The Noble Maritime Collection recently received a $2,500 grant from Investors Foundation to help further the museum’s mission of celebrating maritime history and culture through Noble on Watch (NOW), a series of virtual programs that viewers can enjoy in the comfort of their own homes.

Through the NOW platform, diverse scholars, authors, and musicians make monthly presentations at noblemaritime.org/now and on the museum’s Facebook page, facebook.com/noblemaritime. All programs are free and can be viewed anytime after they premiere.

The upcoming schedule includes a lecture by local author and historian Pat Salmon about the former quarantine islands off Staten Island on March 24.

The museum debuted NOW in 2020 to provide programming during the pandemic shutdown. The project successfully increased the museum’s program attendance tenfold, from 50 to 500 viewers on average. In addition to pre-pandemic museum goers, new audience members included seniors, people with disabilities and limited mobility, and those outside a drivable distance to the museum.

“I am so proud of the Noble on Watch initiative, and grateful to the Investors Foundation for their support,” said Ciro Galeno, Jr., Executive Director of the Noble Maritime Collection. “NOW grew out of necessity during the pandemic lockdown, but the high-quality and relevant lectures—including diverse stories in maritime history and collaborations with scholars from across the world—have proven to be immensely popular, and continue to help us educate the public with no limits to accessibility.”

Past NOW programs, available to view at noblemaritime.org/now, include the lectures Untold Stories of the Titanic: The Only Black Passenger by Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson and Nellie Bly: Around the World in 72 Days by Gerard Thornton, as well as the spoken word and musical performance, Rockaway Blue: An Evening with Larry Kirwan.

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The mission of the Noble Maritime Collection, an art and history museum in Staten Island, New York, is to present exhibitions and programs that celebrate the working waterfront of New York Harbor in the tradition of distinguished artist John A. Noble (1913-1983), and to preserve Robbins Reef Lighthouse and the history of Sailors’ Snug Harbor.

The museum is located in Building D, a former mariners’ dormitory at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, New York, 10301. It is open from 12 until 5 PM, Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is by donation.

For more information, call (718) 447-6490 or visit noblemaritime.org.