Hearthside, Inc.; Friends of Linden Place; Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum; Little Compton Historical Society; Preserve RI – Lippitt House Museum; Rhode Island Computer Museum; Rhode Island Historical Society – Museum of Work and Culture; South County History Center; South County Museum; and the Tomaquag Museum.

Vermont

Rokeby Museum is excited to announce the start of preservation work on the historic Robinson home thanks to a 2021 Preservation Sponsorship by PC Construction. Starting on July 6, PC Construction began work on the historic house, including the repair of plaster, the restoration of the porches, and stabilization of the footings on the historic granary building. It is estimated this work will take a month to complete.

The following NEMA members received a Cultural Facilities grant from the Vermont Arts Council:

Bennington Museum ($15,575) to support electrical upgrades in two museum galleries and replacement of five outdated electrical panel boxes
Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium ($26,700) to support the installation of a three-stop elevator
Henry Sheldon Museum ($20,067) to support the installation of a new boiler

The following NEMA members received a Covid-19 Cultural Recovery grant awarded in partnership with Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Arts Council:
Bennington Museum, $15,000; Billings Farm and Museum, $15,000; Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, $15,000; Fleming Museum of Art, $15,000; Henry Sheldon Museum, $10,000; Heritage Winooski Mill Museum, $5,000; Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, $15,000; Rokeby Museum, $5,000; Saint Albans Museum, $5,000; Shelburne Museum, $15,000; and Vermont Historical Society, $15,000.

New England

The following NEMA members received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant:
Exhibitions: Implementation
The Boston Children’s Museum, $200,000, Our City: Building Kindness and Empathy

Historic Places: Planning
Old North Foundation of Boston, Inc., $75,000, Bringing Old North to the 21st Century

Preservation Assistance Grants
Brownington Orleans County Historical Society, $9,300, Collections Monitoring and Housing

Improvement Project
Historic Deerfield, Inc., $10,000, Preserving Works on Paper at Historic Deerfield
Rhode Island School of Design, $10,000, Rehousing and Cataloging the RISD Museum’s eighteenth- and nineteenth century Wallpaper Collection
University of New Hampshire, Durham Outright: $10,000. UNH Museum of Art Collection Stewardship and Preservation

Institutes for School Teachers
Plymouth Plimoth Plantation, Inc., $163,742, Ancient Stories, New Neighbors: Decolonizing Indigenous Homelands and 17th-Century New England

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
South County History Center, $110,833, Preserving Southern Rhode Island Historical Collections

National Endowment for the Humanities: Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan

Boston Children’s Museum, $220,175, Collections and Community Engagement
Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc., $200,000, Humanities Programming for The Mount 2022
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, $30,947, Seeing is Revealing: Nook Farm Then and Now
Historic Deerfield, Inc., $200,000, Breaking Boundaries: Reaching New Audiences via Enhanced Virtual and Hybrid Programming
Keeler Tavern Preservation Society, Inc. $50,000, Interpreting American Identity and Memory at Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, $48,505, The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic
Maine Maritime Museum, $56,498, Reimagining Maine Maritime Museum’s Education Programming
Mark Twain House, $94,171, Sustaining Core Humanities Programs and Activities of The Mark Twain House & Museum
Museum L-A, $50,000, A More Perfect Union in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
New Hampshire Historical Society, $182,396, The Democracy Project: Completing an Education and Collections Initiative
Old North Foundation of Boston, Inc., $142,709, Presenting the Black Experience at Old North Church & Historic Site
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, $50,000, Pocumtuck Valley Voices
Preservation Society of Newport County, $498,415, Sharing New, Untold, and Underrepresented Stories
Providence Children’s Museum, $191,500, Coming to Rhode Island: Digitally Retelling Rhode Island’s Immigrant Stories
Springfield Library and Museums Association, $117,655, Retelling the First Peoples’ Stories
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, $500,000, Public, Academic, Library, and School Humanities Programs
USS Constitution Museum, Inc., $199,676, Inspiration from Old Ironsides, On-site & Online
Vermont Historical Society, $199,889, Vermont's Role in Our National Story: Providing Digital Access to Our Collections