Connecticut

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum has received a major grant in the amount of $20,000 from The Xerox Foundation in support of the museum’s 2015 educational and cultural programs. The Xerox Foundation’s $20,000 contribution comes at a crucial time and will have a great impact on the museum’s cultural and educational programs and the quality of life of the communities it serves. This very generous gift will increase access to this National Historic Landmark and enrich the lives of many residents, allow the museum to expand its Education Program throughout Fairfield County, and offer reduced admissions to students of all ages. The museum has also received a major grant from the CT Humanities to implement the exhibit, “The Stairs Below: The Mansion’s Domestic Servants, 1868-1938.”

(City of Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, David Westmoreland, Chairman, Norwalk Historical Commission, and Port Draper, LMMM Trustee in the newly designed ADA elevator, 2015)

After several years of planning, design, and fundraising efforts to garner private, corporate, and public support to upgrade its facilities and include the disabled in its visitors’ experience, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum unveiled a new ADA elevator during a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 20, 2015. The museum received $179,558 for this project from the State Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Economic and Community Development through Connecticut’s Historic Restoration Fund and the Community Investment Act of the State of Connecticut. The installation of the ADA Elevator was part of Phase II of a major construction project supported by the City of Norwalk, The Norwalk Historical Commission, and the State Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Economic and Community Development, to achieve ADA compliance requirements by upgrading the Museum’s bathroom facilities and the installation of the long-awaited elevator. Phase I and II of the construction cost approximately $800,000.

Mystic Seaport has announced that it has been awarded a $199,806 grant by the National Park Service, in partnership with the Maritime Administration (MARAD), to support the restoration of its 1908 steamboat Sabino. The grant is part of approximately $2.6 million in Maritime Heritage Program grants for projects that teach about and preserve sites and objects related to our nation’s maritime history. The 57-foot Sabino was built in East Boothbay, ME in 1908 and served for many decades in the state’s coastal waters before coming to Mystic Seaport in the early 1970s. The boat has been designated a National Historic Landmark vessel and offers seasonal cruises on the Mystic River from the Mystic Seaport waterfront. Sabino is presently undergoing an extensive restoration of her hull and mechanical systems in the Museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard and is expected to return to service in 2016.

Congratulations to the following Connecticut NEMA members on receiving an American Association for State and Local History Leadership in History Awards:

• Wethersfield Historical Society for the exhibit Castle on the Cove: the Connecticut State Prison and Wethersfield.
• Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Connecticut College, and Stephen Fan for the exhibit, forum, and publication SubUrbanisms: Casino Company Town/China Town.
• Mystic Seaport for the 38th Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan.

Maine

Woodlawn Museum, Seal Cove Auto Museum and Maine Public Broadcasting Network have announced a joint membership promotion. To celebrate their season openings, each museum offered free admission for all Auto Museum, Woodlawn, and MPBN members during the entire month of May. Throughout the 2015 season, the Seal Cove Auto Museum and Woodlawn will continue to collaborate, offering visitors 20% off each museum's admission when both are visited.

The Maine Maritime Museum Discovery Boatbuilding Program, received a $10,000 donation from PC Construction. PC Construction’s employee-owners nominated 10 nonprofits from the greater Portland, Maine area. The contest was then opened up to the public and garnered more than 5,200 votes to help determine the winners. 

Massachusetts

Boston Children’s Museum’s sound fiscal management practices and commitment to accountability and transparency have earned it a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. This is the first time that Boston Children’s Museum has earned this top distinction. Since 2002, using data-driven analysis, Charity Navigator has awarded only the most fiscally responsible organizations a 4-star rating. In 2011, Charity Navigator added a second dimension of Accountability and Transparency (A&T) to its rating methodology, and now reviews 17 governance and ethical practices as well as measures of openness, providing information on its web site for each of the charities it evaluates. The A&T metrics, which account for 50 percent of a charity’s overall rating, reveal which charities have “best practices” that minimize the chance of unethical activities and whether they freely share basic information about their organization with their donors and other stakeholders.

Boston Children’s Museum has created a special program, Morningstar Access, which makes the museum more accessible to individuals and groups with special or medical needs. This program, generously supported by Liberty Mutual, provides times for families with special or medical needs to enjoy the museum when it is not crowded. At these times, there is a limit of 100 guests, allowing children and their families to explore the museum with less concern about infections and large crowds. The museum is a unique environment that emphasizes hand-on engagement using all the senses and exposes children to new objects, sounds, materials, shapes, and physical activities. There is no need to sit still, no start or end to the experience, and no judging. The mode is self-directed discovery with the child setting the pace.

After a three-month hiatus the John F. Kennedy Library opened its newly renovated museum exhibits which feature dynamic new projectors displaying newly remastered digital films of President Kennedy’s most iconic speeches. In addition, three new interactive exhibits allow visitors to interact with digital content related to JFK’s press briefings, a civil rights timeline and the activities and travels of the First Lady. The building’s main lobby was also re-designed and upgraded to improve security presence, admissions process, and digital signage related to events and docent tours.

