“Everybody Makes History:” Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives official opens on Monroe Center
After years of operating without its own location, the local institution of memory and culture opened October 1 under the direction of determined and visionary gallery owner and collector George Bayard.
The long-awaited opening of National Museum of African American History in Washington DC on September 24 has re-ignited a focus on the value of history in the public imagination. Reports in the Washington Post that visitors are lining up at 4:30 am for timed passes or waiting seven hours to enter reflect the excitement and longing to bear witness to this public telling of African American history and culture.
Just a weeks later, the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (GRAAMA), a local institution of memory and culture, opened on October 1. GRAAMA has operated as a museum without walls for several years under the direction of the determined and visionary gallery owner and collector George Bayard. Last year Bayard undertook the onerous task of applying for 501©3 status for the museum, making it an official nonprofit organization. Leasing the space at 87 Monroe Center St. NW from the City of Grand Rapids made it possible for Bayard to officially open doors to the public. Visitors can now enter to find the walls filled with works of art by local artists, and glass cases with fascinating historical objects.
The name GRAAMA reveals the museum’s mission and character, as an institution that will tell the story of African American people within the city of Grand Rapids, past and present, through historical records, documents, and works of art. Its acronym is a playful yet evocative allusion to the powerful role of women at the center of retaining family and community histories within the African American community.
The location on Monroe Center has already provided significant foot traffic during and after ArtPrize. Visitors have included school groups as well as interested individuals. Because of its location on the ground floor, the GRAAMA is required to function partly as a retailer, so the space will soon incorporate sales of vintage local high school t-shirts, fine art and art prints, and the kinds of materials associated with museum gift shops (books, cards, calendars, mugs, and Christmas ornaments). Appraisal services for insurance and donation purposes will also be offered, as well as the option to lease the space for speaking engagements and other events.
The steady stream of visitors through the newly opened doors points to a promising future. Now that the GRAAMA has achieved nonprofit status and can begin to actively fundraise, Bayard’s next steps, in addition to programming and collecting for the museum, are to initiate a feasibility study that will inform plans for a permanent building. He and the GRAAMA board have been working with local architect Isaac Norris on the internal design and layout as well as the museum’s aesthetic.
“Statistically we know that the most successful museums tell a focused story,” Bayard points out. “We can’t cover the entire national history from slavery to the Obamas.” A permanent exhibition space will trace the local history of African Americans in Grand Rapids as it connects to national American history. The museum will incorporate a temporary exhibition space for shows that will rotate seasonally and a performance hall. There will likely be some retail space and flexible meeting areas to make the museum not only an historical collection but also community hub for cultural activities.
The new location places GRAAMA in the middle of local institutions who have eagerly supported the emerging museum. Bayard reflects appreciatively on the immediate acceptance by the local museum community. Some of these partnerships have been evident for many years, reflected in events like last year’s exhibition on Rosa Parks at the Public Museum and annual lectures, exhibitions, and performances during African American History month at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Upcoming programs promise to broaden this outreach even further.
In January 2017, GRAAMA will partner with the UICA in its programming for a powerful and thought-provoking exhibition, “Us Is Them.” The exhibition of artworks from the Pizzuti Collection includes, among 42 international artists, some of the biggest names in contemporary African American art, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley, among many others.
Later in the year, in partnership with Grand Valley State University, GRAAMA will unveil a three-part project called “Riot, Race, and Reconciliation.” The project will include a mini-documentary, a panel discussion and a photography exhibition on the 1967 Grand Rapids race riot, commemorating the 50th anniversary of that tumultuous period. While very few young Grand Rapidians will be familiar with the events of 1967 in their city, the community discussion will give valuable opportunities to bring different perspectives from the past and present. It will also allow reflection on what civil disobedience and protest mean to all of us.
In May, Broadway GR is bringing “Motown, The Musical” to DeVos Performance Hall (tickets will go on sale to the public on November 28) with one performance dedicated as a fundraiser for GRAAMA.
Further community partnerships are sure to follow as GRAAMA has already been very positively received by all of the area museums, Bayard says.
