Connecticut
A $4.9 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice will fund a partnership with Mystic Seaport Museum, and Williams College that will use maritime history as a basis for studying historical injustices and generating new insights on the relationship between European colonization in North America, the dispossession of Native American land, and racial slavery in New England. The collaborative project, titled “Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom,” will create new work and study opportunities at all three institutions, particularly for scholars, curators, and students from underrepresented groups. It will result in a new Mystic Seaport Museum exhibition on race, subjugation, and power, and a “decolonial archive” spotlighting a diverse collection of stories from several New England communities.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center has reached a collective bargaining agreement with Local 2110 of the UAW, which represents the seven-member part-time staff at its Visitors Center, the historical house museum announced.
USA Today announced that the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is one of the 10Best Holiday Historic Home Tours in the country. LMMM Executive Director Susan Gilgore said, “The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is featured as one of the 10 Best Historic House Museum Holiday Tours in the U.S. and listed among some of the most prestigious museums in America. The Board of Trustees and I are thrilled to have garnered such a distinction and truly grateful to the USA Today panelists as well as all of the LMMM supporters who have voted on our behalf and helped us win.”
Connecticut Historical Society recently received a $3,500 CT Humanities Quick Grant for Kuchipudi and the Indo-Colonial Context. This project is an educational and performance program at the intersection of Kuchipudi dance, Carnatic classical music and cultural history. The explanation of how traditional South Indian music was influenced by globalization and colonialism will be presented to make the music and dances understandable to diverse audience members. Following COVID-19 guidelines, the presentation will be offered online five times in June and July 2021.
The grand reopening of the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury took place in February. The renovation project has brought to life a reimagined space that continues to be a welcoming, inclusive, stimulating and enriching community anchor. The “new” Mattatuck Museum includes an extensive 14,000 square foot renovation to the existing building and an addition of almost 7,000 square feet to expand educational programming, collections storage, and exhibitions, according to the statement.
The Aldrich Care Box is a year-long traveling exhibition unbound to a physical space. A unique collaboration between The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum’s Curatorial and Education Departments, Director of Education Namulen Bayarsaihan and Senior Curator Amy Smith-Stewart, have commissioned five artists—Ilana Harris-Babou, Clarity Haynes, Athena LaTocha, Curtis Talwst Santiago, and James Allister Sprang—to create a series of objects that examine themes of care, grief, intimacy, and healing through a diverse range of materials, methods, and approaches. The Aldrich Care Boxes will be available for loan out to the public January 31 to December 31, 2021 from The Museum’s Front Desk.
The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut awarded Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center a $2,770 grant to support re-siding and trim repairs on the historic Keeler Tavern. These repairs are part of a larger regular maintenance project for the tavern and allow the museum to protect and preserve the building for current and future generations.
The following museums received a Connecticut Humanities COVID Relief Fund for Museums Grant:
Barnum Museum: $ 22,727.25; Imagine Nation, A Museum Early Learning Center: $ 22,727.25; New England Carousel Museum: $ 22,727.25; Connecticut Trolley Museum: $ 22,727.25; Connecticut River Museum: $ 22,727.25; Fairfield Museum: $ 22,727.25; Hill-Stead Museum: $ 22,727.25; Bruce Museum: $ 45,454.50; Greenwich Historical Society: $ 22,727.25; Amistad Center for Art & Culture: $ 22,727.25; Connecticut Landmarks: $ 22,727.25; Charter Oak Cultural Center: $ 22,727.25; Connecticut Forum: $ 22,727.25; Connecticut Historical Society: $ 45,454.50; Connecticut Democracy Center: $ 45,454.50; Connecticut Science Center: $ 45,454.50; Harriet Beecher Stowe Center: $ 22,727.25; Mark Twain House & Museum: $ 45,454.50; Everyday Democracy: $ 45,454.50; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art: $ 45,454.50; Litchfield Historical Society: $ 22,727.25; Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center: $ 45,454.50; Kidcity