HANOVER — Dartmouth Library and the Hood Museum of Art have received a $500,000, three-year grant for a collaboration project grounded in Dartmouth’s Native American and Indigenous Arctic collections from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, according to a news release.
The three-year grant will allow the two organizations to enhance collections-based teaching, develop new search approaches for cultural heritage materials, and establish ways to connect librarians and museum professionals with faculty, students, and members of Native American and Indigenous Arctic communities from campus and beyond. That includes hiring two people that will work specifically on the project.
“This generous support from the Mellon Foundation will enhance Dartmouth’s deep commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching through new collaborations among departments, schools, and our collecting institutions,” Dartmouth College Provost Joseph Helble said in the release. “We expect that this project will develop strategies to embed collections-based experiential learning more deeply into our work across the entire campus and serve as an example for museums and libraries nationally.”
The grant, totaling $500,000, will support two shared positions between the library and the museum. Adding this capacity to Dartmouth’s current environment will in turn stimulate more team-teaching opportunities, collaborative research, joint exhibitions and collection adjacencies. In parallel, the project will explore and enhance digital strategies to better connect the library and museum systems while taking into account the needs of Indigenous communities and traditional knowledge practices.
“We are very excited about the Mellon grant,” says Sue Mehrer, dean of libraries and co-principal investigator on the grant. “Connecting the Dartmouth Library and Hood Museum at the levels of shared governance, linked technological infrastructure, and the creation of innovative pedagogical tools and practices will set us on a trajectory for long-term partnership.”
The grant will also support the development of a “Teaching with Cultural Heritage Materials Colloquium,” which will include faculty and students, visitors from other universities and institutions, and leaders from the Indigenous Arctic and Native American communities, according to the release.
NORWICH — Linda Cook has been named the Norwich Women’s Club 2020 Citizen of the Year and will be honored at the nonprofit organization’s gala at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 21.
Cook is a lifelong Norwich resident, according to a news release. She has served the town as a firefighter, EMT, a lister, a member of the Selectboard and is currently the town’s fire warden. She also volunteers at the Nearly New Sale, the Five Churches Rummage Sale and runs Norwich Old Home Day. Additionally, she’s active in the Grange, assists Norwich Police Chief Jen Frank with a babysitting class Frank runs for young teens, and works with the Boy Scouts on their annual Halloween haunted house. Additionally, she coordinates an informal network of volunteers who help senior citizens age in place.
The “Stewards of Norwich” — Ray and Anna Royce, Cheryl Lindberg, and Allison Colburn — will also be recognized at the event.
The Royces have lived in Norwich for decades. Ray Royce, a World War II vet, has been active in the American Legion and helped establish the Norwich Lions Club, according to the release. The couple are pillars of the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church community and the driving force behind the Five Churches Rummage Sale. Lindberg has served as town treasurer for almost a quarter century, according to the release. Colburn is leaving the Child Care Center in Norwich after 38 years, the past 22 of them as executive director.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The Upper Valley Aquatic Center’s swim team is collecting gear to be distributed financially disadvantaged swimmers throughout the Upper Valley and New England.
Flippers/fins, kickboards, goggles (straps or bungees), swim caps, tempo trainers, buoys, hand paddles, mesh bags, backpacks (with no team logos) and racing suits in good, usable condition can be brought to the aquatic center — located at 100 Arboretum Lane in White River Junction — through Friday. Email sellis@uvacswim.org for more information.
LEBANON — Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity is accepting applications for a new 3-bedroom duplex unit in Lebanon.
Applications are due Monday, March 9.
For more information and an application visit https://www.uvhabitat.org/homeownership.
— Staff reports