African American Museum Exhibition Design

Built for African American students in 1919, the school is being adapted to serve as an African American museum and cultural center. Photo: Joshua Biggs

African American Museum Exhibition Design

African American museum exhibition design, museum master planning, museum strategic planning, museum operational planning, of the Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center.

Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center (IAAMCC) Description

African American Museum Exhibition Design PDF

The Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center  (working title) is an interactive museum and community resource dedicated to promoting dialogue on the issues of African American history, diversity, equality, accessibility, and inclusion. More than just a Museum, the Interactive African American Museum, and Cultural Center is a center for social justice and societal change. The Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center will educate, inspire, support civil society and societal change through theatrical events, community outreach, pop-up exhibits, online programming, and in-person interactive exhibits.

The Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center values social reform, civic discourse, pubic discussions, and social justice. The Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center will be a dynamic cultural hub and a National resource for African American History.

Persona

Interactive African American Museum & Cultural Center Persona “Willie”

Willie is a fourteen-year-old Black teenager. He lives with his mother in a small city in Indiana. Most of his classmates are white, and Willie doesn’t have many white friends at school. Willie likes history, math, and technology classes. He keeps lots of music playlists, and enjoys Instagram and playing games on his phone. He loved visiting his aunt in Los Angeles last summer and hopes he can return this summer.

Sometimes at school, Willie feels “lesser than” other students. Though his mother is an accountant at a local business, they aren’t wealthy. He can’t afford the brand-name clothing many of his classmates wear.

What does it mean to be Black in a primarily white community?

Willie often faces an undercurrent of racism, including the way non-Black people look at him and speak with him. He sometimes overhears overtly racist comments from white classmates at school.

What does the Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center mean for him? 

His mother purchased a yearly museum membership for $120, which provides online and in-person classes. Willie would like to become an influencer, and the museum’s media lab helps him learn new software and make videos. He loves the museum’s website and plans to buy a MIDI module for his computer through a group buy on the museum forum. He is less interested in the museum’s maker space, but he has made a couple of friends who take classes at the maker space.

The Interactive African American Museum and Cultural Center gives Willie a “voice” beyond communicating his feelings and thoughts through videos, podcasts, and motion graphics. The museum gives him a “place,” allowing him to ask and ponder the answers to the following questions: What does it mean to be an African American? How am I different from others? How am I the same? How can I talk about African American history? How can I speak about implicit bias?

This week, Willie sees that a group of local designers is putting on an event in the Cultural Center, and he will come back on Friday to experience it. Also, his friends have asked if he would like to be part of an art project for an upcoming digital exhibition at the museum. When Willie was in Los Angeles, his aunt gave him fifty dollars, and he decided to invite his friends to the café for a soda after the event to talk about their art project.

Willie has an emotional connection to the museum and has a sense of trust for the people who work at the museum. He feels the museum’s voice is helpful in promoting his point of view. Sometimes he goes on the museum forum to ask questions or give his point of view. It means that he has a voice and a place to be a young Black man growing up in a primarily white community; a place where he can be proud of his heritage and thoughtful about his future. The museum is always new and constantly changing, and though not all the events appeal to him, he enjoys seeing his friends and discussing what is going on with them.

Museum Goals and Foundations

The objective of museums is to create emotional and intellectual transformative experiences that build self and civil society. Museums offer:

• Personal connections—Catalyzing wonder, interest, and a sense of identity; feelings that foster a sense of belonging and long-term engagement.
• Intellectual empowerment—Facilitating curiosity and learning, and the ability to utilize knowledge in the service of solving societal challenges.
• Social cohesion—Making it possible for all sectors of a community to experience learning as a natural and integral part of their family, group, and community’s heritage and life experience.
• Physical security—Ensuring that all users have opportunities to gather (physically or virtually), interact, explore, and learn within a safe, healthy, anxiety-free, and restorative environment.

Adapted from John Falk, The Value of Museums: Enhancing Social Well-Being (Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).

Keywords:

1. African American Museum
2. African American Cultural Center
3. School segregation in the United States
4. African American Segregated Schools

Museum Planning Process Diagram

Museum Planning LLC Process PDF

Technology Narrative:

• Plus smartphone for ticketing and “My Story”
• Plus Website and Online Digital Experiences, At home Supermarket
• “Native” Tik-Tok, YouTube, Instagram, Blended between in-person and at-home

1. My Story

2. Introduction, Art Gallery and History Lab

3. History Lab

4. Media Center

5. Maker Space

Description; MIDI Studio, Recording Studio, Raspberry Pi,  Arduino, FreeCodeCamp, Code for Girls, 3D Printing, Software Teaching Lab, and

Museum School

6. Cultural Center and Art Gallery

7. Exterior Projection Mapping Show

Audience Diagrams:

Interactive African American Museum

Notes:

• Advisors, Fort Worth, Indiana, AAAM, NSF, IMLS
• NPS number of segregated schools USA
• Include revenue from programming

Resources:

1. Media Studio (Music Recording, YouTube, Podcasts)
2. MIDI Studio
3. Quadcopter Studio
4. 3D Studio
5. Software Studio
6. Raspberry Pi and Arduino
7. Clothing Design Studio
8. Include Sister Organizations

Initial Client Contact December 8, 2021

1. Museum Master Plan, Museum Experience Design, Visual Identity, and Renderings $28,000
2. Community Assessment $14,000
3. Museum Strategic Plan $24,000
4. Museum Business Plan $24,000
5. $90,000 Retainer, July 2022 Deliverable
6. Exhibition Design TBD
7. Project Management TBD
8. Exhibition Evaluation TBD

Artwork included in renderings by African American artists;