Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center Executive Director Hildegard Grob Wins Prestigious Award at Ridgefield Arts Council’s Behind the Scenes Honors

At the recent Ridgefield Arts Council’s annual Behind the Scenes Honors event, Hildegard Grob, executive director of Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, was honored as the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Nancy Comstock Andrews Superlative Teaching/Mentoring Award.

The Nancy Comstock Andrews Superlative Teaching/Mentoring Award is given each year to an individual in recognition of their dedication and enthusiastic encouragement in the promotion, inspiration, and appreciation of the arts. The Ridgefield Arts Council selects the recipient through a confidential process in advance and announces the winner to the public at the event. At the awards ceremony, which also honored volunteers at various cultural institutions in Ridgefield, Jennifer DiLaura, executive director of the Ridgefield Arts Council, praised Grob as someone “who is an example of how compassion, encouragement, engagement, and collaboration can inspire everyone she comes in contact with to step up their game, to be brave, to reach further than they thought they could.” As executive director of KTM&HC, said DiLaura, Grob “has led one of the more innovative and collaborative organizations in Ridgefield for the past nine years. She is always the first one to open her doors to other organizations, to participate in collaborative projects, to inspire us all to promote equality and parity in all we do.”

Grob, who has served as executive director of KTM&HC since 2012, has grown the organization from a local house museum to a regional history center, using the site’s extensive history and stories to speak to the larger American experience. She was instrumental in successfully executing a $1.5M capital campaign to grow the organization’s capacity and audience reach. KTM&HC regularly collaborates with other organizations and individuals to create programs that use the past to help understand the present and chart the future. Under Grob’s direction, KTM&HC is now widening its lens beyond the Eurocentric stories that have dominated the museum’s focus to include the voices of people whose stories have thus far not been told, including the site’s Black and Indigenous residents.

“I am truly humbled and deeply touched to be this year’s recipient of this special award, especially in a town where there are so many deserving individuals,” said Grob. “I find it wonderfully exciting to be able to work in such an inspiring and thought-provoking environment. I also strongly believe in the power of the arts and culture – including history – as a social and economic driver for building stronger communities.”  

To learn more about programming and events happening at KTM&HC, go to our website at www.keelertavernmuseum.org/events. For more information about volunteering at KTM&HC, go to www.keelertavernmuesum.org/support/volunteer.