ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: OBJECT SOUNDS: CONNECTING MUSIC EDUCATION AND MUSEUM EDUCATION AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Christian Michael Folk, Doctor of Philosophy, 2024 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Robin Giebelhausen, School of Music The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), part of the Smithsonian Institution (SI) complex in Washington, D.C., is the only SI museum with a permanent music exhibition, titled Musical Crossroads. This exhibit traces significant figures and developments in African American musical cultures, demonstrating “how African American music provided a voice for liberty, justice, and social change” (NMAAHC, 2016). In this document, comprised of three interrelated studies, I navigated the connections between music education and museum education in this unique space. In the first study, I relayed the narratives of performing arts curator Dr. Dwandalyn Reece and her team on the development of Musical Crossroads. For the second study, I surveyed current NMAAHC visitors to determine the efficacy of the Musical Crossroads exhibit. Finally, in the third study, I described the experiences of three music teachers who use SI’s online platform, Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL), to teach lessons on African American musical cultures using objects found in Musical Crossroads. In the final chapter, I traced the throughline of these studies and provide implications for future connections between music education and museum education pedagogies. The first study, a narrative inquiry, traced the development of Musical Crossroads from the perspectives of three key figures in the exhibit’s history: Dr. Dwandalyn Reece, former curator of music and performing arts; Dr. Kevin Strait, a former curatorial assistant for the exhibition; and Ms. Hannah Grantham, a current curatorial and research assistant for NMAAHC. These narratives are bound by temporality, sociality, and place, highlighting the crux of music and museum education in the development of Musical Crossroads. I identified several common themes through their stories, including: (a) the educational, professional, and musical backgrounds of participants; (b) the themes and objectives of Musical Crossroads; (c) the curation and collaboration process; (d) tensions in the development process; and (e) the role of education in Musical Crossroads. Although three distinct experiences were present throughout, I funneled the three perspectives into one cohesive narrative. In the second study, I distributed surveys to Musical Crossroads visitors (n = 422) over several months to examine if visitors meet the experiential and educational goals set by NMAAHC staff. The survey contained questions on visitors’ overall experience in the exhibit, what genres they experienced, what elements of the exhibit they interacted with, if they learned about various themes of African American musical cultures, and several demographic items. Results of the survey showed that Musical Crossroads visitors generally had a positive experience in the exhibit, had varied levels of interaction with exhibit elements, and are learning about key themes of African American musical cultures developed by NMAAHC staff. In the conclusion of this study, I discussed implications based on various survey items, including visitor demographics, exhibit interactive spaces, musical genres, and exhibit themes. For the final study, I conducted a multiple case study of music teachers’ perceptions and implementations of the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) program. SLL is an online platform that provides users access to millions of museum artifacts, specimens, recordings, and other materials from all museums across the SI ecosystem, including NMAAHC. I tasked three music teachers with using SLL to conduct two lessons that included African American musical cultures. Each participant approached these lessons differently based on their varied classrooms and comfort with the SLL program. I identified several findings, including the varied impressions of SLL from the teachers, how they incorporated SLL based on various specialties and grade levels taught, and how they perceived and practiced culturally relevant pedagogy and object-based learning using SLL. Along with these findings, I discussed how music teachers may utilize SLL in the future and possible improvements to SLL. I conclude this dissertation with an overview of the three studies, their connections to each other, and their relevance in music and museum education. Additionally, I discuss how this dissertation uniquely contributes to the music and museum education literature. Finally, I provide a reflection on this specific project and how music and museum educators can influence each other in future projects and research. OBJECT SOUNDS: CONNECTING MUSIC EDUCATION AND MUSEUM EDUCATION AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE by Christian Michael Folk Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2024 Advisory Committee: Dr. Robin Giebelhausen, Chair Dr. Kenneth Elpus Dr. Stephanie Prichard Dr. Adam Grisé Dr. Diana Marsh Dr. Mary Sies, Dean’s Representative Copyright ã 2024 by Christian Michael Folk All rights reserved ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to ten incredible women who have taught me invaluable life lessons. To my mom, Vicky Jumper, who taught me how to live To my wife, Christy Zuelsdorf, who taught me how to love To Dr. Lorrie Crochet, who taught me how to teach To Dr. Mandi Schlegel, who taught me how to research To Dr. Robin Giebelhausen, who taught me how to think outside/beyond the box To Dr. Stephanie Prichard, who taught me how to talk to people To Dr. Alexandria Carrico, who taught me that every body is a good body To Dr. Dwandalyn Reece, who taught me that music belongs in museums To Vanessa Williams, who taught me that I always have a seat at the table To Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, who taught me how to love myself “Been down, been up, been broke, broke down, bounced back Been off, been on, been back, what you know about that? Been the light, been dark, been the truth, been that King Bey energy I been thick, been fine, still a ten, still here, that's all me” iii Acknowledgments First, I must thank Dr. Dwandalyn Reece. Without Dr. Reece’s support and participation, this dissertation would not exist. Thank you so much for your kindness, care, and generosity from the very beginning of this project. After over a year of planning, it is so satisfying to see this work come to fruition, and it would not have been possible without your guidance and assistance in the process. Your work is also an inspiration and is foundational in completing these studies. I cannot express my thanks enough. Second, I have to thank all of the incredible staff at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I met so many wonderful humans over the last year while visiting and researching at the museum, including visitor services staff (Joriee, you are the best!), security guards, curators, educators, exhibit designers, administrators, program managers, archivists, and many other folks who were so kind and welcoming. I especially want to thank Kevin Strait and Hannah Grantham for their participation in this project. Again, this dissertation would not exist without your gracious welcome, undying support, and encouragement. To my mom, Vicky: there is not much to say that has not already been said. You have believed in me from the very beginning and have showed me nothing but unconditional love and support. I am honored to be your son, and I hope this dissertation makes you proud. To my wife, Christy: thank you for supporting me (emotionally, mentally, financially, etc.) through this long graduate school journey. You have never shown me any doubt as I have spent countless hours reading, writing, and researching. You’ve given me encouragement when I didn’t think I could go on. You’ve shown me love when I didn’t think I deserved it. You’ve calmed my anxiety when it was overwhelming. You’re my rock, my compass, and my confidant, iv and the most beautiful soul I’ve ever met. I love you more than words can say. You’re simply the best. Also, now that this dissertation is over, we have even more time to go to museums. To Robin: you are undoubtedly the world’s best dissertation advisor. I could not have asked for a more supportive, thoughtful, inspiring, and generous person to help me through this journey. From our very first meeting, I knew that working with you on this dissertation was going to be special, and that has proven true time and time again. Outside of this dissertation process, being able to watch you teach and getting to know you as a friend and colleague has been equally special. You have expanded my thinking immensely as a researcher, educator, and human. I simply can’t express my profound gratitude for everything you have done and continue to do for me. To Stephanie: you have been such an incredible force in my life and career during my time at UMD. Woodwind methods was the first course I ever TA’d for here, and from that very first class I have learned so much about music and teaching from you over the last three years. Our many sit-downs ranging from pop culture to my diagnosis of the week were something I always looked forward to. I can always count on you for the best practical advice, letting me vent about whatever musical situation I found myself in, and expressing our frustrations with the state of wind band literature. I have also learned so much from you about how to research, how to challenge my thinking, and how to focus my sometimes *very* big ideas. Your guidance and care and friendship has truly been incomparable. To Ken: you were the first person I sat down and fleshed out my ideas with on this dissertation (I still