Like Atlas in ancient Greek mythology, Lonnie Bunch has an immense load to carry as founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is now under construction near the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
As Bunch enters the home-stretch of a decade-long drive to conceive, build and launch the 380,000-square-foot museum, which is expected to open by summer 2016, what he’s shouldered has the potential to turn into a keg of cultural dynamite.
No American issue has been bigger, harder, more wrenching or enduring than race. None is more explosive. But where Atlas strained and groaned, Bunch, 61, exudes enthusiasm and an easygoing, friendly aplomb. Nine years into his job, his risky task only seems to enliven him.
The African American experience, says the smiling, round-faced historian, curator and museum administrator, “is the lens through which we understand what it is to be an American. In some ways, the African American experience is the quintessential American experience.”
Like many facets of the museum he’s shepherding, that statement could itself be debated. But it’s a point Bunch can stand behind. All great national sagas are about struggle and aspiration. More than 400 years after the arrival on the continent of Africans who would become slaves, by some clear measures the experience of African Americans remains just that — a struggle.
How to encompass it in exhibitions is something Bunch began thinking about systematically when he left his first museum job at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to become the first history curator of the California African American Museum, which opened in 1984 in L.A.’s Exposition Park.
Bunch subsequently spent 12 years at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where he headed the curatorial department, then acquired experience as a chief executive at the Chicago Historical Society (now known as the Chicago History Museum).
In December 2003, Congress enacted a bill creating the national African American museum, pledging to fund half the cost of construction and installing exhibits — which will come to about $255 million of a $510 million total. The museum also will receive about $40 million a year in government funding for operations after it opens.
Bunch, who began as director in 2005, says about $65 million remains to be raised toward the private share. He’s hired a staff of 150 people; with help from outside scholars, Bunch and his curatorial team have brainstormed over how best to make sense of the African American experience for an expected public of 3 million or more annual visitors, plus tens of millions more online.
Instead of siphoning objects from existing Smithsonian collections, the African American museum set about building its own collection from scratch. A whites-only lunch counter from a crucial 1960 civil rights sit-in in Greensboro, N.C., will remain at the National Museum of American History, where Bunch says it serves an important purpose in an appropriate context. Instead, the African American museum has acquired 35,000 artifacts, photographs and documents of its own, many tracked down in a series of “Antiques Roadshow”-like events around the country that offered free expert advice on how to preserve African American heirlooms.
Oprah Winfrey, Chuck Berry and Bill and Melinda Gates have made significant contributions of money or things, but so have others of more humble means. Bunch says he was especially moved when a woman brought in a Croix de Guerre, a coveted French medal for combat valor, that was awarded to her grandfather in 1919 for serving with the Harlem Hellfighters, a black American regiment that fought with distinction during World War I under French command.
People have given, Bunch said, because “everybody knows how big a deal this is.” He estimates that two-thirds of the collection has been donated.
Collection pieces range in size from a 2-inch amulet shaped like a slave shackle that was worn in West Africa centuries ago as a talisman against being seized by slavers, to the Mothership, a huge space-craft that was the signature stage prop for 1970s arena concerts by funk-rock maestro George Clinton and his band, Parliament-Funkadelic.
“Let’s just say there will be sound and lights,” Bunch said with a chuckle, when asked how the Mothership will be deployed in a museum gallery.
The exhibits won’t flinch from the most tragic episodes in African American history, Bunch assured, but they will aim to show how tragedy has been channeled into a drive for progress and change. His guiding principle is to make the museum about people more than events.
“We want to bring everything to a human scale. Rather than coming and saying you’ve learned about slavery, you’ll say, ‘I’ve learned about people who went through that experience.'”
One of the 11 core exhibits covers events since 1968, and, with collection items that include gang bandannas, it won’t omit the anguishing reality of violence, the physical and social ravages of crack addiction, or the repercussions of drug laws that sent astonishing numbers of inner-city blacks to prison for nonviolent offenses.
