Post by LIFE AND DEATH on Aug 6, 2005 0:12:13 GMT -5
“A Call to Remember”: The Rise of Black Museums
By Esther Iverem, BET.com Contributing Critic
Posted Aug. 5, 2005 -- The story of African American museums in 2005 is a story of both challenges and progress. While several new Black museums, such as the Baltimore’s 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 te in Philadelphia and Detroit, are struggling to sustain themselves in an era of dwindling public resources for the arts and humanities.
This landscape of both obstacle and opportunity was the focus of this year’s annual conference of the Association of African American Museums, an organization representing dozens of museums around the country. Veteran and emerging museum professionals attended panels, workshops and tours at the meeting in Washington, D.C. designed to better equip them for their work at researching, preserving, exhibiting and teaching about various aspects of Black life. There are approximately 400 Black museums and exhibit spaces in the United States.
“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 Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture, which is in the planning stages for the nation’s 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 today’s museums. At the conference’s 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.
“I’m 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 don’t step outside ourselves,” said Mack. “We don’t appreciate the impact that we have had on the global culture.”
By Esther Iverem, BET.com Contributing Critic
Posted Aug. 5, 2005 -- The story of African American museums in 2005 is a story of both challenges and progress. While several new Black museums, such as the Baltimore’s 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 te in Philadelphia and Detroit, are struggling to sustain themselves in an era of dwindling public resources for the arts and humanities.
This landscape of both obstacle and opportunity was the focus of this year’s annual conference of the Association of African American Museums, an organization representing dozens of museums around the country. Veteran and emerging museum professionals attended panels, workshops and tours at the meeting in Washington, D.C. designed to better equip them for their work at researching, preserving, exhibiting and teaching about various aspects of Black life. There are approximately 400 Black museums and exhibit spaces in the United States.
“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 Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture, which is in the planning stages for the nation’s 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 today’s museums. At the conference’s 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.
“I’m 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 don’t step outside ourselves,” said Mack. “We don’t appreciate the impact that we have had on the global culture.”