Community Partners & Projects

Punto Urban Art Museum's Creative Neighbors Project

Community Engagement partnered with the Punto Urban Art Museum (PUAM) to support and expand their Creative Neighbors project. This initiative brings local and regional artists to create a series of murals in Salem's Point neighborhood. The theme for this year's murals, "Raíces | Roots," prompted 20 muralists to reflect on their heritage and the concept of being rooted. In addition to their large-scale murals, six artists will create accompanying canvas works for display at PEM. An artist talk will be held at PEM to celebrate this work and continue to build a bridge between the artists, the Point community and PEM on November 15. This project is an official part of Punto Urban Art Museum’s Salem 400+ offerings and the first event in PEM’s Salem 400+ programming.

35 Years of Community Exchange with Ōta, Japan

Salem has a longstanding international community engagement relationship through work with its sister city: Ōta City, Japan. Last summer, PEM welcomed the Ōta exchange cohort of 28 students into the Arts & Nature Center to create an origami quilt that will be on display on Essex Street as part of PEM’s Salem 400+ offerings. The visiting students also performed a traditional bon dance and sang with the community in East India Marine Hall as part of the closing ceremonies for their trip before returning to Japan. The family of our Director of Learning & Community Engagement, David Snider, even hosted one of the students during their stay.

Salem Woven Dreams with LEAP for Education

Community Engagement partnered with LEAP for Education on the Salem Woven Dreams summer enrichment program, exploring Salem’s rich tapestry of immigrant stories and experiences that shaped the city’s cultural landscape.

Artists for Humanity

Starting in the spring of 2025, PEM and Artists For Humanity (AFH) partnered on several activations around the museum, including interactive mural activities for Salem Arts Fest and a photo booth inspired by Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams. The 2025 Artists For Humanity Fellows worked with museum curators and other staff members to explore the work of Andrew Gn; the fellows then created their own work around the themes of fashion, design and sustainability titled Empire Waste.

For Empire Waste, the AFH fellows created mixed media sculptural works inspired by Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World, demonstrating how fashion and design can inspire artists across mediums. In their own words, "Empire Waste is a response to the aesthetics and rhetoric of sustainable fashion, particularly Andrew Gn’s vision of heirloom couture. While gesturing toward ornamentation and craftsmanship, this work pushes further — interrogating who sustains what, and at what cost." An educational display about this project was on view in PEM's Main Atrium from September 4–14, 2025, with an accompanying artists' talk and reception.

Salem YMCA, Collins Middle School and Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams

In the spring of 2025, Community Engagement partnered with the Salem YMCA and Collins Middle School to offer workshops based on the work of Korean artist Jung Yeondoo. Students created visual dreamscapes for themselves, based on an imagined future in which they could have anything their hearts desired, similar to Jung Yeondoo’s work Bewitched.

EforAll/EparaTodos

EforAll/EparaTodos strives to provide the necessary tools for under-resourced local entrepreneurs to get started on their business ventures by offering intensive business training, mentorship and an extended professional network. Their services are completely free and offered in both English and Spanish; their impact reaches a high percentage of women-, BIPOC- and immigrant-owned businesses. PEM has supported EforAll/EparaTodos by hosting their Spanish and English Pitch Contests, and the graduation and showcase for their Business Accelerator Program.