From Local to Celestial, International African American Museum Details Next Three Exhibits

The International African American Museum (IAAM), which officially opened in June of 2023 to the public, has lined up three major national and international exhibits that will be on display in December of 2023 and will run through November of 2024.

The first exhibit, Creative Gathering: A Space for Gathering, Fellowship, and Reflection, is an exhibition curated from the permanent collection of the International African American Museum. It draws cultural and thematic parallels from throughout the diaspora, while it invites visitors to rest and reflect on their museum experience. Creative Gathering is an airy, open space designed to facilitate museum programming and public events. This exhibit starts on December 14th, 2023 and runs through January 15, 2024.

Feeling the Future: Ming Smith will be on exhibit from January 31st through April 28th, 2024 and will explore artist Ming Smith’s unparalleled and under-recognized career from the early 1970s through the present. As Smith’s first solo exhibition at a major institution, it encompasses a multitude of artistic expressions to represent her vibrant and multi-layered practice, which is grounded in portraiture, as it amplifies the heartbeat of Black life in the United States. Drawn from the full complexity of Smith’s oeuvre, Feeling the Future places works from the artist’s five decades of creation in conversation with one another, while it embraces the cultural movements she witnessed and participated in. Exploring themes such as Afrofuturism, Black cultural expression, representation and social examination, the exhibit offers a guided tour into unperceived moments of life as captured by one of the most profoundly gifted artists of her generation.

Follow the North Star: Freedom in the Age of Mobility Throughout African American History is slated to run May 23rd, 2024 through November 3rd, 2024. This exhibition portrays the destination of “freedom” as it proves to be an elusive location. The search for this “promised land’ has taken many forms, including travel, migration, and imagination. Follow the North Star: Freedom in the Age of Mobility, explores this multifaceted journey through three distinct perspectives: Transportation, The Great Migration, and Spirituality/Imagination. In this multi-media exhibition, visitors will learn about historic events related to African Americans’ search for freedom, as well as lesser-known forms of escape, including folklore, storytelling, and metaphysical travel. From the Montgomery bus boycotts, to Afrofuturist visions of other planets, visitors will be encouraged to see the African American journey through a renewed lens, one of possibility and agency.

The exhibition was made possible through a $1 million gift from the Michelin Foundation. As one of the museum’s founding donors, Michelin has been a leader in philanthropic investment to launch and support the International African American Museum, including as the presenting sponsor of “Follow the North Star,” IAAM’s first traveling exhibition.

“The special exhibitions gallery at the IAAM is the one place in the entire museum where we expect to transform the space every time we bring or produce a new experience for our audience,” said Malika Pryor Martin, chief engagement and learning officer for IAAM. “To deepen that ambitious goal, in our first 12 months of operation we will turn the gallery five times. These three exhibitions, two internally produced and one a traveling exhibition from Contemporary Arts Museum-Houston, will offer visitors an opportunity to discover African American culture through contemporary art, photography, immersive technology, and powerful and compelling narrative. We’re grateful to our donors and team for such generosity and care in making these three shows possible, and we can’t wait to share them with the community.”

 For more information, please visit iaamuseum.org or call 843-872-5352.

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