Madison Museum Receives Grant from NJ Council of Humanities

The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts (METC) is pleased to announce they are the recipients of a $15,000 grant from the NJ Council for Humanities. The NJ Council for Humanities has made these funds available as operational and programmatic support for nonprofit organizations that provide humanities programming to public audiences to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the pandemic. This funding is part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), approved by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden for distribution by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). To be eligible for funding, organizations must be doing work in the public humanities which includes examining our history, cultures, values, and beliefs, engaging broad public audiences in that examination.

Like all cultural organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected challenges to METC. This included temporary closure of the museum, elimination of all public and educational programming and a severe reduction in revenue streams. Despite these challenges, we retained our full-time staff, enabling us to focus on addressing the changing needs of the community. This resulted in the development of new digital programming, allowing us to adapt on site programs to virtual field trips, and delivering these digitally to reach students both in the classroom or at home. Over 80% of these programs were provided at no cost to students and school districts who were also facing challenges from the pandemic.

Through generous funding from the NJ Council for Humanities as well as the NJ Historical Commission and the NJ Arts Recovery Act, we have been able to continue to expand our digital programming to include all facets of engagement, meeting the needs of all community members. Access to digital programming is now a regular part of all the educational services we provide to the public, reaching a wider audience than ever before. And in 2020, we developed home learning webpage METC at Home featuring over 17 different activities for families with story and craft experiences via Youtube and Facebook. We provided programs for senior adult facilities and public libraries reaching thousands of individuals and continued to produce public events virtually and in person, including the architectural tour of our historic building.

We are grateful to the many agencies and foundations that have supported METC during the pandemic as we, along with the nation, slowly recover. We have used this time as an opportunity to examine our work and rethink how we advance our mission. Partnering with the NJ Council for Humanities has also provided us with resources to better understand our role as a cultural asset, understanding the limitations of our individual experience and to see both the perspectives of others as well as the larger social forces that affect us all. These are opportunities for our museum to make history relevant and encourage diverse audiences to reflect on the shared human experience.