GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Congresswoman Hillary Scholten announced Tuesday that the Grand Rapids Public Museum will receive a $500k grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
With the funds from the grant, the museum can renovate a portion of the Community Archives and Research Center. The renovation would include a new public space for two flexible artifact labs for K-12 education, teacher training and research.
“The Grand Rapids Public Museum plays an absolutely essential role in telling the stories of West Michigan’s history, people, and communities,” said Congresswoman Scholten. “This grant will help the museum continue its work and expand its ability to educate West Michiganders of all ages.”
Alex Forist, chief curator of the Grand Rapids Public Museum, said they are "thrilled" to receive the grant for their Community Access to Collections project.
"The funding will be used to renovate a portion of the GRPM's collection storage facility in downtown Grand Rapids to create a new community space designed to promote accessibility to museum collections for K-12 students, teachers, and members of the public," said Forist. "The two-story space, adjacent to both the Grand Rapids Public Museum High School and the Community Archives and Research Center, will feature an artifact lab, classroom, and meeting spaces where visitors of all ages can engage in research and hands-on learning with artifacts and specimens from the GRPM collections. This grant is a significant step towards realizing the GRPM's vision of a 21st century archives that balances the preservation of collections with increased access for learning, tours, professional development, and community programming."
Forist also emphasized how important the project is to the museums ongoing campaign to raise $50 million for another expansion which they hope would double the number of students the museum can serve and also "transform the museum and the banks of the Grand River into a dynamic regional educational center for generations to come."
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