“We are a movement, not a museum,” Beverly Elliott said, adding that some of the exhibits are a reflection of contemporary society, such as efforts to pass the CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination in hairstyles based on race in schools and workplaces. You mentioned your focus on the justice movement.
Elliot emphasized that museums are for everyone. “It’s not just the African-American community, it’s the entire community in Southern Arizona,” Elliott said. “Fortunately, the University of Arizona was very kind.”
The museum is located on the UArizona campus in Tucson.
“Most museums take five to 20 years to actually put a museum together,” says Elliot, but community interest has allowed AAMSAZ to open in just 14 months. “The great thing about being on campus is that we have great resources.”
“We have so many wonderful, amazing stories. We want those stories to be told and our community wants their stories and their families’ stories to be told.” …they’ve been influential and helped build this community, and that’s really important,” Elliot said.
The museum currently has seven exhibits, but Elliott said they will rotate. “We want people to be able to come back in four months and say, ‘There’s something new.'”
Elliott hopes that people will come home learning something from the museum.
“As a former educator, I just want people to say, ‘I learned something when I came here.'”
Take a look at some of the museum’s exhibits.
