Connecticut
Thanks to a $56,575 matching grant from the Connecticut Historic Restoration Fund, three rare, historic privies—known to some as outhouses—have been fully restored and are once again sitting pretty on the grounds of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum. Repairs to the privies included replacing the cedar shingle roofs, restoration and painting of both the exteriors and interior walls, and the original finial atop one of them. The Connecticut Historic Restoration Fund grant also enabled WDS to replace the Deane House wood-shingle roof, which was also badly in need of replacement.
The New Haven Museum has received the 2014 Fraser Award from the Association for the Study of Connecticut History (ASCH) for its most popular and acclaimed major exhibition to date, “Beyond the New Township: Wooster Square.”
The Yale Center for British Art has begun the second phase of the interior conservation of its landmark building, designed by architect Louis I. Kahn. Upon the project’s completion, visitors will experience the Center’s renowned collection of more than five centuries of British art in the building as Kahn originally envisioned, with vital systems, spaces, and amenities within state-of-the-art standards. This endeavor follows the successful completion of the first phase of the project, which occurred in the summer and fall of 2013. In the first phase, the Center’s Study Room and work spaces of the departments of Prints & Drawings and Rare Books & Manuscripts were restored to pristine condition in 2013.
The Society of the Founders of Norwich/Leffingwell House Museum received a grant from the Jewett City Savings Bank in December of 2014. The money will be used for energy upgrades in the museum. They plan to install interior window inserts to help keep the museum more energy efficient in cold as well as warm weather and add additional UV protection for its collections. They recently discovered that its 13 star flag is a Naval Flag from the mid 1800’s and was probably flown on a ship. The Leffingwell House structure evolved into its present structural configuration over a 100 year period. This year, the original 2 room section of the house will be 340 years old. These two rooms were built by Steven Backus in 1675 and used as his home. Sold to Thomas Leffingwell in 1700, it was used as a tavern up to the Revolution when Christopher Leffingwell probably used it as his “office.” The museum shows it as an example of the many tavern rooms that promulgated the ideas that lead to the Revolution in 1776.
Mystic Seaport announces a gift of $1 million from the Thompson Family Foundation honoring the late Wade Thompson, a Museum trustee for 27 years. This gift, directed to a new 14,000 square-foot exhibition building, caps an earlier gift from the Thompsons, bringing their total gifts towards this building to $6.6 million. The new building will be named for the Thompson family.
Klaff’s, a widely sought-after resource of home design in the region, headquartered in Norwalk, CT, has donated to the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum the proceeds from the Klaff’s Jerry Levine Charity Golf Outing held on August 11, 2014. The donation of $19,954.00 is one of the largest corporate gifts the museum has received this year. The museum’s Education Program has been awarded a $7,500 competitive grant from Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. With this generous support, the museum plans to serve a greater population of students and continue to offer the Mansion as a site where students can learn about mid-to-late 19th century history, technology, art, and architecture.
Maine
Maine Archives and Museums is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a $1,000 Community Outreach Grant from the Maine Humanities Council. This award will support MAM’s programming in 2015, including professional development workshops and networking opportunities throughout Maine. Programming will include a special focus on photography and may include such topics as the care and preservation of physical photographic collections, issues of copyright and intellectual property, disaster planning and caring for organic collections. Following each workshop, and also in stand-alone events, MAM will host unstructured networking opportunities designed for informal conversation amongst museum and archive professionals throughout the state. Finally, MAM will partner with the Maine Photo Project and the University of Southern Maine in presenting a public symposium on Maine photography in October 2015, featuring Maine-based scholars Libby Bischof and Donna Cassidy (both University of Southern Maine) and Diana Tuite (Colby College Museum of Art), among others. The goal of these programs—from collections care to unstructured networking—is to expand the knowledge and skill sets of collecting institutions as well as individuals, in service of preserving and sharing Maine’s cultural heritage for both the immediate and more distant future. Through networking with like-minded colleagues, participants will also expand their capacity for future partnerships, laying the groundwork for additional collaborative ventures and resource-sharing which continue to promote public engagement with Maine’s cultural heritage.
L.C. Bates Museum recently received a NEH PAG grant of $5,973 to work with conservator Ron Harvey to develop and implement a new museum collections storage space and to work with MAM to present a storage planning workshop. They have also received a ME Historic Records Collections Grant Program at the Maine State Archives for $1,000 for preserving and storing historic Good Will -Hinckley archives photographs and documents and a New Balance Foundation Move More Kids grant for $1,000 for snowshoes for outdoor guided winter walks and families to check out of the museum to use on the Good Will-Hinckley Trails. Each week, for the next 10 weeks the L.C.Bates Museum will be taking science outreach programs to 700 elementary school students.