have the diagram of the three studies you drew for me), and without that meeting, this dissertation would not have happened. You were the very first person from UMD that I talked to, and those first couple of Zoom meetings were a huge reason why I chose UMD. v You have taught me many invaluable lessons, most especially how to interrogate my thinking and research with a critical eye. One of my most treasured memories of UMD is our (often out- of-context) quoting of Veep. Because of you, I am a better researcher, teacher, and person. And also, huge thanks for reaffirming my Diet Coke habit. “Ashes to ashes, robust to dust.” To Adam: you were the first person I ever talked to about studying music in museums, and you have encouraged me on this journey from those very first discussions. Thank you so much for fielding my incessant Slacks about editing, Stata commands, and various neuroses about research ideas. You always push my thinking and reasoning which has shaped how I view and write my work. Thank you so much for your patience, kindness, and friendship. To Dr. Diana Marsh: it was such a privilege to work with you throughout my museum studies program and my dissertation. Your research has been a monumental influence on my thinking and conception of this project, and you truly paved the way with “Deep Time” for this project to happen. Thank you for your support, affirmation, and the many resources you provided when I was trying to find my way through museum studies. To Dr. Mary Sies: without your museum research seminar and guidance through the museum studies and material culture program, this dissertation would look much different. I learned so much about not just researching museums, but about caring for people through your teaching. Thank you so much for serving on my committee and for your incredible feedback and support throughout my time in museum studies. To Ryan: for well over a decade, you have been the absolute best friend any human could ever ask for. You probably know more about me than any other person (for better or worse). I am so, so thankful for your undying support and friendship. vi To Jonathan: if you hadn’t taken me under your wing at Winthrop, I don’t think I would be the person I am today. You’re an incredible teacher, father, and person, and I consider myself very lucky to have you as one of my best friends. (Also, who else would have seen Les Mis six different times?) To Dr. Crochet: I don’t know if I would have gone so headfirst into music education without your teaching. You helped me cultivate a love for teaching, conducting, and wind band music. I will never forget your compassion and for being the model of teaching I look towards constantly. To Dr. Schlegel: first, thank you for being an incredible mentor and friend. I would be on a much different path without the many conversations we had about music education and my role in the field. You helped inspire my love for research and for teaching people how to teach. Second, thank you for helping me to appreciate seemingly smaller things more fervently (especially barbecue). Your friendship is better than bark on a piece of brisket. To Alex: you fundamentally changed how I think about society and myself more than any other teacher. Thank you for affirming that I always belong, and that every body is a good body. To Amy: I don’t have the words (yet) to describe how amazing of a friend you are. You are so caring, compassionate, and such a joy to have in my life. Your edits were lifesaving. I can’t wait to see your work change the field. To Josanne: I am so, so glad that our paths crossed at UMD. I appreciate our frequent commiseration sessions, our shared disgust over what people put in macaroni and cheese, and our mutual love for Beyoncé. To Justin: I couldn’t have asked for a better cohort buddy. We’ve been through many ups (qual class) and downs (stats), but you have remained a constant. Thank you for everything. vii To Bri’Ann: Eres tan asombrosa y espero que esta introducción te haga reír. I truly can’t express how much your unending support and love mean to me. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder than some of the shared moments we’ve had (Salt Lake City, jobs, etc.). You always encourage me to be myself and that I’m enough, and that means the world. To Allison: you were one of the first people from UMD I talked to and one of the many convincing reasons I decided to pursue my Ph.D. here. Thank you for your mystery recommendations and your supportive words when I am feeling discouraged. To all my UMD MUED colleagues, Amy, Justin, Josanne, Bri’Ann, Allison, David, Darren, Lauren, and Sam: thank you for filling my time at UMD with love, support, and laughter. I am so honored to have shared these last three years with you. To Kaitlin, Jenn, Mary Kate, and Vanessa: I don’t have to say much here. You all have carried me through so much and inspired me and encouraged me. I love you all so much. To some