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Cleveland is very fortunate to have its own African American Museum. Founded by Icabod Flewellen in 1953, it is one of the oldest African American Museums in the country. As its Executive Director for the last ten years, I can attest that we take great pride being a history focused institution, and the only one of it’s kind in Northeast Ohio.

Strategically located in the historic, renaissance Hough community, the African American Museum has multiple marketing appeal. It offers cultural education enrichment to students and families in the Hough community; in no small measure due to its active membership in the Hough Service Providers. But, its reach does not end at the borders of its famous neighborhood, the African American Museum provides cultural enrichment for visitors drawn from many local, national and international origins. Often this side of its drawing power is the result of the Museum's status as an associate member of University Circle Inc., home of world renown museums and institutions.

The African American Museum’s mission is to preserve, exhibit and educate all people about the contributions and accomplishments of African and African American people.

The museum’s permanent exhibits are being developed for the following four themes:

n Africa Past and Present - Highlighting important facts and life-styles of the people of Africa.

n Civil Movements in America - Revisiting various U. S. civil movements: from the inception of North American Slavery, to present day issues.

n Reflections of Black Life in Cleveland - Highlighting the lives of African Americans in Cleveland. (Including a new focus upon collecting Oral Histories.)

n Black Scientists and Inventors - Highlighting the achievements and contributions of African and African Americans whose contributions are at the center of human progress.

For the past ten years the museum’s primary day to day activity has revolved around school tours, primarily K-12 students form Cleveland public schools.

As an associate member of University Circle Inc.(UCI), approximately 1/3 of the school tours were scheduled, transported and paid for by UCI’s educational department.

Early on the Museum realized the benefit of incorporating the Arts to teach history. In-house tours and outreach programs were developed with the concept of "Edu-tain-ment," which is simply education and entertainment combined.

To achieve this unique blend, cultural rhythms with African drums, dance, songs, call and response and first-person narratives were tailored to audience age, size and tour request. "Edu-tain-ment" is an effective way to stimulate audience interaction and enlightenment of history-based lessons of the Black experience.

Although most tours were for local school groups, approximately 1/3 of the tours and walk-in, visitors were from other parts of Ohio and neighboring states. Occasionally, visitors were from distant states and international origins i.e. Mexico, Germany, Africa and Norway just to name a few.

Over the past ten years, thousands of people have enjoyed cultural enrichment through large community celebrations hosted by the African American Museum.

Annually, the museum hosts a gathering celebrating the last day of Kwanzaa (Imani-Faith) as a perfect way for a community/family kick-off for the new year.

We host large outdoor Juneteenth Celebrations, for the community and families. Again, with a liberal dose of "Edu-tain-ment" with food, games, live music and guest speakers enlightening people about the Emancipation Proclamation, and the many contributions from Africans and African Americans who helped build America.

Every Black History Month the Museum's artist/presenters have been busy giving in-house tours and outreach "Edu-tain-ment" programs for schools, businesses and organizations.

Very often TV morning shows broadcast live from the African American Museum. The Plain Dealer always carried stories about the Museum celebrations.

The African American Museum has always observed Dr. Martin Luther King Day with group discussions, and may anticipate greater numbers of walk-in tours.

When Mayor White kicked off the City’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration his first stop was always the African American Museum, followed by a full entourage of TV and News Reporters.

For many years the media looked to the African American Museum as the one convenient source when covering African American related topics and events.

The Plain Dealer, City News and Call and Post newspapers have all reported on the Museum’s events and operational hi’s and lo’s. Often the African American Museum’s director and/or trustees are solicited for comments regarding various activities in the city. By example, we were recently asked to comment on the new Holocaust Museum in Beachood. "We are glad for their success and consider them a positive role model."

Arts Initiative

Through "Edu-tain-ment" the African American Museum acknowledges the importance of Art in keeping History alive. For several years the African American Museum has played a very active role in the Cleveland Arts Initiative, spearheaded by the County Commissioners, Cleveland City Council and The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture organization, directed by Tom Schorgel.

As the only institution of its kind in Northeast Ohio many look to Cleveland’s African American Museum as a resource for authentic cultural expression, and a source for collaborative programming.

The UCI sister institutions, in particular, have offered on-going support and opportunities for collaborative educational programs. The AAM's biggest draw back has been the lack of African American Museum staff to fulfill all the requests for the available opportunities.

History professors from Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State University and Kent State University have all taught special "City as a Classroom" courses at the African American Museum for several quarter, semester and one day sessions.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Western Reserve Historical Society have, also, participated in collaborative programs with the African American Museum.

Further, Cleveland State, Case Western Reserve and Kent State Universities will also assist with the African American Musuem’s new virtual presence and oral history focus.

This summer 2005, was spent cleaning out all the storage areas in the museum to assist in defining the African American Museum’s collections.

Going forward the AAM’s trustees approved a revised Summer, Spring and Fall seasonal operating schedule, primarily due to costly winter heating bills.

However, to maintain visibility year around, the African American Museum will adopt a new virtual presence through which Cleveland, and the global community, may continue to access its unique contributions to cultural educational enrichment.

To launch this virtual presence - the African American Museum is conducting a major Oral History project. Cleveland State University, the Western Reserve Historical Society and Case Western Reserve University are collaborating in the project's development.

To also help enhance the educational quality and availability of information on the Black experience, the museum will develop an on-line journal, publishing papers from local scholars that relate to the African American Museum’s four core exhibits.

