We received a Mass Humanities Grant!
We are excited to announce that we received a $20,000 grant from Mass Humanities to redesign and reinterpret our Collecting For: Artifacts of Lynn exhibition!
This exhibition currently features highlights from the Lynn Historical Society’s collection and information on the history and evolution of this institution. Explore concepts of museum collecting from the earliest “cabinets of curiosities” to modern-day museums. Spotlights include our Victorian furniture and decorative arts collection, Abolitionism and collecting to preserve the history of social movements, and historic preservation.
Over the next year, executive director Doneeca Thurston-Chavez and collections manager Christopher Locke will work with interpretation consultant Elizabeth Gardner Carr to create and implement strategies that center community voices, highlight untold stories, and modernize the exhibition. Through this work, we hope to reimagine this exhibition as a tool to share more information about Lynn’s Indigenous history, better profile some of the early members of the Lynn Historical Society and their beliefs around the need for the organization, and incorporate the voices and thoughts of current community members regarding the significant histories within the collection.
This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the Mass Humanities Expand Massachusetts Stories Open Track Grant:
The Open Track grant program offers up to $20,000 for projects that collect, interpret and/or share narratives about the Commonwealth, with an emphasis on the voices and experiences that have gone unrecognized, or have been excluded from public conversation.
About Mass Humanities:
Mass Humanities brings people together to embrace different perspectives, inspire civic engagement, spark conversation and build community.
“The humanities are the lessons provided by our ancestors and the messages we pass on to future generations. The humanities are the ways we communicate our hopes and fears to our fellow human beings. History, literature and philosophy help us respond to essential questions: What is the right thing to do? What do I owe to my family, my community, my country? When we come together to address these questions, to learn and share our stories, we practice the public humanities.
We believe the humanities are the key to a democracy where everyone values cultural knowledge, civil discourse, and diverse perspectives. Over the past five decades, Mass Humanities has helped thousands of people realize this potential and improve society through grants, programs and public events.”