artists who have gotten me through this dissertation: I can’t list (or remember) them all, but I want to mention some of the artists who accompanied and inspired me on this journey. To Beyoncé, Jamila Woods, Janelle Monáe, Philip Glass, Kehinde Wiley, Nina Simone, Kendrick Lamar, Lin-Manuel Miranda, David Maslanka, Omar Thomas, Florence Welch, and many, many others: thank you for sharing your art that provided so much inspiration. To Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter: thank you for teaching me how to love myself. “We go ‘round in circles, up and down, lost and found, searching for love.” Finally, to myself: you did it. You’ve dreamed of this for a long, long time, and you made it happen. You’ve stayed unapologetically (well…with many apologies, but) yourself, and you poured everything into this. Be, and stay, proud. In the words of Beyoncé: “I’m one of one, I’m number one, I’m the only one.” viii Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents viii List of Tables xv List of Figures xvi Epigraph xvii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Overview of the Document 2 Positionality: Why Music in Museums? 3 Bridging Experiences 5 Positionality as Researcher 6 Identification of the Problem 8 Parallel Trends in Music and Museum Education 9 Music (Education) in Museums 9 Object Sounds: Musical Crossroads as Counter-Story 11 Purpose, Research Questions, and Rationale 12 Study 1 13 Study 2 14 Study 3 14 Rationale 15 Theoretical Framework 17 A Music/Museum Education Research “Exhibit” 18 Scope and Limitations 20 Chapter 2: Contextualizing the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African American History and Culture 21 A Castle on the Mall: Smithsonian Past and Present 22 From Smithson to Smithsonian 22 Legal History 24 Governance and Organization 24 ix Museums and Research Centers 25 “Who Owns America’s Past?”: Controversy at The Smithsonian 28 Confronting Difficult Moments 28 The Racial Brain Collection 30 Conclusion 31 Building a Beacon: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture 32 Missing Memorials 33 Signed Into Law 34 Beginning with the Past: Designing NMAAHC’s Interior 35 The Porch, the Corona, and Celebration 36 Inside NMAAHC: Museum Organization and Layout 39 History Galleries 40 Culture and Community Galleries 42 Education at NMAAHC 42 Conclusion 43 Chapter 3: The Past, Present, and Future of Musical Crossroads – Part I 44 Introduction and Overview of the Chapter 44 Literature Review 45 Informal Learning 46 Linny’s Story 46 Informal Museum Education 47 Informal Music Education 50 Material Culture and Musical Meaning-Making 52 Museum Curator and Educator Collaboration 54 Method 55 Narrative Inquiry as Method 56 Narrative Inquiry in Music Education and Museum Education 56 Data Collection and Analysis 57 Participants 57 Data Collection 58 x Data Analysis 59 Limitations 60 Chapter 4: The Past, Present, and Future of Musical Crossroads – Part II 61 Prelude 61 Musical Crossroads – An Overview 62 Organized by Genre 63 Interactive Spaces 66 Summary 69 Participants and Backgrounds 69 Dr. Dwandalyn Reece 69 Dr. Kevin Strait 71 Ms. Hannah Grantham 73 Summary 74 Themes and Objectives 75 Curation and Collection 77 The Role of Storytelling 78 Working with Musical Legends 79 Current and Future Collecting 82 Collaborations and Tensions in Development 83 Informal Learning and Material Culture 86 Implications and Conclusions 88 Postlude 89 Chapter 5: The Experiences of Musical Crossroads Visitors 90 Introduction and Overview of the Chapter 90 Literature Review 91 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 91 Kingsley’s Story 91 Defining Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 93 CRP in Museum Education 94 CRP in Music Education 96 Visitor Studies 99 xi Visitor Studies in Museums and Museum Education 99 “Visitor Studies” in Music Education 101 Meaning-Making 102 Meaning-Making in Museum Education 102 Meaning-Making in Music Education 104 Method 105 IRB Approval 105 Data Collection and Survey Instrument 105 Data Analysis 107 Results 108 Demographics 108 Visitor Experience 110 Visitor Interaction with Musical Crossroads 112 Musical Genres 114 Concepts and Themes 115 Discussion 118 Demographics 118 Visitor Interaction with Musical Crossroads 119 Interactive Spaces 120 Musical Genres 120 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 121 Visitor Experience 121 Concepts and Themes 122 Conclusion 123 Chapter 6: Curating Music Education: Music Teachers’ Perceptions and Implementations of Smithsonian’s Learning Labs 125 Introduction and Overview of Chapter 125 Literature Review 127 Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships 127 Sirius’s Story 128 Research-Practitioner Partnerships in Museum Education 129 xii Research-Practitioner Partnerships in Music Education 130 Professional Development 131 Professional Development in Music Education 131 Professional Development in Museum Education 132 Object-Based Learning 133 Object-Based Learning in Museums 134 Smithsonian Learning Lab 135 Method 136 Design 136 Sampling 137 Data Collection and Analysis 138 Data Collection 138 Data Analysis 138 Trustworthiness 139 Limitations 139 Participants 140 Frida 140 Shea 142 Will 143 Findings 145 What are the experiences of music teachers who use SLL in their classrooms? 