Children under 18 are invited to visit the Connecticut River Museum (CRM) for free through Sept. 1 as part of the Summer at the Museum program. The state initiative is run through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Office of the Arts and provides perks and programs for young visitors throughout the summer.

The museum held a press conference on its front lawn on July 20, where First Selectman Norm Needleman and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz spoke about the opportunity to learn more about the history of the Connecticut River through the initiative.

Needleman said all community members have a “great opportunity” through the initiative to learn about the history of the Connecticut River at the museum, which he described as “an anchor for tourism” in the downtown area of Essex.

The Summer at the Museum program was originally established in 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way of providing children with engaging enrichment and learning experiences during the summer months,” according to a statement from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office on June 29 this year. Standing before the museum, Bysiewicz commented on that continued mission.

“We were in the midst of COVID, and we wanted a chance to combat learning loss, and we wanted to have our kids enhance their learning over the summer by having the opportunity to visit … a place like this, the Connecticut River Museum,” said Bysiewicz. “This is such an opportunity to discover or rediscover some of our state’s treasures in Middlesex County. This [museum] is one of the beautiful treasures that we have.”

Also speaking at the conference was the museum’s new executive director, Elizabeth Kaeser, who described the museum as a place where visitors of all ages “can have great connections where children and adults can learn together, and where you can have a brand new epiphany you can come up with some new way of thinking about the world or discover that something else is important,” she said. “That’s what can happen when kids and parents visit museums like this one, like the Connecticut River Museum, this summer.”

Among the programs at the CRM is an ongoing exhibit called Water/Ways from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The program encourages its viewers to have a global perspective on how bodies of water like the Connecticut River have shaped their local communities and environments’ history, industry, and culture.

“This exhibit is sort of sitting on top of all of that specific work that the Connecticut River Museum does every single day, and it’s thinking about all of the ways that water impacts people at a sort of global level,” said Kaeser. “The Connecticut River Museum is sort of a microcosm of that global movement … if you think about the stories of history, almost all of them have some component about water. Water is just sort of a universal element.”

In her address on July 20, Kaesar raised a point about the importance of developing “the next generation of river stewards” to further protect a resource that runs adjacent to the lives of 2.4 million people in New England. The summer camps the museum runs look to instill that value into children, as does the Water/Ways exhibit.

“There are still waterways that are endangered, that need tender loving care. But we’ve made a lot of progress, and I think that the Connecticut River is an exemplar of what can be done,” Kaeser said. “The story isn’t done; we’re still writing it.”

Kaeser said visitors will be ensured a unique presentation that can be taken advantage of through the Summer at the Museum initiative.

“Because it is from the Smithsonian, you can count on the fact that it is extraordinarily well researched and full of information that will elucidate and enlighten any visitor who comes.”

The exhibit is held on the third floor of the museum. For more information on the Water/Ways exhibit, visit www.ctrivermuseum.org/events/water-ways.