Musical Crossroads Exhibit
How would one enter the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and not expect to see at least one exhibit dedicated to music? In the African-American culture, music has always been used as a tool of expression. Music has always been a great source of historical evidence, for the lyrics in songs generally are a reflection of society. Therefore, music has always been a form of communication for the African-American culture. Luckily, the Musical Crossroads exhibit, at the museum, accurately depicts the importance of music in the African-American culture through the structure of the room, organization of the showcases, and selection of artifacts.
The structure of the Musical Crossroads exhibit is truly mesmerizing. The exhibit has two rooms: one main and a side room. The main room offers visitors imagery, textiles, musical records, and other tangible objects. The artifacts are displayed along the walls and in the center of the room. Large objects are adjacent from the entrance and the objects in cases are one the sides. This format allows visitors a clear site of the large objects and a more personal experience with the objects in the showcases. Furthermore, visitors can engage even more with the performers in the side room: Neighborhood Record Room. The Neighborhood Record Room allows visitors to ruminate and reminisce with the music from the African-American culture, by selecting music from a large touch table placed in the center of the room. The structure of the side room supports visitors’ curiosity about the music and promotes a sense of community. Additionally, some of the walls are made-up of artifacts. For example, the right side of the main room has the entire wall from Minton’s Playhouse; the wall consists of music artist’s records. Overall, the structure of the exhibit was overwhelming, for there were showcases and artifacts cluttering the exhibit …show more content…
The overwhelming feeling and the intentional disarrangement of the exhibit, allows visitors to see how monumental music is for the African-American community; there is not a room large enough to display all the musical performers and musical shows related to the culture. Correspondingly, all the objects in the exhibit are essential to the storytelling of music in the culture. Despite the story not being told in chronological order, the random placement of showcases informs visitors that each showcase has its own story. Furthermore, the museum offers primary historical evidence from all genres of music: classical, rock-n-roll, and hip-hop. This signifies the diversity of music and how it contains more than one story. Most importantly, the museum depicts the objects in a respectful manner; each showcase has its own spotlight and corresponding informational …show more content…
Commendably, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture did a great job at selecting objects. To begin each showcase has a subject: performer or television show. Then each showcase has images, textiles, and other tangible objects relating to the subject. For example, the Whitney Houston showcase has some of her costumes, awards, and images of her. Also, in some of the showcases there are images from when the performers or television show. Furthermore, there is a description for each artifact explaining when an object was worn or obtained or when a photograph was taken. This method provided onlookers the context of each artifact. Most notably, the museum was consistent on the artifacts obtained, each showcase had similar artifacts relating to the
How would one enter the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and not expect to see at least one exhibit dedicated to music? In the African-American culture, music has always been used as a tool of expression. Music has always been a great source of historical evidence, for the lyrics in songs generally are a reflection of society. Therefore, music has always been a form of communication for the African-American culture. Luckily, the Musical Crossroads exhibit, at the museum, accurately depicts the importance of music in the African-American culture through the structure of the room, organization of the showcases, and selection of artifacts.
The structure of the Musical Crossroads exhibit is truly mesmerizing. The exhibit has two rooms: one main and a side room. The main room offers visitors imagery, textiles, musical records, and other tangible objects. The artifacts are displayed along the walls and in the center of the room. Large objects are adjacent from the entrance and the objects in cases are one the sides. This format allows visitors a clear site of the large objects and a more personal experience with the objects in the showcases. Furthermore, visitors can engage even more with the performers in the side room: Neighborhood Record Room. The Neighborhood Record Room allows visitors to ruminate and reminisce with the music from the African-American culture, by selecting music from a large touch table placed in the center of the room. The structure of the side room supports visitors’ curiosity about the music and promotes a sense of community. Additionally, some of the walls are made-up of artifacts. For example, the right side of the main room has the entire wall from Minton’s Playhouse; the wall consists of music artist’s records. Overall, the structure of the exhibit was overwhelming, for there were showcases and artifacts cluttering the exhibit …show more content…
The overwhelming feeling and the intentional disarrangement of the exhibit, allows visitors to see how monumental music is for the African-American community; there is not a room large enough to display all the musical performers and musical shows related to the culture. Correspondingly, all the objects in the exhibit are essential to the storytelling of music in the culture. Despite the story not being told in chronological order, the random placement of showcases informs visitors that each showcase has its own story. Furthermore, the museum offers primary historical evidence from all genres of music: classical, rock-n-roll, and hip-hop. This signifies the diversity of music and how it contains more than one story. Most importantly, the museum depicts the objects in a respectful manner; each showcase has its own spotlight and corresponding informational …show more content…
Commendably, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture did a great job at selecting objects. To begin each showcase has a subject: performer or television show. Then each showcase has images, textiles, and other tangible objects relating to the subject. For example, the Whitney Houston showcase has some of her costumes, awards, and images of her. Also, in some of the showcases there are images from when the performers or television show. Furthermore, there is a description for each artifact explaining when an object was worn or obtained or when a photograph was taken. This method provided onlookers the context of each artifact. Most notably, the museum was consistent on the artifacts obtained, each showcase had similar artifacts relating to the