Children's Museum: $ 22,727.25; Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center: $ 22,727.25; Mystic Museum of Art: $ 22,727.25; Mystic Seaport Museum: $ 45,456.00; New Britain Museum of American Art: $ 45,454.50; New Canaan Museum & Historical Society: $ 22,727.25; Artspace: $ 22,727.25; International Festival of Arts & Ideas: $ 45,454.50; New Haven Museum: $ 22,727.25; Lyman Allyn Art Museum: $ 22,727.25; Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum: $ 22,727.25; Stepping Stones Museum for Children: $ 45,454.50; The Maritime Aquarium: $ 45,454.50; Florence Griswold Museum: $ 45,454.50; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum: $ 45,454.50; Keeler Tavern Museum: $ 22,727.25; Pequot Library: $ 22,727.25; Avon Theatre Film Center: $ 22,727.25; Stamford Museum and Nature Center: $ 45,454.50; Kidsplay Children's Museum: $ 22,727.25; Gunn Memorial Library & Museum: $ 22,727.25; Institute for American Indian Studies: $ 22,727.25; Mattatuck Museum: $ 22,727.25; The Children's Museum: $ 22,727.25; Westport Museum for History and Culture: $ 22,727.25; Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum: $ 22,727.25; Wilton Historical Society: $ 22,727.25; and New England Air Museum: $ 22,727.25
Maine
The Mount Desert Island Historical Society is using historic observations of natural history taken on the Island between 1880-1920 to document climate change. Working with partners in Acadia National Park, climate scientists, students. and non-profit science organizations, this collaboration will launch a website where people can explore changes to species, climate, and water temperature over the past 140 years, learn more about the important role historic records play in understanding and predicting change over time in our climate, and contribute new observations. The website will be accompanied by a year-long series of public programs, citizen science initiatives, and two new exhibits funded in part by the Maine Humanities Council.
The Maine Historical Society recently received a grant from the Maine Humanities. Begin Again: Reckoning with Intolerance in Maine is a new initiative designed to stimulate and support civic dialog around race and social justice issues in Maine today. The initiative will provide information, historical context, and forums for discussion that help Mainers understand, connect, and meaningfully respond to national conversations about white privilege, systemic racism, and other forms of inequality. This will include an invitation to community members to help reinterpret artifacts and documents in our collection and engage in dialogue through connected programming.
The Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity has announced that Norway Savings Bank is again sponsoring the museum as an underwriter of their 2021 Summer Events and Programming with a donation of $2,500. This year's major event will be a tour of local gardens, to be held in July.
Massachusetts
Since the USS Constitution Museum opened in its current location on April 8, 1976, we have been engaging all ages in the stories of USS Constitution through our immersive exhibits and programs. On April 8, USS Constitution Museum celebrated its 45th anniversary. Museum President and CEO Anne Grimes Rand will commemorate the anniversary by firing the morning cannon on "Old Ironsides". It is also a milestone year for Anne, who celebrates her 35th year at the museum. Her courageous and positive leadership is a guiding force at the Museum; especially as we ready for the next chapter in our history. Read more about the museum's 45-year journey on its blog.
The Boston Children's Museum has received a grant of $1,500,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. The grant will support the museum’s religious literacy and humanities programs. Lilly Endowment awarded more than $43 million in grants through the Initiative. Boston Children’s Museum is one of 18 organizations from across the U.S. receiving grants through the initiative. These grants will enable organizations to develop exhibitions and education programs that fairly and accurately portray the role of religion in the U.S. and around the world. The initiative is designed to foster public understanding about religion and lift up the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.
The Rose Art Museum is pleased to announce that it has received a $350,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation in support of the Museum’s forthcoming 60th anniversary project, titled re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum. This three-year project includes a research-based museum-wide exhibition, scheduled to open in May, and a major publication that will echo and enhance the exhibition. Both will focus on the Rose’s stellar permanent collection of 20th and 21st century art, amassed over six decades.
