The Africa Center Is Commemorating the End of Slavery in the US With a Three-Story Black Lives Matter Installation on Its Façade

The Africa Center in New York is celebrating Juneteenth, the
holiday marking the end of slavery in the US, with a new
45-foot-tall window display proclaiming the message “Black Lives
Matter.”

“It’s our desire to let the community and the wider world know
that we stand in solidarity with Black people,” Uzodinma Iweala,
the institution’s CEO, told Artnet News.

“We see this to be an extension of what we do every single day
as the African Center, which is try to inform and transform
narratives about Africans and the diaspora.”

The three-story installation grew out of a desire to address
the protests that have
spread across the US in recent weeks in response to the police
killing of George Floyd, and the
violent deaths of other Black people in America.

“We were thinking, if the institution isn’t open, how can you
still be part of these conversations? What could we do with our
building on our plaza that could be both safe and effective in
sending a message?” Iweala said.

Before it was shut down to visitors, the Africa Center was two
weeks away from opening “African/American: Making
the Nation’s Table.”

As part of its promotional campaign for the show, the museum had
installed decals on the windows of its façade. Full Point Graphics,
the company that installed the decals, then offered to put in
the Black Lives Matter message for free.

“The population that surrounds us in Harlem is traditionally a
Black community, and also a community full of Latinx and people of
color,” Iweala said. “It’s really important to have a statement in
solidarity with folks who live here and have experienced so many of
the things that we see on the news these days. They were part
of this conversation before it was something that everybody was
interested in.”

The display, Iweala said, “is saying, ‘Look. We see
you because we are you.’”

Founded in 1984, and formerly known as the Museum for African
Art, the Africa Center is aiming to finish the long-delayed
construction of its new 70,000-square-foot home next fall.
“African/American” will be its inaugural exhibition.

Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote’s foundation donated $20
million for the project last September. The entry hall, where
the Black Lives Matter message will be displayed, is now named in
his honor. (The naming rights to the building were once on offer
for a $50 million
donation.)

On hand for today’s unveiling of the new decal will be Manhattan
Borough President Gale Brewer, Cultural Affairs commissioner
Gonzalo Casals, and hip-hop pioneer Fred “Fab 5 Freddy”
Brathwaite.

The post The Africa Center Is Commemorating the End of
Slavery in the US With a Three-Story Black Lives Matter
Installation on Its Façade appeared first on artnet
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