The Fenton History Center has been awarded two grants recently. The first is a Give for Greatness award from Arts Services Inc. ASI had $45,000 to award for capacity building for smaller arts-focused nonprofit organizations. There were 60 applicants and the awards were for up to $2,000. We were awarded $2,000 to purchase a new laptop for our Curator/Education Coordinator! Now our Curator can take the laptop upstairs or over to Hall House, wherever she needs to work. Thank you ASI! The second grant was a Quick Grant from Humanities New York to hire a videographer to record a virtual tour through the museum. The virtual tour will be available for anyone visiting the museum who cannot navigate the stairs. The virtual tour (on the Curator’s new laptop) can also be taken to seniors and others who can’t physically come to the museum. Candlelight Productions will be filming the virtual tour on Sunday, April 30th. The first showing of the virtual tour will be at our Gala on July 29th. We are grateful for the grant from HNY and to Candlelight Productions who are also a sponsor of the Gala.
Just a reminder that our Lecture Series begins this month, Wednesday April 12th at 1:00 pm. Norman Carlson is giving a presentation on the Shearman-Davis murders that occurred in Busti in 1894. The murders were never solved. All lectures in the series are free. On Tuesday, April 18th, we will have a book signing and program at 7:00 pm. Walter Pickut, local author, will be presenting the book, The First Counterspy which he co-authored with Kay Haas. The book is about Kay’s father, Larry Haas, his work at Bell Aircraft, and working with the FBI. Walter will have books on hand to sign. Come find out what happened right in our own “backyard.”
The Hall House Research Center will be open Wednesday, April 26th from 4:00 – 8:00 pm to do research. There will be someone there to assist you if you are not sure how to do your searches. On Saturday, April 29th at 10:30 will be a workshop on Dutch genealogy, presented by Andrew Kolstee. The workshop costs $10 and is held at the Hall House Research Center.