Finally, the museum is developing a facilities renovation plan to completely upgrade its 98 year old Carnegie Library Building.

The AAM plans to continue its use of Solar Energy to help support a new heating and cooling system to reduce heating expenses projected to continue to grow more costly.

Spring and Summer 2005 was spent cleaning out the museum's clutter for the purpose of defining what really constituted additions to the museum's collections.

The process was guided by, viz.: an experienced collector, two African American scholars, and several very committed museum volunteers. The overall process was quite successful. It was, also, a very exciting and historical experience for all involved.

Meetings were, also, convened with, viz.: The Natural History Museum, East Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Public Library and Western Reserve Historical Society. Their input was helpful in outlining the process and identifying potential homes for artifacts that we my put on loan.

The total process revealed the following addition to our collections:

• Five book cases of old, rare and culturally specific books are ready to be catalogued after sorting through hundreds of books to establish this African American Reference Collection. We are exploring the possibility of housing this collection in the Cleveland Public Library.

• All of the African artifacts are now assembled in one location and now ready to be photographed, researched and catalogued into one archival registry. Several pieces will be sent out on long term loan to East Cleveland Library and Eliza Bryant Village, and maybe one or two other places not yet determined.

• Hundreds of old and rare Ebony and Jet magazines are sorted by year and ready to be catalogued. Select publications will be used for a fun "Reflections" exhibit, highlighting old familiar faces along the entertainment, sports, businesses and civil rights paths in history; dating back to 1940's and 1950.

• We are still in the process of sorting many boxes of news clippings and old memorabilia files collected and stored in the basement file cabinets over the years.

• There are several old reels of film that need to be restored and identified. Likewise, there are many old photograph negatives that need to be identified and preserved.

All of the above represent separate and independent projects to be developed, some in collaboration with other institutions. Overall, we are very pleased to have the clutter removed and clarity established for what the museum's collections are.

In time, each collection will be addressed as needed. This long overdue process was made possible by a joint grant from The Cleveland Foundation and The George Gund Foundation.

Thanks to the Institute of Museum and Library Science (IMLS) the museum, also, benefited from an assessment review by a collections assessor and an architect assessor last June. The consultation they offered was very informative.

In general, the assessors were very impressed with the relatively good condition and potential for both the museum's collections and 98 year old Carnegie Library Building home.

This assessment was made possible by a Heritage Preservation Grant from the IMLS.

This year, September 2005, the museum launches its first Annual Jazz Concert Series. This series is very timely to assure the public that the African American Museum is alive and growing in a new direction.

Each concert, with a different group personality, drew a full audience of people. People continuously expressed their delight in having such a stimulating music experience Sunday afternoons.

The museum's choice of the Fall is a strategic one, to avoid conflict with Tri-C's Jazz Fest in the Spring. We want to help spread arts entertainment throughout the year.

The AAM's 1st Annual Jazz concert series was a huge success. The audience guests and performing artists all state that they are looking forward to doing it again next year, fall 2006.

For the past nine years, the museum's primary daily activities has revolved around school group tours.

The museum greatly appreciated the opportunity to teach thousands of students about the experiences and contributions of African and African Americans.

However, change is the one thing that remains constant. Declining school field trips, probably due to school budget cuts, and rising gas bills due to the energy crisis results in the trustee decision to adopt a seasonal operating schedule and close the African American Museum during the cold winter months. The cultural education programming will change but our mission remains the same.

Instead of daily group tours the trustees voted to adopt a new cultural education focus with the launching of a major oral history project for the next three years, 2005 - 2008, in support of our 'Reflections of Black Life in Cleveland' exhibit.

As we come to the end of an era, we feel a sense of urgency to interview our elders. We are not just targeting high profile people, because people in all walks of life have a story to tell. This new educational focus addresses the preservation aspect of the museum's mission to: preserve, exhibit and educate…

Fortunately, oral history interviews can be conducted from a variety of locations. Although, the museum facility will be closed for the winter season, we will still be busy, collecting oral histories.

The African American Museum has begun developing a virtual presence to serve people in the Greater Cleveland area, and the global community.

Virtual programming allows the museum to step up its operations with "state of the art appeal." With a new virtual presence the negative impact of seasonal operations is greatly reduced. Actually, the museum will expand its reach and offer cultural education enrichment twenty four hours a day.

• The oral history interviews will be the primary content in the establishment of the AAM 'On-line Reference Library'.

• We are developing an educational web-site for K-12th grade students. The web-site offers standard based information related to the museum's four core exhibits.

• The African American Museum is, also, developing cultural education lessons for Distance Learning. This offers interactive experiences for students via satellite TV.

• Last but not least the museum is developing an On-line Journal. This journal will publish works of scholars as they relate to the museum's four exhibit themes. The content will appeal to educational researchers of all ages but, primarily to those on higher / secondary levels.

In lieu of in-house tours the museum is developing more of a Resource Institute Format by offering educational forums, workshops, and lectures, to serve as an Educational Resource Institute around topics related to the Black experience.

We intend to respond to the continued demands for answers to cultural enlightenment around the Black Experience.

In Summary,

The African American Museum is an important cultural resource in the Greater Cleveland community and beyond. A virtual presence only hightens that resource.

We will continue to develop cultural education programming to enlighten people of all ages and racial backgrounds about the marvelous contributions that people of African and African American ancestry have made and continue to give to the world for the common good of all.

The collective and collaborative effort of dedicated individuals, corporations, small businesses and organizations help bring this vision into fruition.

Nancy Nolan-Jones
Executive Director

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