Mashantucket — The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center announced Friday that it will close during the winter months, a period during which it will begin recruiting a “formal” board of directors.

The museum will close Dec. 1 and will remain closed through April.

“Like many other cultural attractions in New England that experience seasonal fluctuations in attendance,” officials said in a statement, the museum will close to the public during “its slow season.”

“The closure presents opportunities to focus our energy and resources on long-term strategic planning, strengthening the organization’s funding model, and conducting important maintenance and repair activities that can’t be done while the building is open to the public,” Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, said in a statement.

The council and museum staff will begin recruiting directors to oversee governance of the museum, fundraising and development. The council oversees management of the Mashantuckets’ Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Museum researchers will continue their work while the museum is closed to the public. Ongoing studies include work on the “Battlefields of the Pequot War” project, for which the museum has received federal grants totaling more than $360,000. Research into Indian mariners and other work also will continue, the museum said.

The museum’s library catalog will continue to be available online at www.MPMRC.com, and its research library and archival collections will be accessible by appointment. The museum also will continue to be available for private and corporate functions during the seasonal closure.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

 

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck