The International African American Museum in Charleston, SC, has construction issues that will delay the opening of the much-anticipated center until later in 2023, museum leaders said.
Last week, leaders said the January opening had been delayed due to flawed humidity and temperature controls needed to protect the exhibits and artifacts, which tell the stories of the passage of thousands of enslaved Africans to the United States. The International African American Museum is located on the former Gadsden Wharf, once a major port where nearly half of all enslaved Africans arrived; remnants of the wooden quay were found by archaeologists in 2014 during an exploratory excavation for the museum grounds.
“We deeply regret this state of affairs and any inconvenience to our loyal members,” Tonya M. Matthews, the museum’s president and chief executive, said in a Dec. 16 letter to donors. “We put the emphasis on the responsibility to ensure the highest standard of safety and preservation for our most sensitive objects, art and artifacts that honor the journey of our ancestors and tell the critical stories of our country’s history.”
Officials had scheduled the museum to open for the weekend of January 21, after Martin Luther King’s birthday; however, they now expect the inauguration ceremony to take place sometime in the first six months of next year.
The delay was the latest in a series of postponements that have plagued the museum since the $120 million project was first proposed more than 20 years ago. The architect Henry N. Cobb worked with the landscape designer Walter Hood and the exhibition designer Ralph Applebaum to fill the 100,000 square foot space with nine galleries; a genealogy center for visitors researching their own ancestors; and a memorial garden with a tide pool.
Matthews arrived at the museum last year amid a period of churn, which a former museum director described in a memo to trustees obtained by The Post and Courier as a result of a “toxic” and “isolated” work environment. However, the center has continued to grow to meet the requirements of the project and now has more than 30 employees.
There have been signs of problems with the finishing of the museum lately. In April, leaders asked the city of Charleston for an additional few million dollars to account for unforeseen challenges in finishing the center. Officials blamed supply chain problems and other construction costs, such as roof repairs, design changes and extra insurance.
“We broke ground in the fall of 2019, and then we entered the very difficult period of Covid-19,” Matthews said in an interview Wednesday. “We were a bit hindered, but we plowed through.”
During an interview with a local news outlet on Monday, the museum’s president, Wilbur Johnson, said the board had known about the building’s climate problems for some time and was working to resolve them. They were “not yet fully resolved” and he added that he considered the institution’s role in telling history “a sacred obligation”.
Matthews said museum officials are using the delay to fine-tune a special exhibit, which has not yet been announced. The museum is also waiting for some artwork to complete its program, which has a permanent collection of nearly 300 works of art and historical artifacts that tell the story of African Americans. This includes pottery by enslaved artist David Drake, images by Malian photographer Seydou Keita, and an original copy of “Things Fall Apart,” Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel. Visitors will also come across “Seeking,” a short video by filmmaker Julie Dash that uses the coming-of-age traditions of the Gullah Geechee, descendants of West Africans brought to America’s Southeast Coast, to tell a story of resilience. to describe.
“I was just as excited about this opening as anyone,” said Matthews. “I am an overachiever and I am ambitious. I respect and respect things like deadlines, but this is a huge responsibility and we will do whatever it takes to make sure we present this museum and the stories we tell in an extraordinary light.”