The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is eyeing big changes in the coming years, and it will use a $600 million fundraising campaign to make them happen.
The foundation announced Thursday the Campaign for History and Citizenship, which has already raised more than $300 million to help pay for a slew of new and expanded offerings.
The campaign identifies several projects and initiatives in which the $600 million would be invested, such as $185 million for construction projects like a state-of-the-art archaeology lab and an expansion of the art museums, $163.5 million for investment in expanding programming in the Historic Area, and more funding for outreach programs.
“At a time of such political, economic and cultural challenges — in the United States, and throughout the world — Colonial Williamsburg grounds us in the principles that have sustained us as a nation for more than 230 years,” Colonial Williamsburg Trustee and Chairman of the Campaign for History and Citizenship Steven L. Miller said in the release. “These investments by our supporters will ensure that this Revolutionary City will continue to inform and inspire many generations of Americans to come.”
The changes are meant to “both reinforce and reimagine” Colonial Williamsburg’s role in the 21st century, according to the release. The fundraising campaign, known as the Campaign for History and Citizenship, was started in a quiet phase in 2009. A quiet phase is a time when gifts are raised before a fundraising campaign is publicly announced.
The foundation aims to spend $185 million on construction and preservation efforts, including $40 million to expand the building housing the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. The project will add a new entrance to the museum on South Nassau Street along with 8,000 additional square feet of additional space for exhibits, boosting gallery space by 22 percent.
Other projects covered by the $185 million include the state-of-the-art archaeology lab and maintenance of existing structures through projects like painting them to accurately portray how they would have appeared more than 200 years ago and repairing aging stone and brick, according to the release.
The $163.5 million destined for the Historic Area of the museum — the living history component on and around Duke of Gloucester Street — will explore the lives of Native and African Americans, the struggle for religious freedom and the military, according to the release.
The campaign would send $64.5 million to providing outreach education to school students both domestic and foreign. That work would be done through technology spending, teacher training and the creation of new classroom materials for the students.
Other campaign goals include $125 million for the Colonial Williamsburg Fund which is used to support daily operations at the foundation and $32 million to help the foundation respond to “emerging challenges” and to help retain staff.
The Campaign for History and Citizenship will formally start Saturday with a ceremony at the Capitol Building.
“The American Revolution set in motion the world’s greatest experiment in representative government; it remains a touchstone that helps Americans understand who we are and how we have evolved as such a diverse and enterprising society,” said Foundation President and CEO Mitchell B. Reiss. “By preserving the artifacts, stories and very setting of the Revolution, Colonial Williamsburg offers modern Americans a direct link to the founding generation — whose extraordinary words and deeds challenge us to embrace our own roles in shaping our country’s future.”
