Enfield Shaker Museum Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Grant

Enfield Shaker Museum is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $78,610 grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities through funding provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of March 27, 2020.

The grant will support the Museum’s creation of a website portal containing digitized images and information on hundreds of artifacts in the Museum’s collection and a digital archive of the Museum’s research-rich quarterly newsletters, enhanced exhibitions, and smartphone tours of the site.

The Museum’s award is part of the $40 million in CARES Act-funded grants to support 317 museums, libraries, and historical societies across the nation, which the NEH announced in a press release today. The Museum’s grant is one of two given to cultural institutions in New Hampshire.

“Receiving this highly competitive grant from the NEH is not only a great honor,” said Bruce Stefany, President of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. “It reflects the Museum’s ceaseless commitment to humanities-based research and education about the Shakers at Enfield. We thank the NEH for empowering us in our continuing mission to preserve and share its historical structures, landscape, and Shaker cultural legacy. I also congratulate the Interim Executive Director and her staff for this success.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic challenges museums of all sizes and types to think anew about their collections, interpretation, and programs,” said Dr. Shirley Wajda, the Museum’s interim Executive Director. “This six-month grant allows us most importantly to focus on the new and changing needs of our visitors, whether on site or on the Web.”

About the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.