31
January
2025
Member & Donor Appreciation Night
The Museum
590 Washington Street, Lynn, MA 01901
WELCOME
Welcome to Lynn Museum & Arts Center!
Located in the heart of the Downtown Lynn Cultural District, the Lynn Historical Society was founded in 1897 to collect, preserve, and illuminate the city's remarkable history. We have since evolved into a vibrant cultural campus, including our Museum at 590 Washington Street and Studios at 25 Exchange Street.
The Lynn Museum & Arts Center offers changing exhibitions and innovative youth and adult programs that engage and enrich Lynn's diverse community. We also provide affordable studio space for artists, musicians, cultural organizations, and creative entrepreneurs. We encourage active participation in exploring the city's past while shaping a shared vision for its future.
We invite you to visit and join us in preserving and celebrating Lynn's history, art, and community!
The Lynn Museum & Arts Center offers changing exhibitions and innovative youth and adult programs that engage and enrich Lynn's diverse community. We also provide affordable studio space for artists, musicians, cultural organizations, and creative entrepreneurs. We encourage active participation in exploring the city's past while shaping a shared vision for its future.
We invite you to visit and join us in preserving and celebrating Lynn's history, art, and community!
ADDRESS
The Museum
590 Washington Street
Lynn, MA 01901
The Studios
25 Exchange Street
Lynn, MA 01901
Learn about our artist community and open hours >>
2024 MUSEUM HOURS
Sunday & Monday: Closed
Tuesday: By Appointment Only
Wednesday: 3-7 pm (Free Admission)
Thursday & Friday: 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday: See Below
*Please note we will be closed the week of Thanksgiving
We are open on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, 10 am—2 pm, and free to the public. Our last Saturday program will be on December 14. Check out our calendar for additional opportunities to visit the Museum!
ADMISSION
General Admission: $8.00
Seniors & Lynn Residents: $5.00
Children under 12: Free
Lynn Museum & Arts Center Members: Free
Students: Free*
*For information and pricing on student group tours and visits, please get in touch with office@lynnmuseum.org.
We are proud to participate in the Card to Culture program, a collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Nutrition Program, and the Massachusetts Health Connector, by broadening accessibility to cultural programming.
$2 admission with EBT or WIC card, members, and children under 18 are free. See the complete list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.
DIRECTIONS TO 590 WASHINGTON STREET
From Route 128/I-95: Take exit 44 B to Route 129 East. Follow Route 129 East to intersection with Boston Street. Turn right on Boston Street. Turn left on Washington Street. Follow Washington Street approximately one mile. The Lynn Museum & Historical Society is located at 590 Washington Street, on the northeast corner of Washington Street and Union Street.
From Route 1A North: Take Route 1A North to Lynn. Turn left on Market Street. Turn right on Broad Street. Turn left on Union Street. Turn right on Washington Street. The Lynn Museum & Historical Society is located at 590 Washington Street, on the northeast corner of Washington Street and Union Street.
From Route 1A South: Take Route 1A South to Lynn. Turn right on Union Street. Turn right on Washington Street. The Lynn Museum & Historical Society is located at 590 Washington Street, on the northeast corner of Washington Street and Union Street.
Parking: Parking is available in the Lynn Museum parking lot accessible from Washington Street, immediately beyond the Museum Courtyard. The Museum entrance is located on the Courtyard side of the building. Street parking is also available.
LynnArts has spaces in the back of the building, clearly marked, in the lot accessible from Spring Street.
Please do not park in the Vamp Building parking lot (across Washington Street from the Museum) as it is resident only parking.
CALENDAR
ABOUT
HISTORY
Although the first shoemakers in Lynn settled in 1635, it was not until the eighteenth century that shoemaking emerged in the town as a family practice within a shoemaker’s house positioned on the grounds of the homestead called the ten-footer. As quality and reputation grew, so did the city’s industrial growth, which led it into the nineteenth century, making Lynn a booming shoe city, a city once called “the greatest shoe town in the country.” People flocked to Lynn to cobble together a better life in the shoe factories. By the turn of the twentieth century, Lynn had become the largest shoe-manufacturing city in the world, and the population had become an energetic and diverse mix of nationalities.
For 127 years, the Lynn Museum & Historical Society has been the repository and custodian of Lynn’s history. With nearly 10,000 objects, an extensive archive, and a priceless photography collection, the Museum chronicles Lynn’s rise from an early American settlement to an industrial powerhouse. Founded in 1897 by a group of citizens dedicated to documenting their rapidly changing city and preserving the remnants of Lynn’s colonial heritage, the Lynn Historical Society evolved over a century into the Lynn Museum.
Initially located in a residential building on Green Street, the Museum resides in the former Heritage State Park Visitor Center, a unique loft space that reflects the city’s industrial past. Its current home is ideal for the Museum to display its extensive fine art collection, photography, furniture, textiles, ephemera, archival materials, and other authentic artifacts through innovative changing exhibitions. Steeped in Lynn’s rich heritage, the Museum tells the compelling stories of manufacturing, industry, labor, abolitionism, women’s rights, and more that have shaped our nation.
In 2014, the Lynn Museum & Historical Society merged with its neighbors on Exchange Street, LynnArts, offering studio, gallery, and theatre space. Now undergoing a rebrand toward a common identity on the shared cultural campus, the Lynn Museum & Arts Center is looking forward intently. With history as our guide, we engage the region’s ever-changing community through exhibitions and programs illuminating the past, celebrating the present, and informing the future.
BOARD & STAFF
STAFF
Doneeca Thurston-Chavez, Executive Director
Elena Hirshman-Seidel, Operations Manager
Joanna Cacciola, Development & Membership Manager
Christopher Locke, Collections Manager (Artifacts & Archive)
Greg Dor, Studio Manager
Veronica Moeun, Guest Services Associate
Rianon Prushinski, Guest Services Associate & Social Media Manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Joseph E. Scanlon III, President
Steven M. Walsh, Vice President
Steven Babbitt, Treasurer
Sandra Forziati, Secretary
Joe Boyd, Trustee
Michele Campbell, Trustee
Marki Conway, Trustee
Iris Kimber, Trustee
Harry MacCabe, Trustee
Pamela Scangas, Trustee
Rosario Fresco, Endowment Trustee
TOURS
Lynn Museum& Arts Center staff are happy to schedule tours with visitors in advance. Whether it is a general tour of our exhibits or something more personally tailored to your needs and interests, we are flexible and willing to provide the best educational experience!
Please email Elena Hirshman-Seidel at elena@lynnmuseum.org or call 781-581-6200 to discuss details, dates and times, and rates.
SHOP
We are pleased to carry a variety of Lynn-themed t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, stationery, handmade and locally produced goods, books, Fluff merchandise, and more in our Museum Shop.
Not able to come to the Museum? No problem! Please email us at office@lynnmuseum.org or call us at 781-581-6200 to inquire about shipping merchandise.
Consider purchasing, renewing, or gifting a Lynn Museum & Arts Center membership, where you can enjoy all we offer all year! Members get 15% off in our shop, discounts on events and special programs, and more. Check out our membership page for more information.
