In 2021, The Museum received a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative to support the Museum’s religious literacy and humanities programs.

The goal of this grant, and others the Lilly Endowment awarded, is to support the development of exhibitions and education programs that fairly and accurately portray the role of religion in the U.S. and around the world. The initiative is designed to foster public understanding about religion and lift up the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.

There are few places where people from different backgrounds, religions, and cultures can meet, interact, and get to know one another. Over its 107-year history, Boston Children’s Museum has consistently sought to bring people together, to foster inclusion, tolerance, and awareness of differences. Through this grant, Boston Children’s Museum will engage children and families in explorations of their beliefs, faiths, and religions in a non-judgmental and non-sectarian way. The Museum’s religious literacy and humanities work will build on the Museum’s history of inspiring future generations to learn and grow as kind, understanding, and empathetic individuals and citizens.

Key objectives for the Museum’s work on religion and religious literacy include:

• Encouraging children, caregivers, and families to engage with and develop curiosity about religions.
• Supporting children and families from diverse religious backgrounds in valuing themselves and others, and in interacting with families of different religious and cultural backgrounds.
• Empowering Boston Children’s Museum staff from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds to support the development of religious literacy as part of the Museum’s equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives.