Federal Agency Slashes Hefty Funding to Hanford Mills Museum
By TERESA WINCHESTEREAST MEREDITH
Upon further review, IMLS has determined that your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program.”
“IMLS” stands for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Reading this statement in her inbox was Kajsa Harley, executive director of Hanford Mills Museum, located in East Meredith—in Delaware County, just over the Otsego County line.
When asked in an April 18 telephone interview if she knew what IMLS meant by this statement, Harley replied, “I don’t know what it means. Our museum tells an important story… talks about how unique it is, not in its history, but in that it is one of a handful of still existing operational mills. It represents thousands of other mills that no longer exist.”
At issue was a $238,475.00 federal grant IMLS had awarded HMM for two separate multi-year projects. One was to improve the management and care of the museum’s historic objects so as to ensure their long-term duration. The other was to create an interpretive master plan, with input from the community, to guide the museum’s activities through 2026.
