![]() “I do recognise how important it is symbolically to be on the Mall,” Sasaki said in an interview. The Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building, which has been broached as a potential site for a Latino or women's history museum © Ron Blunt Architectural Photography A site on the Mall near the Washington Monument and across from the African American museum was mentioned for both new museums, raising the potential for conflict similarly, the Smithsonian’s existing Romanesque Arts & Industries Building, dating from 1881, was proposed as a site for the Latino museum in the legislation but is now being weighed by the women’s history museum as well, says Lisa Sasaki, the latter’s interim director. The legislation suggested four potential Mall sites for consideration for the Latino museum and three for the women’s history museum, but made clear that “any other appropriate location” could be chosen. The remaining acreage on Washington’s National Mall, which Bunch described as “the promised land” in his book, is limited, and some of it is controlled by federal agencies like the National Park Service or the Department of Agriculture that may resist yielding the space. Yet the biggest challenge may be deciding where each museum will be built. The National Museum of African American History and Culture, near the Washington Monument Alan Karchmer, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution “I really want that kind of raw duality from the leadership, and I will work with them to make sure that happens,” says Bunch, a historian. ![]() While the new museums will celebrate the accomplishments and resiliency of American women and Latinos, they will also present painful, unvarnished stories about US history and American identity paralleling the narratives about slavery and racial segregation featured at the African American museum. For now, both embryonic institutions are overseen by interim leaders.Ī crucial qualification will be “stamina” for a process that could last 10 years or more, he says, as well as a recognition that each museum is a “two-sided coin”. Half of the money for the museums will be allocated by Congress and half will be raised privately: estimates vary widely, but each is expected to cost significantly more than the $540m African American museum.īunch says that a search is under way for the directors and that he hopes to name both-“people who have a vision, who have a passion” for Latino and women’s history, and ideally a talent for fund-raising-by the end of the year. “I will be very cognisant of the bureaucracy, trying to make sure that when things need to get pushed through, they are.” “I will not micromanage, but I will be a resource” for the directors, Bunch said in an interview. Previously he was the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Stephen Voss, Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Having been appointed in 2019 to lead the entire Smithsonian-19 museums, 21 libraries and the National Zoo as well as research centres and education units-as secretary, Bunch now has sweeping institutional clout in addition to the know-how he acquired in negotiating with Congress, wary donors and an architectural team to make the African American museum a reality. Legislation creating the museums was approved by Congress last December after decades-long campaigns by proponents. Now, the Smithsonian faces the gargantuan task of launching two more museums, the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women’s History Museum, and Bunch is determined to help their future directors navigate the bureaucratic and financial hurdles. “Often it felt as if the group’s function was to criticise, grouse and stonewall while wringing their hands at the task before them.” Bunch prevailed, opening the majestic $540m museum designed by David Adjaye in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and it has proved a resounding success with visitors and scholars. ![]() “To me, the gathering should have been named the ‘slow it down, we did not really want to do this’ committee,” the African American museum’s founding director wrote. At the time, the museum, approved by Congress in 2003, had no site, architect, staff, collection or budget. In his book A Fool’s Errand, the often-harrowing tale of his 11-year mission to create the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lonnie Bunch recalls sitting down with a Smithsonian Institution oversight committee to discuss planning.
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