Dear Friends,
Can you believe it’s almost June?! JUNE!! What a year it’s been for all of us.
I want to thank everyone once again for your kindness and encouragement as we rewrite the future of the Barnum Museum. I’ve received so many thoughtful notes and responses to our weekly posts, I am ever grateful for the uplifting messages.
As we push into Month-Three of our stay-at-home lifestyle, I want to give you a brief update on how our global community of museums is working together to map out new ways to engage, inspire and educate our audiences. This task has proven to be enormously complex, laced with a multitude of challenges we never dreamed of in February. Museums worldwide have risen in an effort to persevere and ensure our places of education, culture and wonder remain vibrant for generations to come. Innovations including online classes and virtual tours, and re-imagining outdoor spaces have piqued interest as we all look to ‘home’ and our local communities as a well-spring for our service in a post-covid world.
In order to serve with continued depth and meaningful engagement, the Barnum Museum is pivoting our typical on-site programming and we are working to create a range of new virtual platforms that will meet our obligation ‘to inspire creativity and curiosity through instructive entertainment.’ Daily and weekly programs, blogs, videos and livestream conversations will be offered that dive into the facts and fictions of Barnum and his world in 19th-century America and beyond.
To support this vital shift in programming, we could use your help! Today more than ever a donation to the Barnum Museum matters. If you are able, please make a special gift during this critical time. Your support is essential as we continue to navigate and recast the future of the Barnum Museum and revive anew on the other side of COVID-19.
Donate Now to the Barnum Re-Envisioning/Recovery Fund
As always, my sincerest thanks.
Stay well, stay strong,
Kathleen Maher,
Executive Director