Bunch said the museum can and will take on any controversy, including fresh ones such as the killing of Trayvon Martin, the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo., or the recently rekindled call for a national discussion of reparations to African Americans for their ancestors’ labor.
“I don’t think there is a story or subject that we won’t touch,” Bunch said. “It’s a question of how you do it. Our job is not to force-feed people but to help them understand the [historic] context and bring real knowledge to the debate.”
Bunch said he knew going in that this wouldn’t be easy. One of the first people he called when he was offered the job was W. Richard West Jr., who’d taken a similar ride over comparable historical terrain as founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
“I said, ‘OK, is this a fool’s errand or what?'” Bunch recalled this week during a stopover in L.A. in which he was feted at the Getty Museum and gave a talk for the Town Hall Los Angeles discussion series — all part of the promotional phase that’s begun for the African American museum.
West, who’s now president of the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, said that like the American Indian museum, the African American one will give the nation both a centralized podium for pride in a group’s achievements and a forum for painful but necessary conversations about injustices past and present.
“These spaces should be safe places for unsafe ideas,” West said, and because sharp criticism is inevitable, running one is not a job for anyone who has a thin skin or a hot temper.
“[Bunch] has a clear conception of what he is trying to accomplish, and he will defend it as he should in the face of criticism from whatever quarter it may come,” West said. “And it will come.”
That’s for later. For now, Bunch can talk about the museum’s support in Congress from across the political spectrum, and how it has managed so far to avoid being turned into “a political football.”
“It’s the story that helps us understand how freedom comes, how citizenship is gained,” he said. “It’s hard for anybody to be against that.”
He can enjoy moments such as the recent morning in L.A. when he visited his former professional home, the California African American Museum, for the first time in nearly a decade. Vida Brown, an art curator, introduced herself as someone he wouldn’t remember, but told him he’d made a big difference in her life in the mid-1980s, when she was fresh out of Pepperdine and working in the insurance business while volunteering on weekends as a guide in the museum galleries.
Before each history show opened, Brown recalled, Bunch would walk the guides through the exhibition, explaining the objects and their themes.
“He was a great storyteller,” Brown said. “He always put his explanations in a format you could remember. I thought, ‘If I move forward in the art arena, I want to be like him in the sense of how he told stories, how he approached people, and how he made them feel.'”
It won’t be too long before Bunch gets the rare opportunity of approaching people by the millions, through the museum he is now shaping. One way or another, he’ll find out how he’s made them feel.
FRENCH VERSION
Comme Atlas dans la mythologie grecque, Lonnie Bunch a une immense charge à transporter comme directeur fondateur de la Smithsonian National Museum of African American History et de la Culture, qui est maintenant en cours de construction près du Monument de Washington sur le National Mall à Washington, D.C.
Comme bouquet entre dans la maison-stretch d’un disque depuis dix ans pour concevoir, construire et lancer le Musée 380 000 pi2, qui devrait ouvrir en 2016 l’été, ce qu’il a assumé a le potentiel de se transformer en un baril de dynamite culturel.
Sans descendance américaine a été plus grand, plus fort, plus déchirante ou immuable que la race. Aucun n’est plus explosive. Mais où Atlas tendues et gémit, tas, 61, respire l’enthousiasme et un aplomb facile à vivre, amical. Neuf ans après son travail, sa tâche risquée ne semble animer lui.
L’expérience afro-américaine, dit le sourire, visage rond historien, conservateur et administrateur du Musée, “est la lentille à travers laquelle nous comprenons ce que c’est d’être un américain. À certains égards, l’expérience américaine africaine est l’expérience américaine par excellence. »
Comme de nombreuses facettes du Musée qu’il est Berger, cette déclaration pourrait lui-même être débattue. Mais c’ est un tas de point peuvent se tenir derrière. Toutes les sagas de nationales grands parlent de lutte et d’aspiration. Plus de 400 ans après l’arrivée sur le continent d’africains qui allait devenir les esclaves, par certains clear mesure l’expérience des Afro-américains reste juste que — une lutte.
