The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers has been awarded a Kress Interpretive Fellowship. It is one of only six museums in the country to receive fellowship funding from The Samuel H. Kress Foundation in a highly competitive program. Others receiving a 2018-2019 fellowship were the Cleveland Museum of Art, Fairfield University Museum of Art, George Eastman Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Portland Art Museum.
The museum is using the award to bring Christian Stegall to the facility full-time for one year. He”™s native of Atlanta and graduated from Morehouse College. Stegall”™s work will focus on discovering, documenting and creating discussions of Yonkers”™ diversity as it relates to the museum. In addition to conducting new research on the museum”™s collection, he”™ll develop outreach programs for the community and schools.
Masha Turchinsky, director of the museum, said, “It is one of the museum”™s core values to connect with our community and ensure that our visitors feel represented in our galleries. We cannot tell the story of Yonkers without including people of color. This fellowship is part of a larger plan for the museum to integrate and share the important narratives of those who built this diverse city ”“ the fourth largest in New York ”“ and figured in the history of the Hudson Valley.”
