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#18: NMAP Feasibility Study Will Explore Every Element of What Museum Would Be


In 2019, the Coalition for the National Museum of the American People is proposing an exhaustive feasibility study of the Museum. The study exploring creation of the Museum would be conducted by a consortium of major U.S. university museum studies programs in conjunction with funders supporting the museum.

The final report of the feasibility study would be presented to the President and to Congress. Funding for the report would come solely from supporters of the Museum using no taxpayer funds. The details of the study operation would be worked out by the funders, the consortium and the Museum coalition. It should take no more than a year to complete its work and present its findings.

The consortium could use the final report for the National Museum of African American History and Culture as a guide.

The NMAP feasibility study will explore and report on:

  • The story the Museum will tell, develop an outline of that story and suggest the manner in which the story will be told
  • Sites in Washington for the Museum with a primary focus on the Banneker Overlook site
  • Requirements for the Museum building
  • The scope and mission of the Museum
  • Potential US audiences including school groups
  • Visitors from around the world
  • Costs, budget and staffing
  • A fund-raising plan to plan, build and operate the Museum
  • How the Museum will support state, local and ethnic museums in the U.S. with a similar mission
  • The Museum’s governance, whether part of or separate from the Smithsonian Institution
  • Ways for the Museum to communicate regularly with ethnic, nationality and minority organizations including more than 240 of these already supporting the Museum
  • Components of the Museum
  • Issues the Museum could encounter
  • A plan to create the Museum
  • A plan to gain public attention for the Museum
  • A plan to pass legislation in support of the Museum
  • Draft legislation to create an entity that would be responsible for building and funding the Museum

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

 

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#17: The NMAP’s New Path to Completion


“Bringing All Americans Together.” With that new tag line and facing a revised national political and cultural climate, the Coalition for the National Museum of the American People is embarking on a new two-track, two-year plan to establish the Museum.

By early 2021 our goal will will be to complete a major feasibility study of the Museum and to pass legislation designating it as a “National” Museum and creating a governing body to guide the project forward.

The Museum’s governing body would plan and build the Museum as well as raise all of the money required to plan, build and operate it without seeking appropriated funds. The legislation creating the Museum would also transfer a prominent plot of land in Washington, DC to the Museum for the NMAP site.

To get to that point over the next two years we are exploring a feasibility study starting later in 2019 engaging some of our nation’s leading university museum programs, historians and a wide range of financial, building, fund raising, education and other experts to design this major new national institution and its many components programs. The model for the feasibility study would be the one that led to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We estimate that it will take a year to complete the study.

Paralleling the feasibility track will be a legislative initiative with a resolution in the House and Senate that simply supports the study and anticipates future legislation to create the Museum.

Because of the significant economic benefits the Museum would have for the Washington area as it attracts visitors from throughout the nation and the world, we will approach the Congressional delegation from the DC Metro area, as well as members of key Congressional committees and the leaders and members of Congressional caucuses that are centered on ethnic, nationality and minority groups for their support.

Upon completion of the feasibility study, in 2020 it would be sent to the President and Congress and released to the public. We would then arrange to introduce legislation to establish the museum. We would seek to have the Presidential candidates from the two major parties endorse the Museum and work towards its creation in 2021.

In the meantime, there will be a variety of efforts to bring the National Museum of the American People to broader public attention, including this blog and the announcement of major milestones along the way.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People