Middlesex Savings Bank and Discovery Museum Announce $100,000 Sponsorship of the new Discovery Museum

Bank is funding the museum’s Community Gallery, a changing exhibit space for traveling exhibits, community events, and cultural presentations 

Velocity Engineering Lab exhibit opened in the gallery on Saturday, January 12th

[Photo: Middlesex Savings Bank President and CEO Mike McAuliffe and Discovery Museum CEO Neil Gordon cut a ribbon to celebrate the opening of the Velocity! exhibit on January 12 in the Middlesex Savings Bank Community Gallery at the museum. The Bank and Museum announced a $100,000 sponsorship of the Museum by Middlesex Savings Bank at the event.]

ACTON, MA—Discovery Museum and Middlesex Savings Bank announced today that their long-running community support relationship has expanded to include a $100,000 investment in the new Discovery Museum, which opened in March, 2018.

Middlesex Savings Bank is the main sponsor of the museum’s Community Gallery, a 1,200sf exhibit space designed to host an ongoing series of rotating exhibits and community events. Velocity Engineering Lab, a hands-on, interactive exhibit using balls and ramps, opened on January 12, replacing the Bricks, Sticks & Arches building exhibit that had been in the space since the museum’s opening. The gallery is named the Middlesex Savings Bank Community Gallery.

Middlesex Savings Bank and the Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation have funded the museum and its access programs consistently since 2011, funding free museum admission on Friday nights as well as supporting the museum’s fundraising galas and speaker series events. Additionally, the Bank was the first corporate funder to join the Campaign for the Discovery Museum, with capital gifts totaling $100,000 beginning in 2014.

“Middlesex Bank has been an impactful supporter of the museum for many years, and this latest gift underscores the Bank’s deep commitment to investing in the community we both serve,” said Discovery Museum CEO Neil Gordon. “The Middlesex Savings Bank Community Gallery is a space where our visitors will come together to play, explore, and share; it will be a hub of interesting and inspiring community programs and STEAM-based activity and learning.”

“This investment in Discovery Museum is really an investment in the kids and families of the region,” said Mike McAuliffe, president and CEO of Middlesex Savings Bank. “Community support is at the heart of our charitable investments, and we view Discovery Museum as a tremendous community asset. We are thrilled to support their work to support kids’ informal learning through play.”

Blending hands-on experimentation with real-world applications, Velocity Engineering Lab teaches students key physics principles as they race golf balls along winding, sloping, and looping tracks, exploring how gravity, friction, speed, and acceleration affect the velocity and trajectory of moving objects. Visitors conduct their own experiments and compare the results of multiple test runs. Exhibit components include a Roller Coaster and Serpentine, Jump Track, Loop Track, Half-Pipe, and Dish.      For more information visit https://www.discoveryacton.org/visit/changing-exhibits.

Velocity Engineering Lab and logos are trademarks of Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, Inc. All rights reserved. Velocity Engineering Lab was developed by Betty Brinn Children’s Museum.

About Middlesex Savings Bank

Middlesex Savings Bank, founded in 1835 and headquartered in Natick, Mass., is a mutual savings bank. As one of the largest independent banks in Massachusetts with assets exceeding $4.7 billion, the Bank has been committed to providing outstanding value in consumer banking and business banking products for more than 180 years. The FDIC and DIF insured bank has 30 branch offices located in 25 communities – Acton, Ashland, Bedford, Bellingham, Boxborough, Concord, Framingham, Franklin, Groton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Littleton, Maynard, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Natick, Needham, Sherborn, Southborough, Sudbury, Walpole, Wayland, Wellesley, and Westford. For more information, please visit www.middlesexbank.com and connect on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About Discovery Museum

Discovery Museum is a hands-on museum that blends science, nature, and play, inspiring families to explore and learn together. The museum and its Discovery Woods accessible outdoor nature playscape and 550sf treehouse blend the best of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning on a beautiful 4.5-acre campus abutting 180 acres of conservation land in Acton, MA, about 20 miles west of Boston. Originally founded in 1982 and expanded to two museums in 1987, the museum reopened in a single, 16,000sf accessible building after a complete renovation and expansion in early 2018. Hands-on, open-ended exhibits developed by professional educators inspire curiosity and exploration, providing a fun and engaging experience for children and adults to discover their world together. Serving families and schools from towns throughout the region, the museum is devoted to informal education that enhances classroom learning. Discovery Museum is committed to accessibility, and is a proud recipient of the 2017 Massachusetts Commonwealth Award, the only winner in the Access category, and a 2018 LEAD® Community Asset Award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information please visit www.discoveryacton.org. Discovery Museum is a community-supported non-profit organization.

Discovery Museum programming is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.