Museums are places where scientific, historic and even artistic objects of great importance are stored or put on exhibition (Burcaw 1997). A museum can tell a story about a people, where they have come from and the reasons why they are where they are, doing what they do and why life is how it is to these people. A people’s culture and heritage is normally found in here. I was privileged to visit a museum just recently. This is the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (MOCA). MOCA is situated in the heart of downtown North Miami in the state of Florida, the United States. It offers services which range from permanent collections which are always in their galleries to regular temporary exhibitions where artist can showcase their works often.
Presentations therein can be used to tell a story about what and how various artists have been doing their work. For this reason, I would want to make presentations of some of the artistic pieces of art that I have in my collection, some of which I have collected from online data bases. This is because it has come to my knowledge that not everyone uses the internet to access such artistic pieces. The pieces that interest me most are those that tell the story of how various artists presented their ideas on the portrayal of Harlem. Some of the portraits in my collection include works from artists like James Van Der Zee, Irving Penn, Roy DeCarava not forgetting their teacher and mentor Dawoud Bey.
Most of these photographs and portraits that I would put on display are the works of these artists which are made up of photos of ordinary black Americans, women going to church, children playing in the fields and some at school, older men out and about walking or standing in the streets and those of families sharing meals in their homes. These portraits may look simple but they speak volumes to the hearts of many Americans who are privy to what Harlem means to the American society (Mallory 2011). Apparently, these photos or mere ordinary Americans point to a past that many Americans Identify with, a past that is evocatively described and a past that is very meaningful to everyone and anyone who cares to look at them.
These master pieces will in no doubt add to the beauty and the story of a past that deserves to be preserved in a museum. Anyone with a taste of art can surely attest to the fact that this is a period in history that contributes so much to the story of the black minority at a point when they sought to make a statement in the American society (Oftinoski 2003). To this day, this is a period that is celebrated with bitter sweet tears by a majority of the blacks and even the other races in the continent. I would wish to concentrate on that part of history and present to the museum goers the effect and the memory that these portraits bring to people’s minds. The beauty of this venture is that the photographs will have been easily downloaded from the internet and printed and thereafter presented to the people. With this, I will have gone back into history and brought the late 20th century into the 21st century so easily in a memorable way.
References
Burcaw, G. E. 1997. Introduction to Museum. Oxford: Rowman & Altamira.
Mallory, N. (2011). Harlem in the Twentieth Century. Charleston: The History Press.
Oftinoski, S. (2003). African Americans in the Visual Arts. New York: Infobase Publishing.