Over the past several years, the Forbes House Museum has undertaken a series of highly visible projects to restore the building and improve the visitor experience. Their accomplishments include: Rebuilding the foundation under the north and south porches; Adding a lift and ramp from the parking lot to the side entrance; Painting interior exhibition rooms; Replacing rotted gutters and crumbling chimney caps; Creating a new pollinator garden; and Painting the exterior of the mansion. Their latest project is restoring three large rooms on the third floor which have housed the collections. A team of craftspeople skilled in historic preservation has begun faithfully salvaging, patching and painting the horsehair plaster walls and ceiling. The project will take approximately five weeks.
The Old Sturbridge Village museum announced a $5 million donation from the estate of Honorary Trustee and long-time friend of the Village, Helen A. Titus of Newport Beach, CA. The museum plans to use this gift to ensure living history continues at Old Sturbridge Village in the future, and address capital needs on the campus, including the preservation of historic buildings and landscape.
Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support Art Reach, PAAM’s award-winning youth education program. Provincetown Art Association and Museum's project is among 1,073 projects across America totaling nearly $25 million that were selected during this first round of fiscal year 2021 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects funding category.
The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) has been in discussion with the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum (NLBM) regarding a formal Affiliation that will join the two entities. On March 27, at a special meeting of the NLBM Membership, that body voted overwhelmingly to proceed with the Affiliation. The Boards are excited that joining forces will provide a larger platform to promote the story of Nantucket lightship baskets. A key part of the Affiliation will be the establishment of a new gallery dedicated to Nantucket crafts to be called the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum Gallery, located at the NHA’s Broad Street campus. Once the existing location of the NLBM at 49 Union is vacated and sold, the proceeds will be directed in large part to the creation of this new gallery. This will place the lightship basket story in the heart of NHA’s primary facility. Until this gallery is built, impressive displays will be exhibited at Hadwen House and at the Whaling Museum.
The Trustees of the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) are pleased to announce an important gift, over one hundred years in the making. A collection of historic artifacts, natural-history specimens, and ethnographic objects from around the world, originally loaned to the NHA from the Atheneum in 1905, has now officially been donated to the museum and will henceforth be named “The Nantucket Atheneum Collection.”
Untitled from Litzmann (Lodz) Ghetto, 1940-45 by Henryk Ross
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), has received a gift of 48 photographs by Henryk Ross (1910–1991), which offer an extraordinarily rare glimpse of life inside the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during the Holocaust. Donated to the MFA by collector Howard Greenberg, the group of gelatin silver prints was originally given directly by Ross to Lova Szmuszkowicz, later Leon Sutton (1909–2007), a fellow survivor of the Lodz Ghetto who brought them to the U.S. when he immigrated to New York City in 1947. The prints represent a significant range of both official images, which Ross took as a photographer for the ghetto’s Department of Statistics, and the unofficial photographs that he took secretly at great personal risk, which documented the grim realities of life inside.
The Fitchburg Art Museum is pleased to announce the extension of Fitchburg Families First, a pandemic relief program that provides food and supplies to students in the Fitchburg Public Schools and their families. This programming is made possible by a grant of $30,000 from the Cathedral Fund, a Boston-based arts engagement foundation. Read the full announcement at: https://bit.ly/3lMpjF8
The Peabody Essex Museum kicks off a new Climate + Environment Initiative addressing our changing relationship to the natural world in order to encourage reflection, inspire conversation and spark action. This new initiative will be launched with the exhibition Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks, on view March 6–May 31. Through the lens of the shipwreck, artist Alexis Rockman draws upon imagery from historical paintings and reimagines the scenes with compelling compositions that highlight the ecological drama and impact of globalization.
The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation has awarded the Springfield Museums $20,000 to support their upcoming Ai Weiwei exhibition (July 17, 2021 – January 2, 2022) at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition will focus on work which speaks specifically to Ai’s engagement with Chinese materials, motifs, and artifacts. It will have particular relevance due to its placement within the Springfield Museums complex, which includes the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, a historic 19th century museum that houses Chinese decorative arts.