The Nahant Historical Society is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. They are proud not only of  service to the community but also the accolade of peers. The Society is now focused firmly on the future by seeking and winning a $108,000+ grant from an anonymous funder to catalog its collections into PastPerfect using the services of Museum and Collector Resource of Concord, MA. This project started in early July 2014 with an estimated completion by January 2016. 

Following an extensive renovation and conservation project, the Peabody Essex Museum reopened its historic Ropes Mansion to the public. As the inaugural step of a larger historic property initiative, PEM’s 18th-century Ropes Mansion reimagines what a historic house experience can be. PEM’s Ropes Mansion — located at 318 Essex St. — is a 10-minute walk from the museum and will be open free to the public seasonally, Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 4 pm. Built in 1727 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Ropes Mansion was home to four generations of the Ropes family and is recognized as one of New England’s most significant and thoroughly documented historic houses. Filled with original furnishings, the house contains superb examples of 18th- and 19th-century furniture, ceramics and glass, silver, kitchenwares, textiles and personal objects. The property has been closed to the public since 2009, following a fire that was swiftly contained by firefighters, and its reopening ushers in a new chapter for this stately and illustrious Georgian Colonial. 

The Peabody Essex Museum has announced it will expedite the transfer of an artwork from its collection to the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to cooperate with an ongoing international art fraud investigation. PEM is one of several major art institutions around the world that purchased items from art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was arrested in 2011 on charges of trafficking in stolen antiques from India. Through HSI’s investigation, PEM learned that a mid-19th century Tanjore portrait in its collection, which was acquired from Subhash Kapoor’s New York gallery in 2006, has falsified provenance. The artwork will be turned over to HSI.

The EcoTarium is thrilled to become a museum partner of National Geographic, one of less than ten across the nation, and the first in New England. The Alden Digital Planetarium: A National Geographic Theater, features Mysteries of the Unseen World, a National Geographic film, now playing daily. "Partnering with National Geographic, one of the most well-respected providers of scientific content in the world, allows us to work towards our strategic goal of becoming a national leader in engaging communities with science and nature," said Joseph Cox, president of the EcoTarium. Through this exciting partnership, the EcoTarium gains special access to one of the world's largest and most diverse libraries of award-winning science, nature and adventure films, and will commit a portion of programming each year exclusively to National Geographic films.

2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of Historic Deerfield's Helen Geier Flynt Textile Gallery and the museum continues to preserve its extensive collection of textiles through conservation. Efforts were boosted by the recent award of $3,000 to Historic Deerfield by the Felicia Fund to conserve two important needlework pictures acquired by the museum in 2013.  The pictures are terrific examples of "schoolgirl" art with connections to the Connecticut River Valley. Schoolgirl art is the general name given to embroidered or watercolor pictures taught by instructors to girls attending various academies in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Girls could attend schools for one or more terms, with each term lasting about 12 weeks. Clothing from the collection was initially displayed on mannequins from Wilson's department store in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Mrs. Flynt enlisted the help of Mary Brosnan, a leading mannequin manufacturer in Long Island City, Queens, New York, to create mannequins that conformed to the correct 18th-century posture for men and women who at the time would have been aided by the use of stays and corsets.

The USS Constitution Museum has received a National Maritime Heritage Grant of $50,000 from the National Park Service. The grant supports the new Forest to Frigate exhibit and programming, interpreting the construction of USS CONSTITUTION in the 1790’s. Forest to Frigate is the centerpiece of the museum’s restoration initiative as CONSTITUTION enters the dry dock in May for a three year, multi-million dollar restoration. The Maritime Heritage Grant will support a new introductory film for the theater.  The museum is creating a multi-media experience to welcome and introduce audiences to the repair process underway on board USS CONSTITUTION.  The museum will combine film footage with historic images from the collection to create a compelling overview of former restorations and current repairs and provide a brief overview of her historical significance. The film will end with CONSTITUTION entering the dry dock.  Active duty sailors will be on hand in the museum to explain the repairs that are taking place that day and to answer visitors’ questions.

In 2015, the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at UMass Amherst entered its 40^th year, dedicated to advancing contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and training programs for the next generation of artists and museum professionals. 40 Years/40 Artists, which opened earlier this year, featured the work of artists whose exhibitions at the museum ― at crucial moments in their careers ― had the effect of opening up dialogue about ideas relevant to contemporary art and society. In recognition of its 40th anniversary, artists generously donated their work to the UMCA’s permanent collection in order to continue the mission of the museum to inspire future generations of students and researchers.

The Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club was recently awarded a $17,000 grant from the Mass. Cultural Council to conduct an Ell Feasibility Study. Rehabilitation of the 1811 Ell will address Tuesday Club and local community space needs, allowing the Club to diversify its program offerings, and increase revenue through event rentals. The Tuesday Club collaborated with the Boston Public Library and the Digital Commonwealth to digitize a first batch of archives, which is now available to the public. The Club also completed its first full year of attendance-taking and is pleased to report more than 21,000 visits to the Loring-Greenough House and grounds in the past year. The Club is now using this data to launch an awareness campaign and a membership drive at our highly-attended seasonal program “Thursdays on the Lawn.”

