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State gives International African American Museum $500,000
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
In August, during an International African American Museum board meeting in which the board approved a strategic plan outlining the museum’s size, content, mission and fundraising goals, state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins, said he was confident the South Carolina state government would approve $500,000 for the proposed museum, to be built in Charleston.
Jackson’s confidence proved legitimate in December, when the state sanctioned the $500,000 funding.
“These funds are envisioned to be the first of several contributions that the state of South Carolina will make toward the opening of this vital museum,” Jackson said. “We have admired the tremendous spirit of cooperation that has been demonstrated by the IAAM board, city government, other donors and the many volunteers who are working on this compelling endeavor.”
The International African American Museum will feature galleries and exhibits highlighting centuries of cultural, social, economic and political contributions Africans and Americans of African descent have made to South Carolina along with the struggles they endured.
“The IAAM will be unlike any other African-American museum because of its location in Charleston, a major port of entry for enslaved Africans,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. “Even today, much of this historic landscape survives as a vital part of our culture. This is an essential story that every American needs to know.”
The 60,000-square-foot museum will occupy a site on the northwest corner of Calhoun and Concord streets, diagonally across from the S.C. Aquarium. The museum’s design phase will begin this year, and the museum’s opening date will be announced soon, according to a museum press statement.
“It might be 2009 or 2010 before the museum opens, but the important thing is to build it right,” board member Michael Allen of the National Parks Service said in August.
The museum has the potential to attract 110,000 visitors during a “high-stable” year, which would be the museum’s fourth year of operation, when initial excitement generated by the museum subsides and attendance is driven by marketing and exhibit choices, according to the museum’s 145-page strategic plan, which estimates the museum will attract visitors from within a 60-mile radius of Charleston.
That attendance figure would make the museum Charleston’s seventh-largest attraction, according to the plan’s projections. Based on 2004 attendance figures, the International African American Museum would trail the Charleston Museum, which drew 113,200 visitors; Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, which drew 135,000; Charles Towne Landing and State Historic Site, which drew 145,000; Fort Sumter, which attracted 189,000; Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, which attracted 298,045; and the S.C. Aquarium, which drew 439,123.
Radio, television and print advertising, plus collaborations and partnerships with the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture, the MOJA and Spoleto arts festivals and with other Lowcountry attractions are methods the International African American Museum’s board is considering to attract visitors, according to the strategic plan.
The state’s $500,000 funding is a crucial boost to the museum, said U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the museum board’s chairman.
“This museum will add substantially to the telling of our state’s history, and these funds will enable us to make significant progress in the next phase of the museum’s development,” Clyburn said.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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