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.
“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.