Mark R. Epstein ’63, a member of the MIT Corporation and leader in telecommunications and electronics systems, has endowed the directorship of the MIT Museum. The gift was announced by Institute Professor Phillip Sharp, chair of the MIT Museum Advisory Board, and Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History, Philip Khoury. The Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director of the MIT Museum is the first endowed position in the museum and will be held by John R. Durant, the incumbent and an adjunct professor in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society.

The Dedham Institution for Savings Foundation is donating $5,000 to the Dedham Historical Society & Museum to fund the utilization of advanced technologies that will be used to scan digital copies of very old, extremely fragile historical documents. This process will preserve a piece of Dedham’s living history, making it available to numerous researchers while also protecting the original documents themselves.  Among the items to be scanned will be a Native American deed which dates back to April 18, 1685. Also set for digital preservation are a collection of Dedham Citizen newspapers which were in circulation for a short time in the mid-twentieth century.

The Museum of World War II in Natick has received a $100,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation to develop a World War II education program. The program will include hands-on field experiences for students, professional development workshops for teachers, and utilize technology to enhance interaction with the museum's original artifacts.

Congratulation to the following Massachusetts NEMA members on receiving a National Endowment of the Arts grant:

• deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, $30,000, to support "Drawing Redefined: When Sculptors Draw." The exhibition will feature works by artists such as Roni Horn, Joelle Tuerlinckx, Richard Tuttle, and Jorinde Voigt.
• Harvard University, $30,000, to support the exhibition "Corita Kent and the Language of Pop." The exhibition will present the 1960s screenprints of Corita Kent (a Roman Catholic nun who headed the art department at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles) alongside the work of contemporaries such as Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana. Kent's prints, books, drawings, and sculptures will be presented alongside a number of short films from the period about Kent's practice. Screenprinting workshops and public programs will create a hands-on experience with pop art.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, $55,000, to support the exhibition "Crafted: Objects in Flux," with accompanying catalogue.

New Hampshire

The Currier Museum of Art has announced that it has renamed the gallery that currently displays contemporary art, the Kimon and Anne Zachos Gallery. The announcement was made on March 20 during a celebration at the Currier to honor Arts patron and philanthropist, Kimon Zachos. Zachos died on December 31, 2014. He was 84. Zachos’ generous bequest will create the Currier’s first-ever endowment to fund exhibitions. The Kimon and Anne Zachos Exhibition Fund will help support the museum’s schedule of world-class art shows for its community. The rest of the bequest will support the Kimon S. Zachos Acquisition Fund, established in 1999 to help sustain the Currier’s acquisition of significant art.

Zachos was instrumental in helping the Currier’s collection grow in scale and prominence during the 47 years in which he was affiliated with the museum. His behind-the-scenes work helped the Currier acquire such outstanding works of art as Alexander Calder’s Petit Disque Jaune (1967), impressionist Edmund Tarbell’s Mercie Cutting Flowers (1912) and most remarkably, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House (1950), which is the only Wright structure open to the public in New England.

The Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough was named Nonprofit of the Year by the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce.

Rhode Island

Providence Children’s Museum adopted a new three-year strategic plan in February. Among the focus areas of the plan are to: ensure excellent visitor experiences that inspire and celebrate learning through active play and exploration; continue and deepen outreach to underserved children and families; advance the museum’s leadership role as a strong and visible advocate for children’s self-directed free play; and ensure the museum’s successful future growth and that it continues to meet community needs.

Unplugged 2015, PCM’s annual gala, netted nearly $100,000 to benefit the museum and help fund critical play and learning opportunities for children and families in need.  The event raised awareness about the importance of play for kids’ healthy development and spotlighted Families Together, the museum’s nationally recognized therapeutic visitation program for court-separated families, which nurtures families in crisis through play.

For a fourth summer, PCM is bringing playful hands-on activities to neighborhood parks across Providence, building on its efforts to advocate for and raise awareness of the critical importance of children’s play, and its commitment to make unstructured, high-quality play opportunities available to all kids and families.

(Tang dynasty figure of a standing court lady, featuring a rare deep blue glaze. Credit: David Rockefeller Collection, RISD Museum)

The RISD Museum has received from David Rockefeller a $2.5 million gift, the most recent gift in a long legacy of support from the Rockefeller family, to fund and expand the museum's collection of decorative arts and design. Mr. Rockefeller's generous pledge includes the endowment of a curatorial position to lead the department and funds to underwrite a named gallery within the museum's suite of European art galleries. Mr. Rockefeller has also made a promised gift of decorative artwork from his estate, including European furniture, porcelain, and silver.

The Newport Restoration Foundation's most recent architectural acquisition, the Christopher Townsend House, opened to the public May 13. Namesake Christopher Townsend was a renowned Newport furniture maker, and the home possibly served as his workshop. NRF staff will offer informal tours of the home and surrounding historic Point neighborhood. During the event, attendees can view a detailed timeline of the history of Bridge Street by Julie Braid. Autographed copies of the book Extraordinary Vision: Doris Duke and the Newport Restoration Foundation will also be for sale. The event is free, but donations are welcome.