Comment il englobe dans les expositions est quelque chose tas a commencé à penser systématiquement quand il a quitté son premier emploi de musée à la Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum de devenir le premier conservateur de l’histoire de la Californie African American Museum, ouvert en 1984 dans le parc d’Exposition de Los Angeles.
Tas a par la suite passé 12 ans à la Smithsonian National Museum of American History, où il dirige le département curatorial, puis a acquis de l’expérience comme un chef de l’exécutif à la Chicago Historical Society (maintenant connu comme le Musée d’histoire de Chicago).
En décembre 2003, le Congrès a adopté un projet de loi créant le Musée afro-américain national, s’engageant à financer la moitié du coût de la construction et l’installation des pièces — qui va venir à environ $ 255 millions sur un total de $ 510 millions. Le Musée recevra également environ $ 40 millions par année financière gouvernementale aux opérations après l’ouverture.
Tas, qui a débuté en tant que directeur en 2005, explique environ $ 65 millions reste à être soulevé vers le partage en privé. Il a embauché une équipe de 150 personnes ; avec l’aide de spécialistes extérieurs, tas et son équipe de conservateurs ont réfléchi sur la meilleure façon de donner un sens de l’expérience américaine africaine pour un public attendu de 3 millions ou plus de visiteurs annuels, plus des dizaines de millions de plus en ligne.
Au lieu de siphonnage d’objets provenant des collections existantes de Smithsonian, le Musée afro-américain se mit à construire sa propre collection à partir de zéro. Un comptoir-lunch blancs uniquement d’un sit-in de droits civiques de 1960 crucial à Greensboro, Caroline du Nord, restera à la National Museum of American History, où tas dit qu’elle sert un but important dans un contexte approprié. Au lieu de cela, le Musée afro-américain a acquis 35 000 artéfacts, de photographies et de documents de ses propres, beaucoup traqué dans une série de « Antiques Roadshow »-comme des manifestations dans tout le pays qui offre gratuitement des conseils experts sur la conservation des héritages africain-américains.
Oprah Winfrey, Chuck Berry et Bill et Melinda Gates ont apporté d’importantes contributions d’argent ou de choses, mais si ont d’autres moyens plus humble. Bouquet dit il était particulièrement ému quand une femme est amenée dans une Croix de Guerre, une médaille convoitée Français pour combat valor, qui a été attribué à son grand-père en 1919 pour servir avec le Harlem Hellfighters, un américain noir régiment qui se distingua pendant la première guerre mondiale sous commandement Français.
Personnes ont donné, tas dit, car « tout le monde sait comment grand une affaire, c’est ». Il estime que les deux-tiers de la collection a été donnée.
Collection pièces taille varie d’une amulette de 2 pouces en forme comme une Manille d’esclave qui a été portée en Afrique de l’ouest il y a comme un talisman contre la saisie par les négriers, pour le vaisseau-mère, un énorme vaisseau spatial qui a été la scène de signature siècles prop pour des années 70 concerts arena par funk-rock maestro George Clinton et sa bande, Parliament-Funkadelic.
« Disons qu’il y aura des sons et lumières, » tas dit en riant, quand on lui demande comment le vaisseau-mère sera déployé dans une galerie du Musée.
Les expositions ne broncha des épisodes plus tragiques dans l’histoire afro-américaine, tas assurée, mais ils aura pour but de montrer comment la tragédie a été canalisée dans un lecteur pour le progrès et le changement. Son principe est de faire le Musée sur le peuple plus d’événements.
“Nous voulons tout mettre à l’échelle humaine. Plutôt que de venir et de dire vous avez appris sur l’esclavage, vous allez dire, « J’ai appris sur les gens qui ont vécu cette expérience. » »
Une des 11 principales expositions événements couvre depuis 1968 et, avec les éléments de la collection qui incluent gang bandann
