SPECULATOR — A solid foundation is vital to a building. It is the base that allows floors, walls and roof to stand true and square.
When a foundation falters, the building soon falters too. That is the dilemma facing Lake Pleasant Museum, and the reason for a fund drive to pay for a new foundation.
Historic Saranac Lake (HSL) is launching a new project, titled: “Pandemic Past and Present.” This project will take place on their Cure Porch on Wheels, and is funded by the 2021 Corridor of Commerce Interpretive Theme Grant from the Champlain Valley National Hertiage Partnership.
HSL will be hosting programs from its mobile museum (the Cure Porch on Wheels) in order to explore local history in public health with new and larger audiences. Visitors to the mobile museum will be able to watch videos and take part in activities centered around Saranac Lake’s health resort history.
Mahala Nyberg, HSL’s new Public Programs Coordinator and leader of the project had the following to say: “As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Saranac Lake’s sanatorium history is newly relevant. Our history as a community built on the treatment and research of a highly infectious disease helps to shed light on issues in public health today. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic inspires us to explore untold stories in our local history and make new connections to broader themes.”
The mobile museum will be operating within 640 square miles of the Saranac Lake School District, and the Lake Champlain Basin Program grant will support the creation of short videos exploring the history of Saranac Lake’s TB history. This project is a natural outgrowth of a new exhibit soon to be unveiled at the Saranac Laboratory Museum titled, “Pandemic Perspectives.” Following its closure through the winter due to the pandemic, the museum reopened May 25, 2021.
The Adirondack Experience (ADKX), a sprawling 121-acre campus in the heart of the Adirondacks, will open its 2021 summer season in two phases. From May 28 through June 27, ADKX members will be able to access both the onsite art and history museum and full range of outdoor activities on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
This early access benefit is available to existing members as well as individuals and families who sign up in the coming months. On July 1, ADKX will open to the public, with the campus available every day from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. As organizations continue to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, ADKX is operating under state-mandated capacity limits and will require visitors to wear masks, both in and outdoors. ADKX also encourages visitors to purchase advance timed tickets, especially for any groups of more than two. Ticket purchase will also be available onsite. Additional information regarding visitation is available on ADKX’s updated website at theadkx.org.
The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has announced in a press release that 98 museums across New York State have been selected to participate in an IMLS CARES Act grant program, titled “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, and Growing Accessibility.”
The grant project is designed to help support those museums that have been impacted by the pandemic and subsequent quarantine, so they may share their collections and reach audiences who cannot physically visit their museums. Under the program, 200 staff will be trained in using new hardware and software in order to engage communities and reach new audiences.
From theadkx.org
Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake has launched ADKX@HOME, a range of digital content that focuses on a new pandemic collecting initiative, fun educational activities for the whole family, and making the ADKX’s world-class collections and experts accessible to the public in new ways.
View Center for Arts and Culture is currently closed to the public but will be adding pictures and videos of exhibits to their website in the coming days, in order to continue to showcase artists’ talent. Their first online exhibit will be “Captured in Acrylics: Paints by Tim Ames.”
If you are looking for something to do, View will also be offering online art tutorials in order to engage your creative mind while you are staying home for the foreseeable future. There will be multiple sets of tutorials released, each with different themes, requiring materials that are commonly found laying around the house. The first set of tutorials are paper themed. You can view the “Crafting in Quarantine” tutorials here.
On June 26, 1776, John Adams wrote to Abigail words appropriate for our present circumstances:
“Our Misfortunes in Canada, are enough to melt a Heart of Stone. The Small Pox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians and Indians together. This was the Cause of our precipitate Retreat from Quebec, this the Cause of our Disgraces at the Cedars.-I dont mean that this was all. There has been Want, approaching to Famine, as well as Pestilence. And these Discouragements seem to have so disheartened our Officers, that none of them seem to Act with Prudence and Firmness.
But these Reverses of Fortune dont discourage me. It was natural to expect them, and We ought to be prepared in our Minds for greater Changes, and more melancholly Scenes still. It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties.”
Beth L Hill, President & CEO of Fort Ticonderoga, is taking inspiration from this letter. The Fort is unveiling an online initiative to “Fortify Yourself” through digital educational programs, videos, and social media engagement. As well as access to an extensive virtual vault of rare museum collections. Visit their Center of Digital History to explore.
Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), is going virtual to reach its 2020 audiences, rather than opening its campus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is unclear at this time whether the compulsory closing of public gathering places will be lifted in time for the July – August period when we see most of our visitors… Our concern for the health and safety of our staff and visitors outweighs our desire to provide in-person programming this season. The current uncertainty also makes it impossible for us to hire seasonal staff who operate our gift shop and café, our boating experience and children’s programs, as well as engaging visitors in our galleries.” said David Kahn, ADKX Executive Director in a press release.
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