The head curator for the national African-American museum tells The Root what goes into his job.
- By: Cynthia Gordy| Posted: February 21, 2012 at 12:46 AMA powder horn carried into battle by the black soldier Prince Simbo during the American Revolution. Harriet Tubman’s silk shawl — a gift from Queen Victoria. A Stearman PT-13D plane used to train Tuskegee Airmen. A photographic portrait of Elizabeth Catlett, the renowned sculptor and printmaker. The black fedora from Michael Jackson’s Victory tour. These are but a few of the more than 10,000 artifacts in the National Museum of African American History and Culture‘s collection.
On Feb. 22, nine years after the Smithsonian Institution museum was established by an act of Congress, a shovel will finally break ground on its five-acre construction site. President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks, and actress Phylicia Rashad will emcee the ceremony for what will be the only national museum building dedicated exclusively to African-American life, art, history and culture. (UPDATE: See a video of the groundbreaking ceremony here.) Years of meticulous work have already gone into collecting the historic treasures that will be housed in the museum, which is scheduled to open in 2015, adjacent to the Washington Monument on the National Mall.
At the helm of that work is Rex M. Ellis, associate director for curatorial affairs. Formerly the vice president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s historic area in Virginia, Ellis develops and manages all of the museum’s curatorial programs as his office collects, preserves and interprets historical objects from across the Diaspora.