Friends of the Museum launch website to interact with the public

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Friends of the Jean P. Haydon Museum has reached another milestone of their services for the people of American Samoa after they officially launched their website this past Monday. The website, “haydonmuseumamericansamoa.org”, is available for local, national and international viewers around the world.

According to a member of the The Friends, James Himphill, the website was funded by the American Samoa Humanities Council, with a program grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for $10,000.

Himphill told Samoa News that creating a website was something they had planned for a long time ago, however, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Friends of the Museum decided that this will be the right time to activate their plan as a response to the pandemic.

“One of the objectives of the Friends of the Museum is to help with the design of the exhibits in the Museum, so, this will be educational historical exhibits that teachers and students could learn from as well as living culture programs and exhibits such as Arts Council program of dancing, songs and arts and craft of Samoa, Himphill said, adding that they wanted to improve these types of plans so that the Museum becomes even more interactive with the community.

It was during the launching of the new website that the Friends of the Museum received donations from the Office of the Congresswoman, Uifaatali Aumua Amata, along with a donation from Chief Pulu Ae Ae Jr.

Clara Reid, another member of the Friends of the Museum said that their non-profit organization was established in 2013.

Former First Lady Cynthia Moliga and the original founding members were individuals that recognized the value of American Samoa’s traditional history, culture and environment, and who envisioned it’s continued preservation, exploration and evaluation into new forms of arts, crafts, music, dance, research and scholarship.

“Our accomplishments since 2013 are humbly noted on the website. In retrospect, over that last several years the Friends of the Museum have been able to reestablish a dormant Museum Board promote Island Community partners, renovate the original Jean P. Museum, and construct a new Museum building and Historical Site Park,” according to a press release from the Friends of the Museum.

Partners have conducted art shows, song and dance performances, cultural learning programs and historical artifact and archives displays.

The Friends of the Museum was on the verge of a public membership drive she COVID-19 stopped everything.

“After the first several month of 2020 the Friends of the Museum realized that it needed to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic ad so a website was planned to create virtual internet access for the public during the pandemic.”

Friends of the Museum credit the Amerika Samoa Humanities Council for a program grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that was obtained in July, 2020.