Mercer Museum Gets $230K Grant For Initiative In 2 Empty Rooms

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Mercer Museum is the recipient of a $230,000 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage grant, the museum announced Tuesday. The grant, which will be distributed over two and a half years, will support a major initiative called “Plus Ultra: Awakening the Mercer Museum Core.”

According to the museum, the project will reinvent two empty rooms located in the original historic core of the castle into "community-centric, intimate spaces designed for meaningful and active learning through the power of objects."

The title of the new initiative comes from a motto that inspired museum founder Henry Mercer, according to the museum. The Latin motto Plus Ultra means “more beyond.”

"In his lifetime, Mercer always looked to the future and nurtured his passion for discovery. Today, stirred by Henry Mercer’s curatorial compass and his commitment to community and learning, the Mercer Museum seeks to reintroduce itself as a place for guests to pursue meaning while contemplating human ingenuity," the museum said in an announcement of the grant.

The new initiative will offer guests "fresh, engaging perspectives" and reinterpret unused areas into "lively, informal spaces," the museum said.

Museum leaders expressed excitement about the grant and what it will mean for the Doyelstown institution.

“We are thrilled to receive this grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to reawaken our historic Mercer Museum core and bring to life Henry Mercer’s vision of community engagement in new and exciting ways,” said Kyle McKoy, president and executive director of the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle.

“Mercer founded the museum in 1916 to house his collection of early American material culture, to encourage people to see beyond the mundane, and to view ordinary objects in extraordinary ways. Moving forward, we wish to preserve this awe-inspiring collection while exploring new, community created opportunities to engage with our objects in more personal ways, including multisensory experiences, live demonstrations by artists and craftspeople, as well as storytelling," McKoy added.

The effort will be a collaboration between Mercer Museum staff, local residents, leaders from the museum field, community engagement experts, and contemporary artists.

Museum officials say the project will engage local stakeholders more deeply.

"Through this grant, a successful outcome not only repurposes two of the museum’s twelve empty rooms and creates a model for the remaining spaces yet to be reimagined, it provides a vital forum for a community of local and national voices to take part in the reawakening of a Bucks County institution," the grant announcement said.