I traveled to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC during my internship. It was my first time visiting there, and compared to the museum I had worked at, it was extremely different. First, the floors were packed with information, and it would have taken days for me to read everything and finish all of it. I feel like it had too much information that I couldn't process everything, and I think that when a museum does have too much information on display, visitors can miss important details that were essential to their visit. I know that I had just been looking and skimming through all the artifacts.
However, it was also very intriguing. My favorite part was the "choose what you want for lunch" protest menu, and I spent ages trying out all my options.
The interior of the museum was very detailed and large, but at the same time also gave little space for tourists to move around. The very first floor had a low ceiling, and everywhere was packed and squeezed so it was difficult to move around. I felt that there was also no particular order throughout the entire museum, other than dates and timelines.
Those were my initial thoughts on the museum, and now I'd like to share my favorite artifacts/parts of the exhibits!
HUNGER WALL: TELL IT AS IT IS is a great form of social art that was used to express their message of what was going on at that time. I think I was amazed by the artwork and the bright colors that pop into your face. Definitely one of the artifacts that I remember most about this museum. The full size of this is on the right: as you can see, it's a large piece of artwork that brings attention to the growing issue of hunger. Along with that, multiple texts (some in different languages) advocate for rights for minorities, or an increased funding/care towards minority groups. I really wanted to bring attention specifically to this piece of social art because it ties into things that I have talked about before, like the Chilean arpillares that were more subtle than this artwork. They were the first connection I thought of when I first saw this piece!