Peabody Essex Museum receives grant to support Native American Fellowship

Malcom Gay, Boston Globe

December 22, 2015

The Peabody Essex Museum has received a $750,000 grant to expand a fellowship program intended to train aspiring Native American museum professionals. The three-year grant, awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will enable the museum to increase the number of fellows it admits annually, extend the program to 12 weeks, and introduce more formal mentoring programs.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be partnering with the Mellon Foundation,” said PEM director Dan Monroe. “It offers an opportunity for more young Native American leaders to significantly strengthen their capabilities to be successful in many cultural arenas — be it in their communities or in the context of their existing institutions, whether it’s an art museum like PEM or another organization.”

First created by the museum six years ago, the Native American Fellowship program is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country. Reserved for students of Native American or native Hawaiian descent, the program provides specific fellowships in curatorial, educational, media, and manuscript processing.
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