About

Museum Hue’s mission is to support Black, Indigenous, Latino/e/x, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all  People of Color in the arts and culture field through advocacy, elevated visibility, and community  engagement. 

HueArts & Cultures Northeast is an expansion of Museum Hue’s HueArts New York City and HueArts New York State, seeking to connect and amplify cultural entities created and led by Black, Indigenous,  Latino/e/x, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all Cultural Workers of Color through an online database that encompasses the history, geographic location, and significance of these organizations. Museum Hue  is currently focusing on the Northeastern region of the United States, and its long-term goal is a full scale national platform that serves these museums and cultural centers, as well as their stakeholders  (current and future). 

Museum Hue engaged Yancey Consulting and Slover Linett at NORC to connect with these Hue museums and cultural centers in the Northeast to hear their stories and insights and gather their data to  guide the design of Museum Hue’s digital platform. 

Acknowledgements

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Mellon Foundation.

Meeting with Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham

Co-Founder & Executive Director, Museum Hue

I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the  Smithsonian Institution to discuss Museum Hue’s HueArts & Cultures research initiative during the early stages of this report in 2024. It was incredibly important to me to gather his insights, as he has contributed profoundly to the museum field long before stepping into his current role. 

My first introduction to Dr. Bunch’s work came during my undergraduate  studies when I read his article “Flies in the Buttermilk.” The title refers to someone who is out of place in a historically predominantly white environment, which felt especially resonant within the context of U.S.  museums. Published in 2000, “Flies in the Buttermilk: Museums, Diversity, and the Will to Change” challenged the field to confront its lack of diversity in staffing. Even encountering the article nearly ten years after it was written, it remained strikingly relevant to my own early experience as I was entering the museum profession. 

From that moment on, Dr. Bunch stayed on my radar. When I later learned that he would lead the efforts to open the Smithsonian’s National Museum of  African American History and Culture, I was deeply inspired. Over the years,  I have had the privilege of meeting him in passing at American Alliance of  Museums conferences. Even in brief exchanges, I valued his reflections and  the clarity with which he articulated the work ahead for the field. 

For these reasons and many more, it is my honor to have Secretary Bunch provide a Foreword for the HueArts & Cultures: Northeast report. 

Foreword: A Reservoir for Museum Professionals

Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Museum Hue’s research initiative documenting the contributions and challenges of leaders at cultural institutions founded and led by Black, Indigenous, Latino/e/x, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color across the United States is, quite simply, essential. I believe that their research has been framed in a brilliant way and this report offers vital insights into the trailblazers who, throughout history and today, often work as both activists and museum professionals.

What excites me about Museum Hue’s research is the opportunity to address a major gap in our field: that there’s a need for more critical literature about African American museums and all other museums of color. There is a striking lack of data, scholarship, and thought leadership of the groundbreaking work these institutions have already done. When I wrote a book about building a museum, it was because there were no guides or literature that explained how to do it. In museums, the only permanent things are what you collect and the documentation you produce. Books and articles endure. Encouraging both is essential if these institutions are to continue changing the nation. And they are changing the nation. Their work remains a reservoir from which they, and the field at large, can draw strength to continue the fight.

Outside of the collections the only documentation that’s permanent are the books and articles we ourselves write. Too many arts leaders find themselves reinventing the wheel over and over again, rather than drawing from established best practices. Many museums of color are doing transformative work, yet there is not enough accessible information for arts professionals to learn from their innovations to shape their own practice accordingly. Publications centering these institutions have the potential to be transformative, helping institutionalize their histories and elevate their contributions.

The fact is, institutions of color have changed the museum profession and transformed it in a way that many don’t know. They led the way in emphasizing education, insisting that part of any museum’s role is an educational vision. They championed the collecting of art and objects and “stuff” that nobody else cared about for years. These are not minor and modest institutions, they are groundbreaking because they answered the fundamental call that, if museums can’t be community centers, then they sure should be at the center of their community.

Part of our work is helping institutions recognize just how profoundly their history has shaped this profession and to remember that by the work they do they are changing a nation. The power of museums of color lies in the lenses they provide into creativity, history, and cultural expression. And they are absolutely necessary not only to their communities but to the entire United States.

Museum Hue’s unique ability to illuminate the reservoirs of knowledge that already exist is urgently needed. Their effort to craft centralized data around the intersectionality of these institutions—data that bridges geographic, cultural, thematic, and historical lines—will provide tools that the entire field can use. This research report offers the possibility for deep learning precisely because it connects institutions of color multidimensionally.

The HueArts & Cultures research is especially vital because of the world we’re in today. Given the attacks on DEI, the attacks on the importance of culture, the importance of history. Not to mention the simplistic notion that the culture of one doesn’t affect the culture of others. Within this context, Museum Hue’s work could not be more important. I am thrilled to support this initiative and look forward to the profound impact of this research on this field as well as on the next generation of museum leaders carrying the mantle forward to advance our sector.