PROVIDENCE – The Tomaquag Museum is receiving another financial boost from the state’s congressional delegation to build a new facility on the University of Rhode Island campus.
U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; and Reps. Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, D-R.I., announced Tuesday that the Exeter-based museum – the state’s only Native America-led museum – received $444,282 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to build a permanent home on the state university campus in South Kingstown.
The state delegation says the museum currently engages up to 15,000 people annually via onsite and offsite programming. The latest federal award, the delegation says, will support the museum’s relocation from Exeter to URI and its construction. The new museum, once completed, will have the capacity to share its Indigenous culture and history with more than 150,000 people per year, the delegation says.
“The Tomaquag Museum is the only museum in the state operated by Native people and one of the best small museums in the entire country,” Reed said in a statement. “They have an incredibly diverse collection of artifacts old and new and a tremendously talented, dedicated staff that highlights Southern New England Indigenous traditions, heritage, history and culture.”
To date, Tomaquag Museum has received about $1.6 million, including two other federal earmarks in the 2023 fiscal year totaling $1.2 million, to support the new museum. About $800,000 of that total will support the museum’s new Indigenous Empowerment Center – where components of it will be incorporated into the new URI museum facility in the construction’s later phases. The center works to eradicate poverty in the state’s Indigenous community, the delegation said.
Amo said in a statement he is “eager” to see the latest set of federal funds be used so the museum can “continue to tell the important history of Southern New England’s Indigenous people in a way that is accessible for all Rhode Islanders.”
URI officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment as to where on campus this museum will be located, how is URI assisting with the construction of it and when is it expected for the museum to open to the public.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