145 Using SLL 145 Lesson Planning 146 How do music teachers who teach various specialties and grade levels incorporate NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads materials in their classroom? 148 Elementary Music 148 Middle School Band 149 High School Music Appreciation 151 How do music teachers perceive and practice culturally relevant pedagogy and object- based learning while using SLL? 153 Frida 153 xiii Shea 155 Will 156 Considerations and Conclusion 157 SLL User Experience 157 Teacher Knowledge of SLL 158 Future Lessons 159 Student Curation 159 Uncertainty 160 Future Research 160 Conclusion 161 Chapter 7: “See You at the Crossroads”: Conclusion and Moving Forward 162 Introduction and Overview of Chapter 162 Study 1: Creating Musical Crossroads 162 Participant Backgrounds 163 Exhibit Themes 164 Curation and Collection 164 The Role of Education 165 Limitations 165 Study 2: Visitor Experiences at Musical Crossroads 166 Demographics 166 Visitor Experiences 167 Visitor Interaction 167 Concepts and Themes 167 Limitations 168 Study 3: Music Teachers’ Perceptions of Smithsonian Learning Lab 168 Participant Experiences with SLL 169 Varied Grade Levels and Classes 170 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Object-Based Learning 171 Limitations 172 Connections, Contributions, and Future Research 172 Connecting the Studies 172 xiv Revisiting the Theoretical Framework 173 Contributions to Music and Museum Education and Future Research 174 Recommendations 177 Final Reflection – At the Crossroads 178 Appendix A: IRB Documents 180 UMD IRB Non-Human Subject Research Determination Form for Study 1 181 UMD IRB Approval Letter for Study 2 182 SI IRB Approval Letter for Study 2 183 UMD IRB Approval Letter for Study 3 184 Appendix B: Data Collection Instruments 185 Sample Interview Protocol for Study 1 186 Survey Instrument for Study 2 189 Sample Interview Protocol for Study 3 201 Appendix C: Training Presentation for Study 3 203 References 207 xv List of Tables Table 5.1 Sociodemographic Characteristics of Survey Participants 109 Table 5.2 Visitor Experience Items 111 Table 5.3 Visitor Interaction with Musical Crossroads Items 113 Table 5.4 Survey Items on Musical Genres 115 Table 5.5 Key Concepts in Musical Crossroads 116 Table 5.6 Five Themes of Musical Crossroads 117 xvi List of Figures Figure 1.1 An Initial Music/Museum Education Research Framework 17 Figure 1.2 A Music Education and Museum Education Exhibit for Researchers 19 Figure 2.1 Smithsonian Castle After Snowfall in 1903 23 Figure 2.2 Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute in Suitland, Maryland 27 Figure 2.3 Architectural Sketch of NMAAHC 36 Figure 2.4 Corona Panel Designed for NMAAHC 38 Figure 2.5 The Porch at NMAAHC 39 Figure 2.6 National Museum of African American History and Culture Floor Map 40 Figure 4.1 Chuck Berry’s Red Cadillac at the Entrance of Musical Crossroads 63 Figure 4.2 Blueprint of Musical Crossroads Layout – East Section 65 Figure 4.3 Blueprint of Musical Crossroads Layout – West Section 65 Figure 4.4 Mock-up of “Great Musical Moments” in Musical Crossroads 66 Figure 4.5 Mock-up of “In the Studio” Interactive at Musical Crossroads 67 Figure 4.6 Mock-up of “Neighborhood Record Store” at Musical Crossroads 69 Figure 5.1 Culturally Relevant Music Learning Model 97 xvii The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it. - James Baldwin 1 Chapter 1: Introduction On September 24th, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opened to the public, becoming the 19th Smithsonian Institution (SI) museum and taking its place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. When NMAAHC opened, it included a permanent exhibition titled Musical Crossroads, which demonstrates “how African American music provided a voice for liberty, justice, and social change” (NMAAHC, 2016). The exhibit is organized by musical genres (e.g., classical, soul, and hip-hop) rather than chronologically and displays music-related artifacts, including instruments, clothing, and other related items. Though SI staff have curated temporary exhibits dedicated to music (National Museum of the American Indian, 2011; S. Dillon Ripley Center, 2012), Musical Crossroads is currently the only permanent music exhibit housed in an SI museum. Outside of SI, attendees can encounter extensive collections of musical instruments and other musical artifacts at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and many other museums in the United States and internationally. Despite the rise in music-related museum exhibits, including Musical Crossroads, and the steadfast