NOAAM re-opens in Treme’
15th April 2019 · 0 Comments
By David T. Baker
Contributing Writer
The New Orleans African American Museum of Art, History and Culture (NOAAM) re-opened its doors last week, on a new campus, after being closed since 2013.
The two-story museum’s grand re-opening event welcomed the masses to see the new facility as well as view the opening of the facility’s first public exhibition, “Everywhere We Are | Everywhere We Go: Black Space and Geographies,” hosted in Geographies,” hosted in partnership with Tulane University’s Amistad Research Center and runs through the end of 2019.
The museum showcases African history from the 1700s to 1900s, historical art and artifacts that showcase how African history connects to New Orleans culture. Gia Hamilton, executive director and chief curator of NOAAM, said that the museum is not only a place for people to learn their history, but also for them to gather in community.
“We want our folks to feel excited, activate the space together, and envision the future with me and the board because this is going to be a community effort in order for this to come back to life,” Hamilton said.
The museum was founded was founded in 1996, and the original, main campus of the museum is an early 19th century mansion called the Meilleur-Goldthwaite House or Villa Meilleur, which sits directly across the street at 1418 Gov. Nicholls St.).
The main campus was set to undergo a renovation and, in 2011, received $3 million from the City of New Orleans through a federal grant, money which was part of a projected $6 million renovation, which included the purchase of the new facility. In 2013, due to financial and structural issues, the museum closed its doors and remains closed to this day. No timeline has been announced for a reopening of the main campus and the museum is still raising money to fund the main campus’ renovation and reopening.
“Highlighting African-American history is not only very important for Louisiana but it is important for the world,” said Michael Griffin, chairman of the museum’s Board of Directors and CEO of Daughters of Charity. “The history of jazz, food culture, and so many other things that African Americans have contributed to the world from New Orleans is not only an African-American story but it is an American story that is important for everybody to hear and know what we’ve contributed to so many cultures.”
NOAAM formed National Advisory Committee headed by Marc H. Morial, and the expertise of Gia Hamilton, our new Executive Director and Chief Curator. Collectively, I am confident that these individuals will help position NOAAM to become recognized worldwide.”
Though the museum has struggled financially in the past, Hamilton said that this new beginning is one of preparing for the museum to last a lifetime and has a collection management plan for a permanent collection.
Hamilton is currently working with Paper Monuments on NOAAM’s next exhibition, “Claiming Space,” which is scheduled to run May 9 through July 31. The exhibit will feature 10 commissioned works and 40 historical posters showcasing art designed to “dismantle racism and imagine memorialized spaces in New Orleans and beyond.”
In the Fall, through a partnership with Afrofuture Society, the museum will showcase “Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero,” following its return from Miami Art Basel 2018. According to as an expanded show of contemporary visual, performance-based and new media artists, who will transform the space within the museum to “imagine the future of New Orleans and blackness.” That exhibition will run from September 13 to December 15.
“We really have grounded through our food, art forms, our cultural expressions, we really grounded the culture of American culture,” Hamilton said, “and you really can’t understand American history without understanding our history and culture specifically in New Orleans.”
“This is really ground zero for African-American culture in the country We have an opportunity to create culture, set trends and add value to land and spaces that we are in, and in New Orleans in particular,” Gia Hamilton said.
The museum is located at 1417 Gov. Nicholls St. in Treme and is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.noaam.org.
Victoria Clark contributed to this story.
This article originally published in the April 15, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