The Museum Of Bad Art launched MOBA Curator Talks, a series of virtual presentations, in January. These 40 minute slide shows are Zoomed live to organizations across the US. Talks such as In the Nood and Dopplehangers have been popular with libraries, businesses, and senior centers. With five current offerings, MOBA continues to develop additional titles.
The following museums received a Digital Capacity Grant from Mass Humanities.
Amherst Historical Society, Amherst: $3,000; Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield: $5,000; The Bidwell House Museum, Monterey: $3,650; Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester: $4,989; Cuttyhunk Historical Society, Cuttyhunk: $5,000; Danvers Historical Society, Danvers: $5,000; Dedham Historical Society, Dedham: $5,000; Edith Wharton Restoration, Lenox: $3,050; Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst: $5,000; Falmouth Historical Society, Falmouth: $2,500; Fitchburg Historical Society, Fitchburg: $3,100; Forbes Library, Northampton: $4,999; Hatfield Historical Society, Hatfield: $4,449; The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association, Salem: $3,367; Hull Lifesaving Museum, Hull: $5,000; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston: $5,000; Marblehead Museum, Marblehead: $3,160; Natick Historical Society, Natick: $2,500; New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, New Bedford: $3,750; New Bedford Preservation Society, New Bedford: $3,900; Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge: $5,000; Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton: $4,780; Old North Foundation of Boston, Boston: $4,500; Paul Revere House, Boston: $5,000; Plainfield Historical Society, Plainfield: $4,000; Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield: $5,000; Public Health Museum in Massachusetts, Tewksbury: $4,985; Sheffield Historical Society, Sheffield: $1,440; Somerville Museum, Somerville: $3,540; Springfield Museums, Springfield: $3,900; and Westford Museum, Westford: $1,725
New Hampshire
In March 2021, the Wright Museum of World War II received one of the largest matching grants in the Museum’s 27-year history. The Trustees of Boston’s Biber Foundation will make a matching grant of up to $60,000 to provide funds for the Wright’s ongoing multi-phased renovation project called Project25. In December 2020, the McIninch Foundation of Manchester, NH awarded the Wright Museum of WWII a $3,000 grant to be used for technology upgrades that include a new archival document scanner and assorted photographic equipment.
The Currier Museum of Art is pleased to announce that it has completed the purchase of the George Byron Chandler House, an architectural treasure from the late 19th century that sits across the street from the museum. “The Chandler House is one of the most beautiful Victorian houses in New Hampshire but has been almost unknown,” said Stephen Duprey, president of the museum’s board of trustees. “We can now begin the challenging job of restoring the house so that it can be enjoyed by the community.” The Currier Museum worked closely with the City of Manchester and a dedicated community of supporters who want to see the Chandler House restored to its original glory. The city’s Planning and Community Development Department facilitated the subdivision of the property and the necessary permits. The main floor of the house preserves impressive stained glass windows, original wallpaper, and fine wood carving. These areas will be open to the public as an expansion of the museum, specifically to represent New Hampshire in the 19th century. The Chandler House joins the museum’s two houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in presenting the architectural heritage of the region.
Rhode Island
The historic Slater Mill in Pawtucket and the surrounding area will become part of the National Park Service. The transfer of the Old Slater Mill Historic District from local control to federal control enhances opportunities for conservation, historic preservation, tourism, economic growth, education, and recreation, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said in a statement.
Newport Restoration Foundation has been awarded $71,212 from The 1772 Foundation for the planning of a historic building trades apprenticeship program. The grant will support the hiring of an individual for one year to examine other programs around the country, establish a framework, work out the details of the program, and initiate the necessary partnerships. NRF plans to begin the development of the program in spring of this year.
