2022 LOOKING BACK

JANUARY—MARCH

• NASA selected Mystic Seaport Museum as one of a diverse group of Museums, science centers, libraries, and other informal education organizations from around the country designated as a NASA Informal Education Community Anchor. The designation recognized the Museum and its Treworgy Planetarium as a community resource and provided a $24,266 grant to bring space exploration to traditionally underserved areas and broaden student participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

• Connecticut Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), awarded Mystic Seaport Museum $519,999 in three separate grants.

• Ice Festival

• The Museum received a grant from West Marine’s BlueFuture grant program, which supports nonprofit organizations dedicated to getting more kids out on the water through boating, fishing, paddling, and marine science.

• A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World closed on March 27 after nearly one year in the Collins Gallery.

For Mystic Seaport Museum 2022 was a year of removing barriers. Accessibility improvements made across the grounds, free admission programs offered by the State of Connecticut and through the Museum’s own SNAP initiative, and increased educational opportunities for under-resourced youth in our Center for Experiential Education have made the Museum available to a more diverse audience than ever before.

APRIL-JUNE

• Plimoth Patuxet’s Mayflower II departed the Museum after spending the winter months in dry dock at the Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard for routine maintenance and painting.

• Pirate Days

• Story Boats: The Tales They Tell opened in the Collins Gallery.

• The Museum began working with LaZ Parking to alleviate traffic and parking issues during the peak tourist season by opening up the southern half of the Museum’s South Lot for paid parking and shuttle service to downtown visitors.

• Naturalization Ceremony

• WoodenBoat Show

JULY-SEPTEMBER

• Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous

• Member Evening

• Mystic Outdoor Arts Festival on Museum grounds

• Arts on the Quad: Ukrainian Dance & Music

• Member Appreciation Month

• By Land and By Sea: Antique Car Show

OCTOBER-DECEMBER

• Debut of Mystic Folkways music festival

• Riverfest

• Sargent, Whistler & Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opened in the Collins Gallery.

• Fireworks celebration of the Mystic River Bascule Bridge 100th anniversary

• The America and the Sea Award Gala honored Captain William “Bill” Pinkney.

• Jack-o’-Lantern Walk and Community Trick or Treat

• Lantern Light Village

• Annual Community Carol Sing