Museum Campaign Reaches New Milestone With More Than $600M Raised to Date

Public Invited to an Open House Celebration on July 14th

SALEM, MA – The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces the opening of its new state-of-the-art 120,000-square-foot Collection Center in Rowley, Massachusetts. The new Collection Center unifies, preserves, and protects over a million works of art and culture in PEM’s collection, several hundred thousand books, and one linear mile of archival material, which together represent more than 12,000 years of global artistic and cultural creativity.

“The completion of the new Collection Center constitutes a major milestone in the museum’s 219-year history,” says Dan Monroe, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO. “Providing the highest standards of preservation, protection, and care for PEM’s extremely large and diverse collections has always been a daunting challenge. The new Collection Center not only meets this challenge but also makes the collections far more accessible than ever before for support of exhibitions, programs, and research. In addition to highly secure climate-controlled spaces for collection storage, the Center also provides a new Conservation Lab, Photography Studio, Digitization Studio, and an entirely new facility for the Phillips Library, the museum’s research library.”

“The creation of a new Collection Center is an essential part of the museum’s $650M+ PEM Connect Campaign,” according to Amanda Clark MacMullan, PEM’s Chief Philanthropy Officer. “Combined with the 40,000-square-foot Gallery Expansion project, now under construction, major additions to endowment, the dramatic expansion of the changing exhibitions program, and 19 new installations of PEM’s collections, the Connect Campaign enables the museum to create transformative experiences of art and culture for people of all ages worldwide. The Campaign has surpassed the $600M mark and we are thrilled that it has engaged so many new friends and patrons in the PEM community.”

The Collection Center is the new home of the Phillips Library, PEM’s research library. One-third of the Library’s extensive collection of volumes, logbooks, photographs, and archival materials are entirely unique. The new 30,000-square-foot Library facility at the Collection Center provides unprecedented protection and preservation of the collections as well as a Digitization Studio, access to a Conservation Lab, Photography Studio, staff offices, and a handsome new Reading Room. The Reading Room is open free to the public from 10am to 4pm for drop-in use on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The Reading Room may also be visited on Monday and Friday from 10am to 4pm by calling in advance to arrange a visit. Parking is readily accessible and free.

On Saturday, July 14, the public is invited to an Open House from noon-3pm to tour the Collection Center and enjoy refreshments. Bus transportation from PEM will be provided.

About PEM’s Connect Campaign
The $650M+ PEM Connect Campaign dramatically extends and enhances the museum’s ability to create transformative experiences of art, culture, and creative expression for people of all ages in New England, the nation, and the world. The Campaign greatly expands the museum’s changing exhibition program, creates critically needed new facilities for exhibitions and the preservation of collections, adds new educational programs, creates a highly stable financial model that gives the museum the ability to constantly innovate, and supports the creation of nineteen new installations featuring PEM’s finest collections. Gifts and pledges secured to date: more than $600 million.

ABOUT THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM
Founded in 1799, PEM is the oldest continuously operating museum in the nation. Over the past twenty five years, PEM has distinguished itself as one of the fastest-growing art museums in America and now ranks among the top ten percent based on size, endowment, and operating budget. PEM creates transformative experiences of art, culture, and creative expression and is dedicated to creating new strategies for engagement, impact, and innovation. The museum’s exhibitions, presented at home and at first-tier art museums worldwide, provide surprising, compelling, and thought-provoking experiences. The museum's collections are among the finest of their kind, boasting superlative works from around the globe and across time -- including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Maritime, Native American, Oceanic, American, American Decorative, Fashion, Photography, and Asian Export Art. Its library collection is one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts, and PEM’s architecture collection of 22 noted historic structures includes Yin Yu Tang, the only complete antique Chinese house located outside China. PEM's education and public programs serve diverse audiences of all ages and the museum’s campus offers a varied and unique visitor experience with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities, and performance spaces. PEM’s visitor satisfaction ratings are consistently highly ranked and it is the only art museum in the world to employ a full-time neuroscientist to help design more exciting and impactful experiences based on brain research. HOURS: Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. ADMISSION: Adults $20; seniors $18; students $12. Additional admission to Yin Yu Tang: $6 (plus museum admission). Members, youth 16 and under and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission and free admission to Yin Yu Tang. INFO: Call 866-745-1876 or visit pem.org.

Media Contact
Whitney Van Dyke | Director of Communications | 978-542-1828 | whitney_vandyke@pem.org