The Connecticut State Bond Commission has approved $2 million in state funding to assist with the construction of the Thompson Exhibition Building. The request for funding was approved at the commission’s meeting on January 29, 2016.

“Mystic Seaport was delighted to learn that our Thompson Exhibition Building project was selected for this level of state support,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “The new building gives us a state-of-the-art, world-class exhibition facility that will fortify a year-round business model and support our role as the nation’s leading maritime museum.”

The state’s investment in the Thompson Exhibition Building leverages significant support from the private sector, and strengthens the local and regional economy by enhancing Mystic’s role as a leading tourist destination.

The Thompson Exhibition Building will house a 5,000-square-foot exhibit gallery—the largest of the Museum’s seven galleries. The new building will provide the type of conditions required to permit the borrowing of outstanding art and artifacts from other museums around the world. The building will also have a visitors’ entrance, retail space, and a meeting and lecture room.

The Thompson Building is scheduled to open in September 2016.

“We are grateful for the support of State Senator Andrew Maynard and State Representative Diana Urban on this project. With their assistance we were able to demonstrate the project’s merits as we met with legislative leadership, state economic development officials and Governor Dannel P. Malloy,” said White. “We have likewise been grateful for the support we have received from the State Office of Economic and Community Development and Gov. Malloy’s interest in this important project.”

In a December letter to Gov. Malloy, Sen. Maynard wrote, “The Thompson Exhibition Building is central to Mystic Seaport’s ongoing transformation. The building expands the Museum’s capacity as a cultural institution, strengthens the state’s tourism industry, and adds to our ability to attract and retain top talent to the state’s workforce based on a high quality of life.”

“Connecticut’s economy benefits significantly from tourism,” said Gov. Malloy in a statement. “Under recent years, this sector of our economy has evolved into a $14 billion industry, supporting more than 80,000 direct tourism jobs statewide and continuing to grow. Mystic Seaport continues to be a major draw in the southeastern region of our state, and this project is one for which Sen. Maynard has advocated passionately. I am glad that we can continue to support the region with this grant.”

Mystic Seaport is one of the top-20 employers in Southeastern Connecticut and is a leading driver of tourism in the region and the state. The new exhibition building will add both temporary and permanent jobs, but it will also fortify a twelve-month business model for the Museum going forward.

Portions of this report were prepared from a press release from Sen. Maynard’s office.

Mystic Seaport will return to being open to visitors year-round in 2016. From January 2 to February 12, 2016 the Museum will be open Thursday through Sunday, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. This comes after several years being closed for the first six weeks of the calendar year.

“An important part of the strategic vision for Mystic Seaport is to be a museum that functions in all four seasons, and over the past year we have added a number of enhancements and changes to our physical plant and exhibits that enable us to offer a more robust visitor experience in the winter months,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “This will only get more compelling when we open the new Thompson Exhibition Building later in the year.”

The programs and exhibits that will be open have been chosen with cold weather in mind. This includes the buildings and exhibit galleries on the north end of the grounds, including the Planetarium, Children’s Museum, and the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Schaefer’s Spouter Tavern will be open for dining.

Highlights to a visit this winter are the award-winning exhibit “Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude” on temporary loan from the National Maritime Museum, London, the “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers” exhibit, and the new Home Port children’s activity center in the P.R. Mallory Building. In addition, visitors may view the Figureheads Exhibit, the Benjamin F. Packard Ship’s Cabin, and the art exhibit by Dalvero Academy, “Journey of Transformation.”

The Planetarium will have two shows: “Winter Stars and the Mariner” and “Longitude: Proof in the Pacific.” The latter is a special 35-minute program that brings ships, clocks, and stars together to follow Captain James Cook as he tests longitude solutions in the Pacific Ocean during his voyages in the 18th century. The audience can see the night sky from the island of Tahiti as Cook and the astronomers in his company seek to view the rare astronomical phenomenon known as the Transit of Venus. Planetarium shows are free and included with general admission during this time.

The Membership Building will be open to assist members and provide a hot cup of cocoa, tea, or coffee for those in need of a warm up.

There will be several special programs this winter not to miss. The Stars of the Smithsonian Lecture Series continues with Carlene Stephens, a curator at the National Museum of American History, presenting “Connecting the World in Time” on January 14. This talk explores the changing ways humankind used to connect around the globe over the centuries and draws on treasured timekeepers and their stories.

The Mystic Seaport Adventure Series returns on January 21 with USCG CWO Randall J. Rice recounting his remarkable career in “Stories of a Rescue Swimmer.”

Winter Vessel Tours showcasing steamboat Sabino, Plimoth Plantation’s Mayflower II, schooner Amistad, and the Charles W. Morgan will be offered weekends from January 2 through February 7, 2016.

During this period, the 19th-Century Village and the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard will be closed to visitors. They will reopen on February 13, 2016 for Winter’s Aweigh.

As part of this new operating plan, Mystic Seaport will offer reduced admission: Adult $19; Senior (ages 65+) $17; Youth (ages 6-17) $12; and Children (5 and younger) Free. The reduced admission is effective January 2 through February 12, 2016. Regular admission rates will apply after that time.

The Museum is very excited to return to operating year round. It is great time to see Mystic Seaport in a different way–at a great price!

The construction of the Thompson Exhibition Building reached a milestone this past week with the installation of the final wood beam. This completed the erection of the primary structure for the building. Each of the ten beams is 105-feet long and constructed of glue-laminated fir. The beams were manufactured outside Montreal, Canada and shipped to Mystic Seaport in sections. The contractor then assembled the parts on-site.

Following close behind the structural work were the roofers. At this point, the entire roof has been sheathed in plywood and a waterproof membrane has been applied. Contractors presently are working on erecting the wall framing to have the building enclosed as we head into winter.

At the same time, the water, electrical, IT, and HVAC lines are being installed in advance of the pouring of the concrete floor, and the mezzanine level is being erected. The building’s systems will be located on the second floor mezzanine.

Work will continue on the building throughout the winter. For more information on the Thompson Building and the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle project, please visit our McGraw Quad page.

A time-lapse video of the erection of the glue-laminated beams of the Thompson Building beginning with the first beam on October 16, 2015 and running to the installation of the final beam on December 15.

https://youtu.be/D4FEm_Yi7o8

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Mystic Seaport is contributing the content of some of the logbooks in its collections to support the work of Old Weather: Whaling, a crowd-sourced research initiative that will help scientists analyze historical data from whaling logbooks, in an effort to improve the collective understanding of long-term climate variability and weather patterns, from the 19th century into the future.

Old Weather: Whaling is the sister project of Old Weather, a successful ongoing project led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the University of Washington and Zooniverse, the citizen science web portal. Similar to the original Old Weather, Old Weather: Whaling (OWW) is about citizens extracting historic weather measurements and other data from ship logs. However, OWW offers particular focus on observations of sea ice, which many whaling ships sailed through and documented while navigating Arctic waters.

“Mystic Seaport is excited to be able to use the artifacts in our collections to assist scientists and other researchers to add to the body of knowledge on climate patterns,” said Paul O’Pecko, Vice President, Collections and Research at Mystic Seaport.

The Museum has contributed the project’s original data sources (logbooks and journals) along with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Providence Public Library, the Nantucket Historical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and the New Bedford Free Public Library. Weather and sea-ice data from these sources will be transcribed via the Old Weather project and integrated into existing global data sets. High-resolution images of historical documents, extracted data, and related research products will be provided to project partners and collaborators, and freely available online.

The crowd-sourcing model of Old Weather allows for any and all to become citizen scientists and contribute to the initiative.  “Volunteer citizen-scientists who join Old Weather can make real contributions to our understanding of one of the most important scientific questions of our time,” said Kevin Wood, a climate scientist with NOAA and the University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of the Ocean and Atmosphere (who helped develop the Old Weather Project). “The data that volunteers extract from logbooks will drive climate and sea-ice models, which will assist in future climate predictions.”

For more information or to become a citizen scientist, visit whaling.oldweather.org.