The Dyer Library and Saco Museum announced that the organization has received a generous grant of $100,000 from the Next Generation Foundation to provide funds for updating the library and museum buildings. In addition to the $100,000, the Next Generation Foundation has offered the Dyer Library Association a challenge grant of $57,000. By June of 2016, the library and museum must raise a match for the additional grant, composed solely of money from new donors and increased donations from established donors of the past five years.
The Maine State Museum, through the Cultural Emergency Resource Coalition (CERC), has finished its first cycle of facilitating disaster plans for cultural institutions, a project made possible by a grant from Jane’s Trust. CERC, a partnership of the Museum, Maine Emergency Management Agency, Maine State Library, Maine State Archives, Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the association Maine Archives and Museums, and Maine’s two AIC-CERT conservators, promotes disaster planning in Maine’s cultural community. To address the lack of man-power and information that often hampers disaster planning efforts, CERC arranged to train a FEMA Corps team to work in the field, guiding ten Maine cultural organizations through the creation of disaster plans – a project hailed by Heritage Preservation as a model use of FEMA Corps that will serve to connect local institutions with both the state and national emergency management structure. A new FEMA Corps team and another fifteen organizations are anticipated to participate in the spring, ranging from all-volunteer institutions to some of Maine’s largest libraries and museums. The resulting facilitation materials will be made available online.
Massachusetts
Congratulations to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the Nantucket Historical Association on being chosen as a finalists for the 2015 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The National Medal is the nation's highest honor given to museums and libraries for service to the community. For 21 years, the award has celebrated institutions that demonstrate extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service to make a difference for individuals, families, and communities.
The Bidwell House Museum announced that the museum has been awarded state grants totaling $60,000 in 2014. The museum has received a matching grant of $30,000 from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund through the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC), Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Francis Galvin, Chairman. This grant will help fund a Historic Structure Report and the plans for roof replacement and accessibility improvements. The museum also received a $30,000 Cultural Facilities Fund grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council toward the actual construction of the roof replacement. These are the largest grant awards the museum has received to date, underscoring the significance of the museum as a center of education about early Berkshire history for tourists and community members alike. Work on the Historic Structure Report began in the fall. The museum has engaged a team of experts led by Steve McAlister of Clark & Green Architects, Inc. of Great Barrington to carry out the study and design work. The museum plans to proceed with these improvements in three steps: 1. assessment, study and design this winter; 2. rebuilding of the roof this fall; and 3. pending funding, visitor enhancements and accessibility improvements in the following year.
The Discovery Museums announced its renewed partnership with MathWorks of Natick, MA to bring the museums’ Traveling Science Workshops (TSW) program to elementary and middle schools for 2014-2015. Now in its 22nd year, TSW is a state curriculum-based program that brings hands-on science and STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) concepts into pre K-8 classrooms throughout New England. This is the fifth consecutive year that MathWorks has underwritten the program. They have also received a $25,000 grant from the Yawkey Foundation. This is the fifth significant grant the Foundation has provided in support of the Museums’ Open Door Connections program, to underwrite education and programs for children and families in underserved populations. IMLS has awarded $149,477 and the Sudbury Foundation has awarded $150,000 to the museums for the development of a new exhibit focused on early brain development, for children ages zero through three and their families. The museums will work with early childhood researchers and other experts from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Brazelton Institute to develop an exhibit of activities known to shape the developing brain and have a lasting impact on literacy, IQ, and school performance. Parents will find stimulating, creative play opportunities beneficial to the cognitive development of their children as well as practical advice and hands-on practice to support their own parenting needs.
Plimoth Plantation and Mystic Seaport are pleased to announce a collaborative project to restore and repair Mayflower II, a full-scale reproduction ship owned by Plimoth Plantation. Work on the historic ship will take place at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport, adhering to The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Vessel Preservation Projects. A cohesive restoration plan will be established in conjunction with Plimoth Plantation’s Maritime Artisans Program, led by the museum’s newly-hired Associate Director for Maritime Preservation and Operations, Whit Perry. Work began in December on a multi-year phased restoration plan, honoring the ship’s original construction and using traditional methods with the goal of restoring the ship to her original state when she first arrived to Plymouth in 1957. Inspections in 2013 revealed that Mayflower II is in need of a major refit, which is normal for a nearly 60-year-old wooden ship. Recently, Plimoth Plantation completed some major repairs to secure a safe condition for the ship to continue operations on the Plymouth waterfront. These efforts were the initial steps toward addressing the long-term restoration plan.
