The Brick Store Museum has been celebrating local history, art and culture since 1936.
Read on for more information about what’s ahead.
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Before coming to the Museum, please read our COVID-19 Guidelines as outlined on our Welcome Home area of our website. If you are excited and ready to visit the Museum in-person – welcome back!
If you would rather stay safe at home – we’ll be delivering content straight to you.
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Special Note: THANK YOU, VOLUNTEERS!
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Saturday, August 29th was scheduled as our annual “End-of-Summer” Volunteer Thank You event. Due to safety concerns, we are unable to thank Museum volunteers in person – so every volunteer will be receiving a token of our gratitude very soon (on your doorstep!). In the meantime, here is our THANKS to you via video (click here)!
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TAKE PART WHEREVER YOU ARE!
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NOW SHOWING:
Curator’s Tour of the Victory Gardens
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Food means something to everyone. Discover how the team at the Brick Store Museum curated the 2020 Victory Gardens here on the Museum campus using a “concept within and concept” to define 1940s food conservation while also discussing food origins in history.
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Shared experiences bind us all together through emotion and memory. We hope you will take part in this digital preservation project, which seeks to collect memories of a specific event in our modern history.
Most of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing on September 11, 2001, when a foreign enemy attacked the United States on its own soil for the first time since Pearl Harbor in 1941.
With the anniversary approaching, we look back 19 years later. Tell us about your experiences that day. You can be as in-depth as you would like. Start here.
Entries will be compiled into an online exhibition of memory.
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Here comes the 20th century! The fifth program in our Century Saturday Series brings modern history to life through images, oral histories, and activities. Plus….it’s all set to music! Musicians Monica Grabin and Dana Pearson will perform one song from each decade in the 20th century to discuss the incredible changes from the 1910s to the 1990s.
We’re looking for stories from the Kennebunks in the late 20th Century! Do you have one to share? Email us at info@brickstoremuseum.org!
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Annual Meeting with a Twist!
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We had such fun presenting the 18th Century Dinner in July, that we’re doing it again for September!
This time, it coincides with the Museum’s Annual Members Meeting (via Zoom), and instead of 18th Century food, we’re serving up early-20th-century take-out!
Join us for a Roaring 20’s prepared meal, then gather ’round your screens to hear updates from the Museum and listen to a sneak-preview of the 20th Century Concert (mentioned above!).
Save the Date:
Wednesday, September 23 at 6:30pm
Pick up meals: Wednesday, September 23 between 3pm and 5pm.
Menu and tickets will be announced soon!
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The Brick Store Museum typically hosts monthly Art Nights! during the summer.
Due to COVID-19, we’re bringing them to you virtually!
Each Friday this summer, we’ll be posting a chat with a different artist featured in the Museum’s “Perspectives | 2020” Exhibition. You can find all of the published videos by pressing the button below.
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All-Access for the Steampunk Fair!
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The Southern Maine Steampunk Fair returned in a virtual format for 2020.
Explore the fascinating world of STEAMPUNK! Not sure what it is? Think of Victorian style in the future – kind of like Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It’s a unique event – and one that can be explored through a variety of exhibits and lectures this year. Plus, an online marketplace!
The best thing about the Fair this year is that it did not close at 5pm….it’s open all year! Visit the Steampunk website to learn more and discover.
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REGISTER FOR AN HISTORIC VIRTUAL RACE!
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The Brick Store Museum and Historical Society of Wells & Ogunquit are teaming up to highlight our shared history with a virtual race!
Take part in this fun Bicentennial Distance Challenge Virtual Race by running, walking, or biking 7 miles on the course of your choice to support our local history institutions.
Between now and October 17, 2020: Run (or bike, walk, kayak, or paddle) your race at your pace and on a course of your choice – as long as it’s seven miles! – and send us your finishing time.
Registration: $35 per person, $10 for children under 16. Every participant receives a Challenge Bib and information packet upon registration, and a challenge medal in October 2020!