One of the most moving projects Bayard has undertaken as director of the museum has been an oral history project, the Grandma’s Voices Project. Beginning in 2015, with a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, a team made up of Bayard, interviewer James Williamson and photographer Monroe O’Bryant, started recording the memories of elderly women and men in Grand Rapids. In collecting stories from community elders, the deep necessity of an organized effort to preserve and cherish African American contributions and experiences to Grand Rapids has surfaced repeatedly.
“There is a wealth of history here,” Bayard says. Many African American men and women from this area have crossed over into national prominence, beginning with the first African American person to settle in the greater Grand Rapids area, William J. Hardy (1823–1890). The history of West Michigan has been told with such an emphasis on white European heritage that likely very few people have heard the remarkable story of Hardy and his family. Hardy was freed in the early 1840s and over the course of his life would own hundreds of acres of land in Gaines Township, becoming the first African American leader in the Seventh Day Adventist Church at local and national levels. Following the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, Hardy became involved in local Republican politics and was elected supervisor from Gaines Township. His eldest son Eugene Hardy was the first African American person to graduate from high school in Michigan.
African American leadership continues in Grand Rapids in more recent history. Patrick Miles, Jr., the US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, is a third-generation Grand Rapidian. Miles was the first African American editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Record and classmate of President Obama at Harvard, “and he lived right around the corner from folks here and went to Ottawa Hills High School,” says Bayard.
Veterans from the Tuskegee Airmen, from the Negro Baseball Leagues, prominent business leaders, athletes and performers have come from our city. These are people, from the past and present, who can be valuable role models for our young people, who can instill a sense of honor in us about our community, says Bayard.
The museum will not exclusively focus on great leaders. Just as important is the social history present within the lives of so-to-speak regular citizens. Bayard observes that often seemingly insignificant objects and personal stories connect our individual experiences to a larger social history that, when gathered together, becomes very powerful. This is reflected in the approach to history at the National Museum as well, which recognizes oral histories and ephemera as valuable pieces in their museum collection.
Many times Bayard will hear stories of elders moving out of their homes, their houses falling into disrepair and being sold, with historical materials, like an invaluable collection of original playbills from the 1950s to the 2000s from every African American performance in Grand Rapids, thrown away because they appeared to movers or contractors to be unimportant, “just old papers.” Fortunately, he and dedicated museum board members Bill Thomas and Roy Robinson have been patiently collecting for the museum for years, getting the word out, carefully watching estate and garage sales, meeting collectors who are looking for a permanent home for their collections.
Bayard has found that as soon people learn that there is a local museum, they bring him family heirlooms and objects, some of which are now on display in the new location. While it would be natural for families to hold onto some objects with personal associations, if turned over to a public collection these objects can become meaningful to others as well, in turn sparking their own recognition of their families’ connections to history.
Bayard’s dream for the museum is that it will reach audiences of all ages and across demographics but especially young people of all races.
“What we need now is activity that speaks to them, that helps make them well-rounded citizens and that puts knowledge out there that does away with myths and stereotypes,” he says.
As a life-long collector, art dealer and appraiser, and above all, highly active local citizen, Bayard knows what he’s talking about. Bayard and his wife Deborah Bayard’s are both deeply committed to sustaining the vitality of African American arts and culture. They have both been active throughout the community, serving on an extremely diverse range of local boards and review committees. Their business, Bayard Art Consulting, later the Bayard Gallery of Fine African American Art and Books, would become West Michigan’s longest running gallery devoted to the work of artists of color and a center for events and activities celebrating African American identity in Grand Rapids. Often working behind the scenes, the Bayards have supported many different cultural and educational endeavors, always placing the community’s good above their own gain.
Bayard’s leadership in establishing the GRAAMA has similarly involved countless hours of dogged persistence, quietly building the collection and the network of support required to open the museum.
It is now our turn, Grand Rapids, to actively support this important cultural institution with our attention, attendance, and donations. Financial contributions can be made on the GRAAMA website, Facebook page or in person or by mail to 87 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids MI 49503.
History becomes an active and dynamic presence in our lives when we engage it and own it. The process of knowing how our specific histories connect with a collective community and national history only happens when we are given the opportunity to relate our experiences to something bigger than ourselves. The GRAAMA opens up the potential not only to learn about an under-recognized and essential ingredient in the history of Grand Rapids, but to better understand our collective cultural richness as we embrace the complexity of our past.