The Norfolk Charitable Trust announced its donation of the Evelyn Way Kendall Ballooning and Early Aviation Collection to the Smithsonian Institution. Previously housed at the NCT Archive in Sharon, MA and accessible only to researchers, this extensive collection of 18th-20th century artworks, ornamental objects, manuscripts, photographs and books related to early aeronautics will soon become available to the public at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The Norman Rockwell Museum recently announced the recent acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s 1926 painting, "Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon (Puppy Love)" to its permanent collection. One of Rockwell’s most iconic images, "Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon" was donated to the Museum as a gift from Bill, Casey, Maggie, Jenny, and Jesse Millis, "in honor of Norman Rockwell, an incredible American." The early Rockwell painting was created for the cover of the April 24, 1926 issue of "he Saturday Evening Post" and has resurfaced in recent years in the form of artistic homages and parodies. It was the inspiration for a very popular Google Doodle, presented by the web search engine in honor of Rockwell’s birthday on February 3, 2010, resulting in over three million worldwide visits to the Norman Rockwell Museum website.
The North Andover Historical Society received a grant for $2000 from the Elise A. Brown Fund to support our summer enrichment program, Adventures in Time. In addition, the Society was the beneficiary of a grant through the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund in the amount of $505, which will help support our educational programs throughout the year.
Historic Deerfield has received a $6,000 Preservation Assistance grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to purchase environmental monitoring equipment for the museum's 12 historic houses, collection storage areas, and exhibition galleries in the Flynt Center of Early New England Life.
The Foundation for MetroWest recently awarded a grant to Fruitlands Museum for the Centennial Open Gates Initiative. The grant will support three free admission days and family programs being held in 2015 as part of the culmination of Fruitlands' celebration of the museum’s 100th Anniversary year.
The following NEMA members received National Endowment for the Arts grants:
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Inc., $55,000. To support an artist-in-residence program. Artists working in a range of disciplines, including painters, sculptors, composers, poets, storytellers, media artists, and writers, are invited to live on-site at the Gardner for a period of approximately one month.
Danforth Museum Corporation, $10,000. To support an exhibition, Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que crecio en el Bronx, and related activities. Project activity will feature Edel Rodriguez's original illustrations from the children's book of the same name and he will participate in outreach activities that will include free access to the museum's galleries and specialized tours, hands-on studio art experiences, and opportunities to meet the artist.
Peabody Essex Museum, Inc., $50,000. To support the exhibition "American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood." Co-organized by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition will demonstrate how Benton (1889-1975) integrated high art historical traditions with a cinematic style of painting, inspired by the emerging motion picture industry. The exhibition will include paintings, preparatory studies and drawings, and a selection of Benton's historical prints, illustrated books, and never before exhibited ephemera and photographs.
Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, $35,000. To support the exhibition "Van Gogh and Nature." Featuring paintings and drawings by Van Gogh (1853-90), the exhibition will focus on the artist's lifelong fascination with the natural world. This interest was evident from youth to maturity and is reflected in hundreds of drawings and paintings of trees, flowers, rocks, and open country made directly from his subjects in Holland and the south of France. A catalogue and extensive public programming are planned to complement the exhibition.
New Hampshire
The Little Nature Museum is pleased to announce its relocation to Warner, NH across from the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum. The all-volunteer museum is a unique, interactive, hands-on, nonprofit nature center. It celebrates its 60th anniversary this year having been opened in 1955 in Massachusetts by its current founder and director at the age of 13. The museum is open seasonally and contains a wide variety of natural science collections and exhibits, most of which have hands-on, interactive components. The museum offers an environmental winter/spring lecture series, outdoor workshops, and activities for all ages.
New York
The Southold Historical Society announced that the complete history of controversial Plum Island, New York, has now been published for the first time. The Society published A World Unto Itself: The Remarkable History of Plum Island, New York, which encompasses 400 years of the island’s history with new research and historic photographs.
