The Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor has been awarded the National Medal for Museum and Library Service by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The children’s museum, which opened on Main Street in downtown Bangor in 2001 and features three floors of interactive exhibits on science, nature, geography, children’s literature, music, art and anatomy, is one of 10 recipients of the award nationally.
Honorees included five museums and five libraries. Maine Discovery Museum was the only winner in the Northeast.
The IMLS commended the museum’s relationships with local libraries, parks and recreation departments and schools, and said the museum’s partnerships with other nonprofits have provided educational programing throughout the state, “often going to rural and underserved communities to bring their expertise to them.”
National Medal recipients were nominated by their community members, then selected through a competitive, multi-stage process, according to the institute.
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, who as acting director of the IMLS chose the honorees from a slate of peer-reviewed finalists, said the winners “truly represent some of the best that the museum and library fields have to offer America and its citizens.”
Sonderling said that during the first year of the second Trump administration, the IMLS “refocused its priorities to meet emerging needs of the American people and their cultural institutions.” The organization “continues to ensure that federal resources are used to build literacy, expand library and museum programming capacity, protect our priceless historical artifacts, and reacquaint the public with America’s founding and core principles,” he said.