President’s Report

By Johny Hallow, FOMOA Board President

After serving as a board member of the Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle (FOMOA) for one year, I was nominated to serve as the FOMOA Board President. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve this wonderful organization and community and look forward to a great year of working together.

We had a busy year in 2022 with the opening of two new exhibits. In January, we opened Guardians of the Land: Discovering Indigenous Americans, which tells the fascinating story of how land has played an important role for over 15,000 years in the living history of the Indigenous people of coastal northeastern North Carolina. In October, we opened Rock of the Eye, which presents the rich boatbuilding history in North Carolina that has shaped the Albemarle region into a diverse maritime haven by bringing people together. We had a wonderful evening celebrating the opening of the exhibit and were fortunate enough to be joined by Joan and Owen Maxwell of Regular Marine in Edenton.

This year, we have already had the opening of a new traveling exhibit, Crossroads: Changes in Rural America. This traveling exhibit explored how Americans have relied on rural crossroads for generations and how rural American communities changed in the 20th century.

We also will have the opening of several other new exhibits this year, along with several educational opportunities and other community activities. We encourage you to follow our social media pages so that you can stay informed about upcoming events.

We are proud to announce that our membership has expanded to more than 400 members. We would love to see the membership continue to grow as we move forward.

Finally I would like to thank our staff as the operation of our museum would be impossible without their continuing hard work and dedication. I would like also to thank the current and past members of FOMOA, who continue to dedicate their time and resources to ensure that the museum reaches its maximum potential. We look forward to a great year together at the museum, and we are thankful for the community’s continuing support.

RIBBON CUTTING OF CROSSROADS: CHANGES IN RURAL AMERICA

(Left to Right) Johny Hallow, FOMOA President; Miss Grant; and Zane Hedgecock, Chief of Staff, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Courtesy Museum of the Albemarle