On Monday, Mass Humanities announced that $1.2 million in staff-recovery grants will be awarded to 35 organizations across the state. The program’s goal is to create opportunities for residents by building a more equitable Commonwealth.
The grant total marks a new record high for Mass Humanities, and the Marblehead Museum is one of the recipients.
The goal of Staffing Recovery Grants is to deliver funding to nonprofit organizations to sustain the hours of current staff or to hire new staff in order to create, restore and grow humanities programs across the state. The grant amounts range from $16,000 to $40,000.
The museum’s award ended up on the higher end, with a total of $34,670.
Marblehead Museum Executive Director Lauren McCormack and her team had to go through an application process and “make a case” that the new position hired would have a large impact on the community. McCormack explained that this new position involves youth education.
“The coordinator of Education and Family Programs is a part-time, temporary two-year position,” McCormack said. “This person will be assisting us with re-developing third and eighth-grade school programs, as well as other types of programming for scouts and school-vacation programming.”
She also plans to have the new staff member develop school programs that will take place at 157 Washington St., which was the former kitchen and slave quarters of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion. Marblehead Museum recently purchased the property to utilize its historical significance.
“This will focus on Marblehead’s diverse history, the history of enslavement, and the enslaved individuals who lived in town,” McCormack said.
McCormack attributed the lack of focus on a family audience to not having the staffing bandwidth needed to do so. However, she feels this new addition will change that.
“Having these funds gives us the ability to hire somebody whose purpose is to develop fun and interactive programming for a multi-generational audience,” McCormack said. “We hope that we will come up with a lot of new programming to offer to the public as well as the schools. We’re very excited and certainly grateful to Mass Humanities.”