GR museum gets $500K grant for expansion projects

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Grand Rapids Public Museum says it has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The money is part of the endowment’s effort to help 260 humanities projects nationwide. The museum will put the funding toward community space development and collections area improvement as a part of a renovation project.

“The two-story (community) 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,” public museum Chief Curator Alex Forist said in a news release.

The collections area improvements will include a new processing room for artifact cleaning and repair, photography and research. There will also be a new science lab and renovated storage.

The museum will have to raise an additional $1.5 million to complete projects as a part of the challenge grant.

City approves $50M expansion to GR Public Museum

The museum is working to raise $50 million for expansion projects to double the number of students it can serve and develop its property along the Grand River. As a part of that expansion, the museum’s carousel has been closed so the entire Cook Carousel Pavilion can remolded. The museum core exhibition spaces will be refreshed and upgraded. So far, the museum has reached 50% of its goal.

To learn more about the projects, visit grpm.org/expansion.

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