OUR MISSION
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum explores and preserves the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all.
OUR VALUES
Relevance
We provide meaningful and accessible experiences to all of our communities and constituencies.
Authenticity
We seek to represent genuinely the people and cultures whose stories we preserve and tell.
Stewardship
We value the priceless assets entrusted to us—our collections, our campus and facilities, our financial resources—and accept their preservation and enhancement as our paramount responsibility. We support the volunteers and staff who perform our mission and make CBMM the rich enterprise it is.
OUR VISION
As a vital community partner and industry leader, CBMM will create engaging, immersive, and transformative experiences that educate and inspire individuals throughout the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond.
OUR IMPACT
By engaging in high-quality experiences that meet a variety of needs, CBMM’s audiences will:
- Connect stories of the Chesapeake Bay to their own lives.
- Value the history, environment, and culture of the region.
- Act as stewards and advocates of the Bay and its cultural and environmental resources.
OUR COMMUNITY
Recognizing that we all play a critical role in the success of our communities, CBMM strives to be an active community partner to help enhance where we live, work, and play. In addition to sharing the cultural heritage that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay region, CBMM is dedicated to forging and maintaining local partnerships to help improve business and community, to supporting local nonprofits through donations and fundraising, and to supporting community organizations through employees’ public service or volunteering.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, ACCESSIBILITY, INCLUSION
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has a history of cultivating an accessible and inclusive culture but recognizes that it is critical to make a meaningful and significant investment of resources to ensure a more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive CBMM.
In 2020, in a commitment to making meaningful and systemic change, the CBMM Board of Governors approved the formation of a Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Committee. The committee provides the internal guidance necessary to guarantee that these principles are fostered, practiced, and integrated consistently throughout CBMM’s operations.
The charter of the DEAI committee follows guidance from the American Alliance of Museums and resources from the group Museum as Site for Social Action to align CBMM with the best practices of comparable museums and cultural institutions. In addition to developing a DEAI plan to make CBMM a more inclusive institution, the committee is tasked with measuring and tracking progress by department to ensure expected and desirable outcomes. A diverse board and staff enable CBMM to develop relevant and authentic programs that engage a broad public. CBMM’s Board of Governors also works with the committee to prioritize board diversity and to ensure that the selection of its members is a fair and inclusive process.
As part of upholding the principles of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, CBMM has made it a priority to examine and implement strategies to increase the accessibility of our campus, programs, and resources. To that end, the new Welcome Center slated for completion in 2023 has been designed to be fully ADA compliant and to provide equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience.
We are in the process of developing our next strategic plan, which will help guide CBMM over the next five years. The plan will serve as a roadmap, at the heart of which are CBMM’s mission, values, vision, and goals. Stay tuned!
