Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor selected for IMLS CARES Act grant project
The Museum Association of New York (MANY) is thrilled to announce that 98 museums from across New York State including the Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor have been selected to participate in “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility”, an IMLS CARES Act grant project designed to help museums impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic share their collections and reach audiences who cannot physically visit their museums. 200 staff will be trained to use new hardware and software to develop programs that will engage their communities and reach new audiences.
“We are honored to be awarded IMLS CARES act funding and excited to be able to make an impact on the work of our colleagues and their museums across New York State,” said Erika Sanger, MANY Executive Director. “We are living in an age of transition, experience a radical shift in our ways of learning and communicating. The group selected captures the diversity of our shared history in NY and our nation. The stories embodied in the museums’ collections and the storytelling talents of their interpretive staff are the heart of the project.”
In this two-year project, museums will identify a program to virtually deliver to their audiences, focusing on developing programs from stories found in their collections that reveal cultural and racial diversity in their communities.
“We are delighted to have been chosen for this project and cannot wait to get started,” said Brenna McCormick-Thompson, Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor Curator of Education. “We feel we’ve only just begun to tap into the potential virtual programming has to serve our community.”
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [CAGML-246991-OMLS-20].
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About The Whaling Museum
The Whaling Museum & Education Center is located at 301 Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor and specializes in the culture and history of our maritime heritage as illustrated by the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Industry of the 1850s. Fall/Winter Hours: Sat-Sun 12-4 pm. Learn more at www.cshwhalingmuseum.org
