Your Membership Dollars at Work

Did you know, that as a Friend of Drayton Hall, your annual investment opens doors to regional and national grant opportunities? Often, federal institutions like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) include a dollar-fordollar match in their eligibility requirements for funding opportunities like the 2021 Americas Rescue Plan (ARP) grants. The IMLS designed the ARP grant program to help museums and libraries address continuing impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and you made it possible for Drayton Hall to access this critical relief funding.

As recently reported to the IMLS, Drayton Hall’s curatorial team utilized our ARP grant award to expand operating hours and programming. By splitting this funding between the archaeology and education teams, the IMLS—and your membership dollars—helped us to identify and tell the stories of the 18th and mid-19th century enslaved community at Drayton Hall. Curator of Education and Museum Programs Amber Satterthwaite hired and trained new interpreters to lead engaging tours of the house. As part of Satterthwaite’s new, rigorous training program, Drayton Hall’s interpretive team is now better equipped than ever to speak ethically and effectively about difficult histories. Meanwhile, Director of Archaeology Luke Pecoraro hired a staff archaeologist—a new position for Drayton Hall—allowing his team to undertake more fieldwork, begin to build a volunteer program, and open the Stephen J. Wood Conservation Laboratory.

The benefit of this IMLS ARP grant award is both immediate and long-lasting. By enabling us to unveil new findings and hone story-telling skills, this program advances the visitor experience day-to-day, in real-time. Ultimately, as our curatorial teams learn from new discoveries, their findings will be folded into the Drayton Hall narrative for years to come.

Thank you for being a Member of the Friends of Drayton Hall. Without you, we would not have access to opportunities like the IMLS ARP grant program.