Funds will help the organization make history and culture accessible to all area residents

FLORENCE—Florence Bank has provided a gift of $10,000 to Mass Humanities to help the organization make history and culture more accessible to residents across the state.

The private foundation is in its 50th year, serves all of Massachusetts and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Launched on the campus of the University of Massachusetts in 1994, Mass Humanities has been in Northampton for 20 years and recently announced a move to Holyoke.

“We have a mission to bring people together to embrace different perspectives, inspire civic engagement, spark conversation and build community,” said Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities. 

Boyles notes that the bank’s gift will be used to help fund two of four key initiatives, the Clemente Course in the Humanities and Reading Frederick Douglass Together. “We’ve seen those programs really grow and have been trying to keep up with all the interest there is in the humanities programs,” he added. 

The Clemente Course is an adult education program offered in partnership with Bard College in six cities across the state: in Western Mass, at the Holyoke Care Center and Martin Luther King Family Services in Springfield. The program provides access to those in economically disadvantaged households so they can study history, philosophy and literature, critical thinking and writing and public speaking.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together is offered annually in 60 towns across the commonwealth, where Douglass’ Fourth of July address is read aloud publicly. “It’s a way for people to come together around a historical text and listen to each other and talk about what they are learning,” Boyles said, noting attendance at these gatherings has tripled in recent years. 

Mass Humanities also offers Expand Massachusetts Stories, which helps local people reckoning with history by encouraging them to visit museums and libraries and launch storytelling projects in their communities. 

A fourth initiative in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute is called Museum on Main Street. This traveling exhibition is brought to six small towns each year, each time offering a different focus on rural life. 

Florence Bank is the financial partner for Mass Humanities, and Boyles said the organization appreciates the staff and customer service as much as the community support it receives. “We see how Florence Bank shows up. Any time we’ve needed them to think creatively, they’ve been effective. They’ve been amazing when it comes to our investments and helped us during COVID,” he said. 

Florence Bank President and CEO Matt Garrity said it’s an honor for the bank to support Mass Humanities. “We are not only helping to shine a light on history and culture in Western Massachusetts but all across the state. We like knowing that we are helping people connect to history, to their roots.”

Mass Humanities celebrated its 50th anniversary at an awards fundraising gala Sept. 26 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston. To learn more or donate, visit masshumanities.org/.

To learn more about Florence Bank, visit florencebank.com.

# # #

About Florence Bank

Florence Bank is a mutual savings bank chartered in 1873. Currently, the bank serves the Pioneer Valley through 12 full-service branch locations in Florence, Northampton, Easthampton, Williamsburg, Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, Granby, Chicopee, West Springfield, and Springfield. Additionally, it offers 25 ATMs and a wide range of financial services, including investment management through Florence Financial Group to consumers and businesses. Florence Bank is consistently voted best local bank by the readers of the Valley Advocate and the Daily Hampshire Gazette.