The “My Neighbor is a Museum’ Block Party” hosted by the Somerville Museum offered festive activities as well as an opportunity to help support the museum. ~Photos by Fernando Cervantes Jr.

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

On Saturday, September 18, the Somerville Museum held their My Neighbor is a Museum’ Block Party along with an opening for a new exhibition entitled, Penny Chronicles and the Stories They Tell.

The block party was held on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 1 Westwood Road, where the Somerville Museum is located. There was live music, food, local artwork, raffles and games.

The block party was held as a fundraiser for the Somerville Museums’ Access for All & More Campaign which seeks to make the 100-year-old building more accessible to the Somerville community.

President of the Board of Trustees for the Somerville Museum, Barbara Mangum spoke about the museums’ intentions to move the museum to the 21st century. “We have been on a capital campaign since last year, raising money for an elevator addition and all these other renovations that are inside, were trying to bring the museum to the 21st Century for the people of Somerville,” Mangum said.

This campaign has also been successful so far, according to Mangum, the museum has raised over $2 million towards their 2.7 million goal.

“We needed to raise 2.25 million to do all the renovations, and we’ve already raised 2 million so we’re really excited,” Mangum said.

Moreover, Alison Drasner, Assistant Director of the Museum and main organizer of the block party, spoke on why this party was organized. “The primary purpose is to raise awareness about the museum, the museum is everybody’s neighbor, we’re a neighborhood museum,” Drasner said.

Drasner also commented on how the reaction from the community towards the event was positive as a whole. “People have been really receptive to it, I hope that people are enjoying it, especially the neighbors. We’ve made an effort to reach out to them, we’d love for them to be more involved,” Drasner said.

Penny Chronicles and the Stories They Tell held its opening, and the block party was a good way for people to visit the exhibit. Director of Exhibits for the Somerville Museum and curator of the exhibition David Guss spoke about the exhibit and the meaning of it. “It’s a sort of unusual look at the Somerville history as inspired by postcards. The postcards in particular come from an era which is called the golden age of postcards,” Guss said.

About 50 people were in attendance at the block party, which had Mangum feeling positive about the event as a whole. “I love the fact that we can listen to the music out here, it’s really festive and were getting a lot of people coming through and saying, where can I donate, it’s just what we were hoping for,” Mangum said.