African American Museum Takes Shape On National Mall – Exhibit Preview Opens
The Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture, originally slated to open this year, is still under construction and on schedule to open next year.
As an introduction to the new museum’s collection, curators Jackie Serwer and Rhea L. Combs, created an exhibit at the National Museum of American History called “Through the African American Lens: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” which opens May 8.
“Through the African American Lens” exhibit gives a dynamic history that showcases the lives of African Americans from the Revolutionary era to date. It also offers an overall introduction to the new African American museum and a preview of its rich collection.
“It’s been a real challenge for us to take the museum’s roughly 400,000 square feet and reduce it down to 2,700 square feet,” Combs says.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a $500 million project, of which $476 million, in public and private funds, has been raised so far. Oprah Winfrey, a founding advisory council member since 2004, donated $12 million. The museum’s theater will be named in honor of Winfrey’s generosity.
“By investing in this museum, I want to help ensure that we both honor and preserve our culture and history, so that the stories of who we are will live on for generations to come,” Winfrey said in a statement.
In 2013, while the National Museum of African American History and Culture was still early in its construction, two large artifacts were installed. One of the installations was the Louisiana State Penitentiary prison tower to illustrate how the incarceration of blacks links to slavery.
The other large piece installed was a Pullman Company segregated Southern Railway train car made in 1922. The train car took 18 months to restore and cost the museum $800,000.
Because of the massive size of both pieces, each could only be installed during the construction phase of the museum.
“I was captivated by it,” said Lonnie Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “To be able to walk in and see a large compartment for the white community to go through a narrow passageway and suddenly you’re in a smaller Jim Crow section and I know we had to have it.”
The new African American museum’s exhibits will trace the history of Americans of African descent through slavery, segregation, civil rights, and segue to the wider culture including the arts, entertainment, and sports.
Located at the corner of 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s design represents more than an aesthetic appeal. Unlike most of the classical Washington buildings, the new museum’s design is intended to represent the craft of enslaved workers. Inspired by African headdress, architects designed the bronze-colored panels to resemble a crown in different lights.
“The strength of this museum is that it seeks to use African American culture as a lens to understand what it means to be an American,” Bunch said. “We’re all shaped by the African-American experience.”
[Image: Credit: Alex Wong / Staff]