This spring the Rhode Island Historical Society will embark upon a major landscaping initiative for the John Brown House campus in honor of their upcoming 200th anniversary in 2022. This initiative will create universal access to the museum and grounds, preserve a sense of history and place, and enable enhanced and inclusive programming for diverse audiences. “Putting Down Roots'' is the result of several years of thoughtful planning by a committee of civic representatives, local landscape and heritage professionals, trustees, and staff. Proposed improvements to the John Brown House landscape include slight re-grading, an accessible parking area, the installation of looping accessible pathways, lighting, and the creation of universal access to the first floor of the John Brown House Museum. This project has been endorsed by the RIHS trustees to commemorate the 200th anniversary and will celebrate two centuries of honoring, interpreting, and sharing Rhode Island’s past to enrich the present and inspire the future.
The Tomaquag Museum, which began inside the small Ashaway home of anthropologist Eva Butler more than 60 years ago, will move to an expansive, 18-acre site off Ministerial Road in South Kingstown, on the very land where ancestors of the Niantic and Narragansett tribal nations lived and worked for millennia prior to the arrival of European settlers. The plans include four new buildings and plenty of room for exhibits, area hikes, property tours, visitor parking, gardens full of native plants, medicinals, berries and herbs, new classrooms, performance space, a fully functional kitchen, gift shop, restaurant, pavilions, sculpture gardens, a replica of an early Native village, and a long house.
Little Compton Historical Society recently received a Rhode Island Council for the Humanities grant for Everyone Was A Farmer: Permanent Exhibition. The grant will Support the development and implementation of a new permanent exhibition, Everyone Was a Farmer, in the historical society’s dairy barn exhibition space. The exhibition will include four centuries of agricultural histories, including stories of enslaved farmers of African descent, Indigenous farmers, and present-day local farmers, and will have related programming and virtual components.
South County Museum recently received a Rhode Island Council for the Humanities grant for Ohh!: Oral History Hub Pilot. A pilot oral history collection project to document the experiences of 10 members of the Point Judith commercial fishing community. As part of the project, the project team will train community oral history interviewers, find a digital repository for interviews, offer a lecture, produce an article, and incorporate the collected oral histories into an exhibition on Point Judith fishermen.
Vermont
Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) has been selected to participate in the Museum Assessment Program (MAP), which is administered by the American Alliance of Museums. Through guided self-study assessment and on-site consultation with a museum professional, participation in MAP will empower SVAC to better serve the citizens of Southern Vermont and beyond by facilitating its meeting and exceeding the highest professional standards of the museum field.
New England
The following NEMA members recently received National Endowment for the Humanities Grants.
Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; $385,416
ADA Accessibility, Landscape, and Site Improvements at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
Restoration of the 1884 Katharine S. Day House and the 1873 carriage house that serves as the visitor center, to include associated landscape improvements and retrofitting for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Funds would also support a security system upgrade, furnishings, and a fundraising consultant.
Maine Historical Society; $500,000
Completing Riverside: Preparing Maine Historical Society for Its Third Century
The installation of compact storage and consolidation of collections currently stored across four buildings at Maine Historical Society’s new offsite Riverside Collections Management Center.
Strawbery Banke Museum; $291,860
Penhallow House Project
Restoration of the 1750 Penhallow House to preserve existing architectural elements, remove later additions, and stabilize the structure. Once rehabilitated, the building would be used to tell the story of resident Kenneth D. Richardson, a leader in the Civil Rights movement and the first African American supervisor at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Digital Projects for the Public: Discovery Grants
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association; $30,000
Lucy Terry Prince: A Window into African-American Life in Early Rural New England
Development of a website addressing the experience of African Americans in Revolutionary-era New England.
Dialogues on the Experience of War
USS Constitution Museum, Inc.; $96,264
Sailors Speak: The Impact of War on Naval Veterans, their Families, and the Country Project Description: The training of facilitators to lead three discussion series for naval veterans and their families, based on historical documents and material culture from the War of 1812 and the post-9/11 wars.
Exhibitions: Planning
Captain Forbes House Museum; $40,000
The Economic and Moral Complexities of the Opium Trade Project Description: Development of a temporary exhibition, including virtual elements, a teacher workshop, and public programing, examining the legacy of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century opium trade.