Sing Sing Prison Museum has received a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. The grant will support Religion at Sing Sing Prison: A 200 Year Perspective.
The activities supported by Lilly Endowment will build on Sing Sing Prison Museum’s recent accomplishments and stimulate the museum’s growth as an innovative organization devoted to engaging audiences in profound questions about justice in a democratic society. Between 2025 and 2028, the project will focus on four major activities: 1) conducting oral history interviews and creating an archival collection that is searchable and interactive; 2) sponsoring Hudson River walking tours with content related to religion and Sing Sing Prison history; 3) building an exhibition about impact of religion, reform and rehabilitation throughout Sing Sing Prison’s history; and 4) conducting a series of community conversations using oral history content, music and audience participation as well as bimonthly public programs.
Sing Sing Prison Museum (SSPM) is an independent, non-profit organization located in Ossining, NY, which is home to Sing Sing Correctional Facility. The museum is currently under development and plans to open a visitor center and orientation exhibition in October 2025. Its mission is to “share stories of incarceration and reform, past and present, and to bring people together to imagine and create a more just society.” The museum “envisions a justice system dedicated to healing and rehabilitation and a society that respects individual humanity and dignity.” A central question raised in the museum’s programs is “Why do we have prisons?” Religion, religious organizations, religious leaders and followers of various faiths play an essential role in shaping the answers to this question.
“The grant from Lilly Endowment is transformative for the development of the museum,” said Brent Glass, Executive Director of the Sing Sing Prison Museum. “We aspire to become a leading institution in the national conversation about incarceration and reform and to redefine what it means to be a prison museum. This grant provides the resources we need to make significant progress toward that goal and to create a path toward a sustainable future.”
Sing Sing Prison Museum is one of 33 organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the latest round of the Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Its aim is to support museums and other cultural organizations as they strengthen their capacity to provide fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the role religion has played and continues to play in the United States and around the world.
“The United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Many individuals and families trust museums and other cultural institutions and visit them to learn about their communities and the world. We are excited to support these organizations as they embark on projects to help visitors understand and appreciate the diverse religious beliefs, practices and perspectives of their neighbors and others in communities around the globe.”
