The International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston is set to open in January 2023. Its location is within sight of Gadsden’s Wharf, once the largest slave port in the United States.
According to The Art Newspaper, the museum will “provide a comprehensive overview of the cultural, socioeconomic, and psychological history of slavery, and the ways in which it continues to impact today.” It will also serve as a guide for blacks to learn more about their ancestry. More specifically, they will be able to find out if their ancestors passed through Gadsden’s Wharf.
Tonya Matthews, President and CEO, is confident that the museum will be a valuable teaching tool for visitors.
“What a museum like this can bring is context: an understanding of the historical context of racism,” he said. “Charleston, in particular, is the right place to have these conversations. It’s a place where African Americans advanced, but it’s also where they pushed us back.”
Since there is more to our story than slavery, the museum will present other chapters of the black experience. Segments will focus on The Great Migration as well as black art that spans the eras. There will be nine galleries; one temporary, the other permanent.
The Art Newspaper explained, “The $125 million museum will occupy 150,000 square feet. It stands on 13-foot-tall pillars, which dramatically raise the structure above a memorial garden.”
To add to the eye-catching imagery, there will be a garden housing plants linked to the Caribbean, West Africa, and South Carolina.
The aim of the museum is not only to educate but to build bridges between the past and the present. Despite all the progress that has been made, some of the same problems remain when it comes to racism. The Art Newspaper rightly noted that “racial tensions are still high in Charleston.” Police brutality and racially motivated crime is still rampant across the country.
“Charleston has been at the center of these tough conversations since the founding of our nation,” Matthews said. “A museum that incorporates art into that conversation gives us another way to tell this story.”
Please consider supporting this important cultural center next year!
