On Monday night March 24, 2014, in a reception room on the 52nd floor of the 55 story Bank of America Tower in Manhattan, the Bank of America, represented by its’ Chief Executive Officer Brian Monyhan and other top executives, hosted a very special reception. The occasion celebrated the birth of the new Museum of African American History and Culture now under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Brian Monyhan opened the reception by announcing the Bank’s decision to contribute an additional 1 million dollars toward the project’s 500 million dollar budget. This contribution brings the total amount contributed by Bank of America to 2 million dollars and the total amount raised thus far for the project to 410 million dollars of the 500 million dollar budget. Groundbreaking for the museum took place 4 months ago and construction is well underway.
To commemorate the celebration, and in addition to the 1 million dollar contribution, Monyhan announced the gift to the museum of “Daufuskie Island”, the exhibition of photographs produced by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe during her photographic documentation of the Gullah culture thirty five years ago. The Gullah community had thrived as a society of freed African people who had been enslaved during the antebellum years on the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina. The slaveholders moved away from the islands during the civil war leaving the plantations in the care of the formerly enslaved Gullah people. At the close of the Civil War the Gullah people were given the opportunity to buy plots of land that had been subdivided by the union army for this explicit purpose. This community grew and prospered on the islands for many years in relative isolation after the war ended. In so doing the Gullah people were able to preserve “more of their original African language, and cultural heritage than any other community in the United States”. During the early twentieth century a series of natural disasters along with increasing contact with the outside world brought attention to the islands. Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe began the work of documenting the Gullah culture in 1977-1981 as the Gullah culture was about to be completely absorbed into the twentieth century world of tourism and mega-resorts. Twenty-five years later a collection of Moutoussamy-Ashe’s photographs was sponsored by Merrill Lynch as a traveling exhibition of the Gullah culture. The book “Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe” with Foreword by Alex Haley, was originally produced to accompany the traveling exhibition. This book has been updated with additional photographs from Moutoussamy-Ashe’s collection, a new Preface by Deborah Willis, Ph.D., and an epilogue by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe. The work came into the possession of Bank of America when the company acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009. As a result of the Bank of America’s gift of the exhibition to the museum this unique and priceless work of art by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, depicting the Gullah culture and the memory of the Gullah people, will now be preserved and secured into the distant future at the National Museum for African American History and Culture.
Lonnie Bunch, Director of the new museum, the man for whom the reception was held, spoke to the A-list gathering of board members, financial executives, business entrepreneurs, wealthy contributors, and to the scholars, historians, and artists who study and produce work in the African American culture, about his journey and his vision for the future of the museum.
In 2003 the indefatigable Congressman John Lewis, after 18 failed attempts, succeeded in moving his fellow congressmen to pass the act that created the National Museum of African American History and Culture as one of the museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution. The congressional act provided for the appropriation of $250 million in federal construction financing with another $250 million to come from the private sector to complete the $500 million budget. The museum is to be devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history, and culture.
Lonnie Bunch was named as the founding director of the new museum. Bunch is no neophyte to the museum business. During the 1980’s he was curator and program manager for the California Afro American Museum in Los Angeles which he helped to build. He has taught at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Bunch left his position as head of the Chicago Historical Society in 2005 to take the position of Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Now, nine years later, enough money has been raised to start the construction of the 380,000 sf, 5 story structure on the 5 acre site next to the Washington Monument at the National Mall. Construction completion is projected for early 2016.
It is worthwhile now to applaud the monumental achievement of Lonnie Bunch, his staff and all of the collaborators on this project in recognition of the accomplishment of an amazing task.
This is a major step toward systematically compiling a history of the lives, art, and culture of the African American People. This museum will allow us to collect our artifacts, music, art, and history and to tell our own story for the benefit of future generations. It is very appropriate that the first two artifacts to arrive for installation at the museum are a Jim Crow-era rail car, and a 1930’s guard tower from Angola, the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary.
I enclose a list of the private contributors toward the 250 million dollars necessary for the completion of the museum development. As Americans we can be as proud of them as we are of Lonnie Bunch and John Lewis.
The major focus remains on raising the $90 million balance that will be necessary to complete the financing of the museum development.
- Although construction continues over 30,000 artifacts have been contributed already for exhibition.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
DONNER LIST
$10 MILLION OR MORE
Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation,
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Lilly Endowment
$5 Million and above
American Express
Anonymous
The Boeing Company
The Ford Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
Target
United Health Group
Walmart
$2 Million or more
Bank of America
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Robert L. Johnson
W.K. Kellog Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
Carl W. and Amanda Stafford
Time Warner Foundation
United Technologies
The Walt Disney Company
$1 Million or more
3 M
Rodney and Michelle Adkins
Aflac, Incorporated
Dr. and Mrs. T.B. Boyd III and Family/The R.H.
Boyd Company
Caterpillar
Kenneth I. and Catherine Chenault
The Coca Cola Foundation
Goldman Sachs
The Hartford
Melody Hobson and George Lucas
IMB
James A. Johnson
Johnson Publishing Company
JP Morgan Chase
Robert and Arlene Kogod
The Reginal F. Lewis Foundation
The Links Foundation Incorporated
The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Family
Foundation
McDonalds Corporation
Jules L. and Juliette McNeil
Morgan Stanlye
Mark and Brenda Moore and Family
Richard D. and Laura A. Parson
Pepsico Foundation
Colin and Alma Powell
The Prudential Foundation
Franklin D. Raines
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock
Deborah Sara Santana
Gerald B. and Anita Smith Family
Patricia Q. Stonesifer and Michael E. Kinsley
Reginald Van Lee
Craig and Diane Welburn and Family
Anthony and Beatrice Welters
“Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty” a new exhibition opens on March 2, 2013 at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Washington. The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis, Ph.D., Visiting Fellow at the Henry Art Gallery and Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
