Congressman Barney Frank
Representing Massachusetts' 4th District

New Bedford Whaling Museum to Recieve $1.5 Million for Cultural Exchange
July 29, 2008

BOSTON – Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, together with Congressman Barney Frank today announced that the New Bedford Whaling Museum – Old Dartmouth Historical Society will receive $1,459,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education to develop culturally-based educational activities, internships and apprentice programs and exchanges between Massachusetts children and families, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians who are all linked by their whaling history. 

The funding is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Cultural, Apprenticeship, Educational and Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and their Historical Whaling and Trading Partners in Massachusetts Program. 

“Whaling has been part of our state’s history even before Herman Melville sailed from New Bedford Harbor and wrote Moby Dick. Through the programs at the New Bedford Whaling Museum we have the opportunity to share our rich history with those across the country who had similar beginnings,” said Senator Kerry.  

“The programs at the New Bedford Whaling Museum make a major contribution to the people of Massachusetts. Establishing these connections and a sense of shared history with children and families in Hawaii and Alaska enables us to see the full impact of the past on the present," said Senator Kennedy.

"The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a very important educational institution for the region,” said Congressman Frank.  “I am glad that the museum has been awarded this grant demonstrating that cultural and economic development are not mutually exclusive."

ECHO (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations) is a federally funded educational and cultural initiative that brings culturally diverse audiences together and provides innovative education programs collaboratively produced by six cultural institutions: the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and the New Bedford ECHO Project, the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Inupiat Heritage Center/North Slope Borough, both in Alaska, as well as the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The six institutions were chosen for their historical collections, connections and commonalities that bind them and their regions to each other.

The New Bedford ECHO project, consisting of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Oceanarium will use the funding to create and enhance cross-cultural learning opportunities and experiences that will foster collaboration among communities and organizations that reflect whaling, trading and commercial relationships between Massachusetts, Alaska, Mississippi and Hawaii.

The New Bedford ECHO projects are:

• To build bridges for learning about our history, art, and the natural environment by expanding the presence of our cultural and historical organizations in the community and throughout the country;

• To celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity and inclusion within historic coastal communities and underserved native and immigrant populations with ECHO participant communities and to offer opportunities for applying the resulting activities nationwide;

• To explore the dynamic connections among commerce, art, science and the natural environment;

• To create opportunities for interactive and conversational teaching and learning and establish templates and guidelines for national application;

• To provide and ensure effective and equitable access and/or participation related to the six types of barriers cited in Section 427 of GEPA.