Presented by our generous sponsor: Southern Maine Health Care
With special thanks to the Museum’s Marquee Sponsor: Kennebunk Savings
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Did you miss July’s episode? As we prepare August’s release, tune in to hear more about the history of baseball; 200 years of elections and voting in Kennebunk; the Museum’s summer intern program; and sit down to talk with local Diana Hutchins Abbott, who was diagnosed with polio in 1955.
The podcast is accessible wherever you listen to podcasts, plus via our website by clicking the button below.
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Museum Receives Belvedere Historic Preservation & Energy Efficiency Grant
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The Museum is proud to announce it is the recipient of a Belvedere grant via the Maine Community Foundation in the amount of $19,000. The Belvedere grant program invests in the preservation, restoration and retrofitting of historic structures throughout Maine.
The grant funds part of a larger project to rehabilitate the Museum’s Dane Street complex (the yellow house behind the Museum block). This past March, the Museum funded a transition to a new propane boiler for this building (changing out its old oil burner); now, this funding from the Belvedere grant supports blown insulation into the attics and walls of the building to further conserve energy into the future.
If you drive by the Dane Street building in the next few weeks, you may see some siding has been removed – don’t worry! Because this building houses our textile and costume collections, we are unable to blow insulation through indoor walls without major risk to our historic collections. Clapboards are being carefully removed from the outside of the building to blow in cellulose, and will be replaced as soon as possible.
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Museum Kicks off The 2020 Fund
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The year 2020 surprised us all. No part of our personal lives, our industries, our systems and our ways of life were left untouched.
For all the sadness and despair, it has allowed us something: the ability to pause, reflect, re-think, and re-focus.
For 84 years, the Brick Store Museum carried on its merry way, bringing what entertainment and reflection it could to this community of ours, thanks to the support and generosity of thousands of people over decades of change.
Now, in our 85th year, silence fell upon the Museum – as it did for everyone – in the middle of March, and life seemed to stop for an instant.
Then we got to work. The Museum team started moving and changing and pushing up programs that helped teachers, students, and people stuck at home. The framework of the Digital Learning Center expanded and offered more. As louder calls for fixing the broken system of race in our country reached the Kennebunks, the Museum made it a priority to fill in the missing portions of local history and representation. All of this work continues.
It is strangely fitting that this year is 2020; the metaphor for perfect vision is not lost on anyone. Perhaps it was through these struggles that we have all reached an increased understanding of our shared needs and of one another. Indeed, the “slow-down” of 2020 allowed the Museum team to “see the forest through the trees,” as they say, to mark four pillars of our work that are most integral to being a community museum.
The Museum’s 2020 Fund will support these four pillars of the Museum:
I. Increasing Access
II. Inclusive Research
III. Teaching the Next Generation
IV. Building Preservation
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Watch for the Community Survey!
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As the Museum heads into 2021, we are seeking public input on future planning. Board, staff and volunteers will begin several strategic planning sessions to carve out the next five years for the Museum.
But we’ll need your help.
Keep your eye out for a Community Survey, coming to your inbox mid-September – we want your honest feedback! Help us map a course for the future
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The York County Coast Star recently highlighted the Museum’s oral history program, in an article featuring Kennebunk World War II veteran James Pastorelli. James celebrated his 100th birthday in late August. Last year, he recorded a special oral history with one of our favorite educators, Joe Foster.
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“The Kennebunks in Vintage Postcards” Now on Sale!
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This is the brand-new publication from the staff at the Brick Store Museum discussing the history of Kennebunk through the lens of its historic postcard collection.
The book features 183 archival images of the town, with captions describing the region’s history.
Your purchase supports furthering research and education about the history, art and culture of the southern Maine region. Click here to order for shipping or curbside pickup!
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Explore the Digital Learning Center!
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Follow the Museum on Facebook and Instagram to visit collections storage areas!
Weekly, the Museum staff visits different areas of our Collections Storage to talk about artifacts and histories in our care. These quick videos give you a glimpse behind the scenes and new histories to consider! (Here’s a sneak peek video, at right!)
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Brand-New Online Museum Store Launched!
Don’t miss unique, local items for sale through the Museum’s Mercantile! Local history books, artwork, cards, toys, soaps, candles and more are waiting for you here at the online store!
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