Hagley's Reconnection and Reengagement with Audiences after COVID-19 Closures

FAIN: GA-274269-20

Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE 19807-2106)
Erik P. Rau (Project Director: May 2020 to present)

The retention of five staff members to develop online programming for audiences.

Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation gratefully submits its request for support from the NEH CARES grant program. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the museum on March 13 and the entire institution on March 23 to temporarily cease operations. We canceled all of our public programming through at least the spring during Delaware’s state-mandated closure of non-life-supporting institutions. We shifted our programming online, making this available through a new offering (Hagley from Home) on our web site. Our request for support covers two related efforts: first, retaining critical programming staff so that Hagley will have the capacity to reopen with our traditional programs once the pandemic subsides; and second, continue evolving workflows we began in response to the pandemic to develop online components of nearly all our programming. We look at the second effort as a means to expand our reach to new audiences in normal times and retain our audiences in times of future emergency shutdowns.