Rhode Island
The Bristol Art Museum received a matching grant from the Champlin Foundations, Rhode Island in 2014 to be used to renovate a 550 sq. ft. space on the second floor as part of the final phase of renovation and preservation of the 1867 Carriage House located at Linden Place. The museum is still seeking funds to complete the project in the summer of 2015. When it is finished, the museum plans to expand their programs and schedule art classes for all ages. Its membership has increased, the visitor traffic to view exhibits is consistent and its art opening receptions have attracted on average more than 100 people per exhibit. The all-volunteer board looks forward to a second year of achieving the goals of the museum to serve the community as a cultural center and to present exhibits representing all mediums of art at the museum and at the Rogers Free Library.
Vermont
The Rokeby Museum received a 2014 Leadership in History Award from AASLH for its new exhibit, Free & Safe: The Underground Railroad in Vermont. They received a grant ($2,050) from the Walter Cerf Community Fund in the fall to outfit space in the new Education Center for collections storage. This is the first step in a multi-phase project to improve how it houses its collections - the main storage has been in the historic house, and that will get a big upgrade this year and next. They have installed shelving and moved archives, photographs, and art from the house into the new storage space.
For more than a century, the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium has opened its doors to the public. And after being closed for about a month to renovate, they finally re-opened. On Saturday January 31 the museum revealed its many updates including new lighting and clean display cases. Behind closed doors the revamp process was completed. This was due to the amount of work that needed finishing. More than 450 lights were replaced with new LED lights. A common comment from viewers was that display cases were dimly lit but with the new lights, exhibits are better lit and more energy efficient. This update should save the museum around $5,000 annually in electricity costs. The displays themselves were also cleaned on the inside of the glass. Some creatures were vacuumed while other delicate ones were cleaned with smaller tools. The renovations are complete and the museum is open daily from 9am to 5pm. The future of the museum calls for two solar panels installed outside of the building. This upgrade would not close the museum.
ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, has received a $7,300 grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program. The funding will support changing one of ECHO’s tanks in our lobby to show 6 animal and 4 plant invasive species. The project, “Aquatic Invasives tank and Interpretation,”will allow ECHO to update its current schooling tank to open in late summer this year. This new feature will help ECHO continue in its mission of educating to create a healthier Lake Champlain by offering hands-on interactions with both native and invasive species in the science center and beyond.
New England
The Combat Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the launch the online exhibition Muay Thai for MMA, and a new combat sports themed social network called Rounds. The exhibition features text, images, video, and an interactive timeline. The Combat Sports Hall of Fame plans to organize pop-up exhibition events in an effort to link the online exhibition to the physical world. Rounds will serve as social space for members to discuss and share content related to Combat Sports Hall of Fame exhibitions, combat sports topics, and related areas of interest. The Combat Sports Hall of Fame started as a graduate thesis, Collecting Excellence: The Creation of a Combat Sports Hall of Fame, written by the Founder and President Alvin Benjamin Carter III while he was in Harvard University Extension School’s Museum Studies Program.
The following NEMA members received National Endowment for the Humanities grants:
Hill-Stead Museum, $6,000, Preservation Assistance Grants. The development of a plan, in consultation with a conservator, to prevent damage from light exposure to collections at the Hill-Stead Museum.
Historic Deerfield, Inc., $6,000, Preservation Assistance Grants. Equipping Historic Deerfield to Monitor the Museum Environment.
L.C. Bates Museum, $5,973, Preservation Assistance Grants. Planning Two New Storage Spaces and Housing Collections.
Martha's Vineyard Museum, $6,000, Preservation Assistance Grants. Hiring a consultant to undertake a preservation assessment of a rare and historically significant Fresnel lighthouse lens that was built in Paris in 1854 and installed in the newly constructed Gay Head Cliffs lighthouse, on Martha’s Vineyard, in 1856. The lens remained in the lighthouse until 1952 when it was replaced by a new light. In anticipation of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s move from Edgartown to Vineyard Haven in 2017, a preservation assessment of the lens would result in a plan for conservation treatment, maintenance, and rehousing in the new museum.
Martha's Vineyard Museum, Challenge Grants Matching: $500,000. Endowment for the position of Education Director and related humanities programs.
Portland Museum of Art, $5,864, Preservation Assistance Grants. A conservation assessment of 300 works on paper from the museum’s collection that include works by artists who lived or worked in Maine as well as a piece by Edgar Degas and a group of German Expressionist prints. The collections are exhibited as well as made available for scholarly research. The proposed consultant would also help the museum update its policies on light exposure and storage.
Wenham Museum, $3,768, Preservation Assistance Grants. Purchase of Temperature/Relative Humidity Dataloggers and Related Equipment.