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Summer Wanderings 2005:
Black Museums Face Change
and Challenges
By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor
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Black Museums
on the Move
Several new African American museums have opened
or are in the planning stages. Here is a snapshot of some
of them:
National History
Four sites in Washington, DC, including the existing Arts
and Industries building on the National Mall, are being considered
for The National Museum of African American History
and Culture, which was established in December 2003
when President Bush signed legislation designating it as part
of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum will be, according
to its literature, "devoted exclusively to the documentation
of African American life, art, history and culture."
The site study is expected to be completed by late this year
and the site for the new museum is expected to be chosen in
early 2006.
www.si.edu/nmaahc
Maryland Blacks
Baltimores new Reginald F. Lewis Museum of
Maryland African American History and Culture is
designed to highlight the contributions of Black Maryland
residents. Its three permanent galleries are "Building
Maryland, Building America," "The Strength of the
Mind" and "Things Hold, Lines Connect." The
$34 million building is located adjacent to the city's Inner
Harbor and features four levels of exhibition, classroom and
theater space. It is named for Lewis, a native of Baltimore,
who overcame a "semi-tough" neighborhood and became
owner and CEO of the international division of Beatrice Foods,
which became known as TLC Beatrice International. www.africanamericanculture.org
Soul Music
The original site in Memphis of the legendary Stax Records,
recording label for Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers and Otis
Redding, is the home for The Stax Museum of American
Soul Music. More than 2,000 cultural artifacts, music
exhibits, and items of memorabilia are displayed in 17,000
square feet of space designed to preserve and promote the
legacy of American soul music, particularly that of Stax Records.
Other soul music labels and artists are also featured, including
that of Muscle Shoals, Motown, Atlantic, and Hi Records. http://www.soulsvilleusa.com
Pittsburgh Pride
Pittsburghs new African-American Cultural Center,
located in the citys downtown, will emphasize the tremendous
impact that citys African American community has made
on the country and world. Museum organizers are especially
excited to highlight the citys musicians and artists,
and well as its proud history of Black newspapers and Negro
League baseball. The four-story, $33 million center, scheduled
to break ground in the near future, will include galleries,
theater spaces, classrooms, a "sky lobby" restaurant
and the International Center for Africana Music.
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WASHINGTON—The story of African American museums in 2005
is a story of both challenges and progress. While several new Black
museums, such as the Baltimores new Reginald F. Lewis Museum
of Maryland African American History and Culture, are opening or
are slated to open, dozens of existing institutions around the country,
including those in Philadelphia and Detroit, are struggling to sustain
themselves in an era of dwindling public resources for the arts
and humanities.
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| Artifacts from
the exhibit "A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta
Marie"at Baltimore's Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland
African American History and Culture. |
This landscape of both obstacle and opportunity was the focus of
this years annual conference of the Association of African American
Museums, an organization representing more than 260 museums around
the country. Veteran and emerging museum professionals attended
panels, workshops and tours at the meeting here, July 27-30, in
Washington, D.C. designed to better equip them for their work at
researching, preserving, exhibiting and teaching about various aspects
of Black life.
"You can tell a great deal about a country or a people by
what they deem important enough to remember, what they build monuments
to celebrate, and what graces the walls of their museums,"
said Lonnie C. Bunch, director of the Smithsonians National
Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture, which
is in the planning stages for the nations capital. "Yet
I would argue that we learn even more about a country by what it
chooses to forget. This desire to omit—to forget disappointments,
moments of evil, and great missteps is both natural and instructive.
It is often the essence of African American culture that is forgotten
or downplayed. And yet, it is also the African American experience
that is a clarion call to remember."
Bunch made his comments at a luncheon last Thursday on the first
day of the gathering, which also focused on the changing landscape
for todays museums. At the conferences opening session,
four generations of Black museum professionals offered their take
on "The Changing Museum Environment." Rowena Stewart,
a veteran of the field who has served as executive director of several
institutions, including the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City,
Mo. and the Motown Historical Museum in Detroit, said that more
and more Black museums are catering to the travel and tourism industry.
"Im concerned that many of our institutions are less
concerned with historical significance and more concerned with entertainment,"
said Stewart, who now works as an independent museum consultant.
"Many museums are sound fiscally but are not connected to
the community."
At the other end of the generational spectrum, Joy Bailey, a museum
consultant who was born in 1977 and considers herself a child of
music video culture, outlined various trends impacting the Black
museum world, including expansion of tourism-related historic sites
of the Civil Rights era, music museums, large scale preservation
and interpretation of historic sites, the construction of new, architecturally
distinct museum buildings and also international "sites of
conscience," such as the District Six Museum in Capetown,
South Africa, which tells the story of a community of 60,000 Blacks
razed by the government in 1965 in order to create a Whites-only
community.
Deborah L. Mack, also a consultant, revealed how African American
history and culture is sometimes presented by institutions without
consultation with African Americans. "If we are not engaged
in shaping that legacy and history, it will be shaped by someone
else, often without our input at all," Mack said.
Mack added that one great challenge of the new National Museum
of African American Museum of History and Culture, is to actually
define what is an African American. She said that Black museums
today must discard outdated notions about who or what the Black
museum "audience" is, welcome other communities that
are interested in touring Black museums, and explore the African
American impact on the world.
"Sometimes we dont step outside ourselves," said Mack.
"We dont appreciate the impact that we have had on the global
culture."
This museum report by Esther Iverem report first appeared on
www.BET.com.
— September 2, 2005
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