[two_third padding=”0 30px 0 0px”]9 Things You Need to Know About the National Mall’s Newest Museum
BY KRISTON CAPPS | CITYLAB
When it finally opens its doors, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will be one of the most contradictory institutions on the National Mall.
[dropcap]Ten[/dropcap] years ago, the National Museum of African American History and Culture had a staff of two. There was no site locked down for the building. No design attached to it. And no stuff to put in it.
“We knew we were going to have to raise millions of dollars, but we didn’t have a penny to our name,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s director since 2005, during a press conference this week. ”And also, unlike most museums, we didn’t have a single artifact in our collection.”
The latest addition to the National Mall is, as Bunch put it, “Ten years in the making, and 100 years in the making.” Today, the National Museum of African American History and Culture already employs 120 full-time staffers. Its collection numbers around 33,000 artworks and historical objects. And the museum’s leadership has raised nearly $476 million in public and private funds.
When it finally opens its doors, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will be one of the most contradictory institutions on the National Mall.
Still, the Museum—that’s what NMAAHC staffers call it, “The Museum”—lacks a concrete opening date. A press conference held Thursday to introduce the new museum fell just shy of a hard-hat tour. While construction crews are working day-in and day-out, the building is unfinished and behind schedule.
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NATION MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum established in 2003. The museum’s building, designed by David Adjaye, is currently under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Early efforts to establish a federally owned museum featuring African American history and culture can be traced to 1915, although the modern push for such an organization did not begin until the 1970s.
After years of little success, a much more serious legislative push began in 1988 that led to authorization of the museum in 2003. A site was selected in 2006, and a museum design approved in 2009. President Barack Obama helped break ground for the building on February 22, 2012. First concrete was poured in November 2012, and construction will be complete in April 2016. Smithsonian officials have announced that the museum will open on September 24, 2016. WIKIPEDIA[/one_third_last]READ MORE CITYLAB
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