The Museum will continue to impact the surrounding region as we build our education programs for children and life-long learners – supporting area schools, families, permanent and part-time residents, and the larger community. Participation is growing already for school vacation workshops, the lecture series, and other newer programs.

We are developing a more learner-centric approach to guided tours and classes for visiting K-12 school groups,  enhancing our online national curricula and learning tools (all freely accessible), and expanding our popular lecture program – bringing in a variety noted scholars from other institutions.  These efforts will positively impact the local community and further enrich quality of life.

The Museum is an active community citizen, working with schools and playing  a leading role in initiatives to improve the educational and jobs skills level of permanent residents and enrich the lives of all residents. Our school-vacation week workshops grow each year, benefiting local families, and our school-based program has served 93,000 students to date, with fees waived for Title I schools. Given that area residents have lower education levels than those of other MA counties and that many distressed public schools have cut art/music, this program positively impacts students and their communities. It will continue to do so as we develop more immersive experiences on-site and online.

Family festivals and other free outdoor events serve area residents and draw new diverse audiences. And a growing array of adult studio classes, lectures related to the art on view, and programs like the Four Freedoms Forums continue to flourish, adding greatly to the area’s quality of life.

Participation continues to grow for many of the Museum’s on-site programs, such as the hugely popular school vacation-week workshops for younger students offered during the 3 school vacation weeks (December, February, and April),  the Rockwell Center lecture series with noted scholars in the field of illustration (averaging between 50 to 150 attendees), and the Four Freedoms Forums, which are being referenced as a model for the nation.

Over the past decade, ProjectNORMAN has revealed many collections that were once hidden, enabling easier access for curators and visiting researchers. Today, more than 30,000 items are online, including Norman Rockwell’s entire oeuvre; artworks by other illustrators; and portions of our Rockwell Archive – photo references, letters, and studio objects – many of which are in the public light for the first time. This has catalyzed new scholarship from NRM and others, including Bridget Cooks, Professor of Art History/UC Santa Cruz, writing a book about artwork from the civil rights era; Deborah Solomon, art critic/journalist with the NY Times, for a forthcoming biography on Rockwell; author/curator Ron Schick for his acclaimed book and traveling exhibition, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera; and Virginia Mecklenburg, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for her 2010 exhibition, Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Illustration art has commanded the power of mass communication in America for more than 150 years. Through the decades, it has reflected and shaped our world. Only in recent years have academic institutions and museums begun to consider its influence and significance as a popular, pervasive presence in America's periodicals, books, newspapers, advertisements, and today in electronic media, animation, and gaming. This recognition is due in part to Norman Rockwell Museum’s ambitious programs and scholarship, and the work of visiting scholars, made possible by ProjectNORMAN. Based on the great impact ProjectNORMAN has had already, when we gain full intellectual control of the Collection, we will further illuminate the impact Rockwell and other American illustrators have on their world – generating new scholarship, including the art of illustration into America’s college art history courses, and preserving an American treasure for future generations.

Scholarship about Norman Rockwell has increased since the Museum launched ProjectNORMAN and revealed hidden collections. Dr. Mecklenburg wrote that our Rockwell collections are “crucial … to assessing the role of… the most influential creator of visual imagery of Rockwell’s generation . …[and] to understanding the way visual imagery reflected and fueled ideas about American identity…” Ron Schick wrote that “This important and ambitious collections-care effort must continue. It will take time and resources to complete. But I believe the initiative will prove invaluable to visiting scholars and researchers such as myself and it will foster new scholarship on Rockwell and American illustration art, building a context for academic work in the field of art history.” Inquiries to the Archives also have increased since the Museum announced the completion of major preservation/digitization projects, and especially since a major part of the collection was published online in 2011.

NRM launched the Rockwell Center in 2009 to bring more national attention and resources to the art of illustration. Already, we are inspiring new dialogue and scholarship in American illustration, collaborating with museums, libraries, archives, and universities with significant illustration collections; developing a new generation of scholars, professors, and curators in this field through greater dialogue on our website and through the new Rockwell Scholars fellowships; integrating illustration into art history and visual studies at universities and museums; and spurring preservation and collection of noteworthy illustration art to save works in peril of being lost. The Center is making an impact nationally, and will continue to do so.