In 2003, George Bush approved legislation to add the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to the Smithsonian Institution. The Museum will open in 2015 on the Mall adjacent to the Washington Monument.
The appointment of Lonnie Bunch as Director and Kinshasha Holman Conwill as Deputy Director tells me good things are going to happen in this space.
In fact, good things are already happening. NMAAHC is using new media in all kinds of exciting ways to capture the stories of African American families:
- The Memory Book is a space for you to upload personal memories in the form of a story, an image or an audio recording. "Beandeary" created the amazing collage you see above. Look for it in The Memory Book section on the NMAAHC website.
- The Save Our African American Treasures initiative collects and preserves African American material culture. In other words, objects and buildings. Go up into your attic and see what you've got! SI experts will be traveling to major cities to speak about this project.
- African American Legacy Recordings will be added to the extensive collection of African American song, music and spoken word recordings at the Smithsonian. The first two were released in Spring of 2007 and you can find them on the museum website.
- The StoryCorps Griot project is collecting stories of the everyday lives of African Americans. "Griot" is a word that comes from West Africa, and it refers to a person who passes on community tradition through music, dance and storytelling. Check out the website to see where StoryCorps Griot will be next!
I've seen museums dedicate more resources toward community involvement over the last few years, but I've never seen such a comprehensive effort at such an early stage nor such a massive "new media" program. It's pretty unique. You can learn more about all of these projects here.
WOW, thanks for the info!
Posted by: adrienne | October 25, 2007 at 04:10 PM