NEW BEDFORD – The New Bedford Whaling Museum has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund new projects the museum announced Wednesday.
$136,342 was awarded from the NEH’s Division of Education Programs to finance a two-week “Summer Institute for Teachers” surrounding the art and context of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick in 2018. The NEH’s Division of Public Programs also awarded the Museum $40,000 in an Exhibition Planning Grant to start a travelling exhibition of the Museum’s Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World, which, at 1,275’, is the longest painting in the United States.
As part of the summer institute, 25 teachers from around the United States will engage with Melville’s text to better understand the work and teach it to students. Six scholars from the Melville Society Cultural Project will serve as faculty of the institute with Timothy Marr of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill serving as its director.
“Melville’s Moby-Dick is one of the most frequently referenced and adapted American novels, and it is becoming more popular and relevant with time,” said Carol Taylor, Chair of the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Board of Trustees. “While the book is a classic, and of particular interest to our region, it grapples with current-day issues like globalism, multiculturalism, political power and environmentalism.”
The Museum’s Grand Panorama depicts a whaling voyage in the 19th century. Painted by Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington, both New Bedford natives, the work had travelled before between the 1850s and 1870s as part of a “moving picture show.” It has not been shown since. The panorama will debut in New Bedford in 2018 and then travel to Mystic, Connecticut later that year.
“The New Bedford Whaling Museum is conserving a piece of maritime artwork of national historical importance,” Taylor said. “We are honored to receive this grant from the NEH, which will give people across the region the chance to experience this national treasure.”
Kyle Borowski is a PBN contributing writer.
