Take a look at this Urban League Village/NAAM promo video created by Reel Grrls.

Inside NAAM

This morning Barbara Thomas took us on a tour of the Northwest African American Museum and let me take some picture to share with the community. Here are some shots in case you have been curious to see what is brewing inside of that old brick Colman building.

At the entrance, outside will be a sculpture/installation garden. A cafe will also open from the inside to the outdoors.

Once you walk in the main door, you will pass a gift shop on the right and a cafe on the left, then an information booth. The first room of the museum will be the Journey room. Barbara described it as a street, long and narrow. As you walk along the Journey room, you will find photographs, artifacts and multimedia that tell the story of the journey of Black Americans to Seattle from other parts of the US. A globe in the museum will also map out people's journeys beyond the American continent to the various places of origin. This will stretch from the past to the modern immigrant journeys.

Then there is the main exhibit room. One exciting work that is already scheduled for display is a mural by Jacob Lawrence, depicting George Washington Bush’s journey by wagon across the continent from Missouri to the Northwest.


There will also be a community workspace to rent for workshops and classes, a multimedia room to conduct research and hold presentations and a large Legacy room (last image) for big lectures and events.

And there will also be affordable apartments on the second floor. They have some of the old brick walls exposed and amazing views of downtown and Mt. Baker.

I have only scratched the surface in this description, but this is just to give you an idea of what is to come. Barbara was very open to sharing the museum progress with the community.

Hearing the plans for the museum and seeing it inside made me really understand what a contribution it will be to this neighborhood. There will be events to attend, projects to work on, art to see and a coffee shop all just a walk away. This will be a true cultural center and our mural seems to fit perfectly with the mission of the museum. The mural project is also a great opportunity to keep building our relationship with NAAM.

Barbara mentioned that there are some volunteer opportunities for folks who would like to get more involved with the museum. NAAM will open in Spring, but the volunteer applications are available online here.

Update on our meeting with Barbara Thomas

We met with Barbara Earl Thomas, local artist and curator of NAAM. Eddie Walker presented the community mural concept and the idea of covering the entire wall (much bigger than what Ms. Thomas and I originally discussed). She reacted positively to the proposal and said that the concept was in line with the goals of NAAM and the Urban League. She also liked that the community is being proactive in engaging with the museum and investing in it. We got to hear some exciting plans for the exhibits. It sounds like the museum will be a community oriented, educational and a dynamic place.

Barbara did express concern with the ambition of our scope, given the current budget of $7,200 and time frame (the goal is to have the mural up by mid-January, 2008). She suggested that we do the mural in three parts and focus on one section first. Then we can raise more money and do the other two sections. We were happy that she was open to the whole wall idea concept and agreed that it would be a good strategy to do the mural in parts. Barbara underscored that we would, through her participation, keep the Urban League abreast of all the details and make sure that they are on board with the community's plans for future installments of the mural.

The next steps are to figure out how the mural will be attached to the wall. We need to talk with the architects about this. Also, Mr. Walker will determine the proposed dimensions and scope of content of the first section to be completed. Those specifications will be shared and approved by the Colman Community and the Colman project through Barbara Thomas.