Moulton Announces Two Federal Grants for the Peabody Essex Museum

SALEM, MA – Congressman Seth Moulton is pleased to announce that the Peabody Essex Museum has received two federal grants – totaling $500,000 – from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
 
The grants are part of IMLS’ Museums for America grant program, which supports museums of all sizes and disciplines to undertake projects that strengthen their ability to serve their public.
 
The Peabody Essex Museum will receive a $250,000 grant to catalog, photograph, move, and rehouse over 8,000 small and midsize objects from its Oceanic collection. Museum staff will also catalog and photograph an additional 3,800 large objects to prepare to move them to the museum’s collection center, which offers improved environmental conditions. More information on the project can be found here. 

The museum will also receive a $250,000 grant to create a professional development initiative that will improve the workplace environment and fill gaps in expertise, while creating an environment that supports staff in their professional growth and varied learning, working, and management styles. This grant is part of the Museums Empowered program, a special initiative designed to support projects that use the transformative power of professional development and training to generate systemic change within museums of all types and sizes. More information on the project can be found here.

“The Peabody Essex Museum is one of our prized North Shore cultural institutions and a true fixture of the community. I’m proud to even display some artwork from PEM in my Washington office, so that everyone who comes through our doors has the opportunity to see some of its incredible collection. I’m thrilled the museum will receive these two grants. The funding is very well-deserved and will support the important work of its wonderful staff and supporters,” said Congressman Moulton. 

"We are honored and deeply grateful to IMLS for awarding PEM two grants which greatly enhance our ability to care for our world-renowned collection and strengthen our connection with the communities we serve," said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM's Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. "These awards are a powerful endorsement of PEM's mission and a recognition of the vital role that art, culture, and science play in enriching our lives."