Nicole Sorbara, who manages the Terwilliger House museum at Ellenville Public Library, was mightily pleased on Monday at the news that hers was one of 98 museums across New York selected for the “Building Capacity, Creating Sustainability, Growing Accessibility” project, an initiative by the Museum Association of New York (MANY), and funded out of the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) CARES Act.

“When I saw this originally, I jumped on it,” she said of the grant. “Because with COVID it’s been difficult for us to connect like we want to with the community. But also to connect more widely. So we are using this opportunity to be able to bring Terwilliger House to your house!”

What this all means is that there will be funds to exhibit more of the museum’s collection online. All museums share this problem — they have immense collections that dwarf the space available to show them off. Photographs, fossils, arrow heads, beads, and wagon wheels can sit in drawers, folders and boxes in dark recesses of attics and basements for centuries, unseen and sometime not even catalogued.

“So,” said Sorbara, “It’s a two-year process. We’ll be starting off with Zoom meetings with MANY, and the Institute of Museums and Library Services, where we’ll work together in groups. Then next year at some point we’ll be meeting with someone who will work with us on the digitization process, then taking it all the way to putting it online.”

That will allow for much more of the museum’s collection to be made visible and, more than that, it will be visible to the entire world.

“As of now,” said Sorbara, “there’s the EPLM website, but this will be set out in a different site or format. Not sure yet what the details will be on the online process.”

MANY said that 200 staffers will be trained to use new hardware and software to develop ways to reach and engage new audiences in their communities and beyond.

“We are honored to be awarded IMLS CARES act funding and excited to be able to make an impact on the work of our colleagues and their museums across New York State,” said Erika Sanger, the MANY executive director. “We are living in an age of transition, experiencing a radical shift in our ways of learning and communicating. The group selected captures the diversity of our shared history in NY and our nation. The stories embodied in the museums’ collections and the storytelling talents of their interpretive staff are the heart of the project.”

One focus of the program will be to showcase the cultural and racial diversity of their communities. Sorbara noted, “Ellenville is the 23rd out of 30 most diverse communities in upstate NY. We envision using this technology to virtually deliver to our audience stories found in our collections that reveal cultural and racial diversity within our community.”