The long-awaited International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, was scheduled to open in January 2023, but has now been delayed.
According to a December 19 statement from museum organizers, temperature issues inside the building caused the delay: “Due to challenges related to temperature and humidity control of the building, we have decided to postpone the opening of the International Museum. Afro-American”. The statement explained that with the delicate artifacts in the museum, the building must meet “the necessary and strict conditions that a museum requires to protect our most sensitive objects.”
A new opening date has yet to be announced, but the museum is aiming for the first half of 2023.
The 150,000-square-foot museum will be located on Gadsden’s Wharf, which Revolutionary War patriot christopher gadsden built in the 1760s.
According to the Associated Press, an estimated 40 percent of the enslaved people transported to the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries crossed Gadsden Wharf on foot. During the last years of the international slave trade from 1803 to 1807, more than 70,000 enslaved Africans were transported to Gadsden’s Wharf.
The museum has taken 20 years to build, costs $125 million, and will include nine exhibition galleries, an “African Ancestors Memorial Garden” and an ocean view.