public views of museums as places of learning (Crowley et al., 2014; Dudzinska- Przesmitzki & Grenier, 2008; Falk et al., 1998; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992, 1999; Sobel & Jipson, 2016), minimal research examines the intersections of music education and museum education. This document consists of three interrelated studies that situate NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads as a site rich with music teaching and learning. Each study explores this notion from different perspectives of individuals with varying roles in the museum ecosystem, specifically, museum curators and staff, museum visitors, and music educators from the Washington, D.C., 2 Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area and the greater United States, identifying how they individually and collectively experience and facilitate music teaching and learning. Through various research methods–including narrative inquiry, surveys, and multiple case study–I construct a throughline that highlights how music education occurs in each stage of the museum experience and beyond at Musical Crossroads. Organization of the Document In Chapter 1 of the document, I outline the document as a whole and provides rationales for the studies contained herein. First, I detail my positionality as a researcher, explaining how I came to the intersection of music and museums through three formative experiences and how my background complements these studies. Next, I describe the need for each of the three studies by identifying museums as spaces for music teaching and learning, provide a brief overview of music and music education in museums, situate Musical Crossroads as a counter-narrative from traditional museum spaces, and describe the current gaps in music education and museum education literature. Following, I explain the purpose and research questions of each study individually and collectively and highlight NMAAHC as an appropriate and unique research site. Finally, I illustrate my initial research design and overarching theoretical framework for music and museum education research and identify the scope and limitations of the studies. The second chapter is my review of scholarly literature that broadly contextualizes NMAAHC and the SI. Using primary source documents, I detail the history and significance of NMAAHC as a historical and cultural institution, its place within the SI, and its organizational structure, including the museum’s purpose and layout. The chapter also describes how museum staff members from various departments worked in tandem to create the museum and its galleries, establishing the collaborative nature highlighted in the first study. 3 In Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6, I present three empirical studies through which I examine music education as facilitated through Musical Crossroads. Each chapter includes a brief introduction, a relevant literature review, method, results, and discussion sections. In the first study, I completed a narrative inquiry of the music curators and educators who developed Musical Crossroads. I identified how NMAAHC staff incorporated music education pedagogy and delineated the experiential and educational goals set for exhibit visitors. These goals are then explored in the second study, a survey of exhibit visitors that determines if individuals who experience the visit are meeting the expectations set forward by NMAAHC staff. Finally, the third study is a multiple case study examining the experiences of three music educators who utilized the SI Learning Lab program to teach lessons on African American music in their classrooms using Musical Crossroads objects and resources. In Chapter 7, I synthesize the three studies and provide recommendations for future research on and development of Musical Crossroads and related educational programs, and for research involving music education in museum spaces more broadly. Along with the written chapters, I have also created an accompanying digital exhibit that readers can use to explore materials and findings related to this document (see https://bit.ly/objectsounds). This digital exhibit provides a multi-modal opportunity to visualize, hear, and explore the rich data and results featured in this paper. Positionality: Why Music in Museums? The first museum I visited was the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina when I was eight years old in 2002. I remember being entranced by the exhibits on the state’s agricultural past, wondered why my history teachers never talked about narratives of enslaved individuals in school like the museum did, playing at the 4 interactive science exhibition, and touching the giant slice of petrified wood displayed in the museum lobby. After this initial visit, I (often unrequitedly) begged my mother and grandmother to take me every weekend for years until my elementary and middle school classes began taking field trips to the South Carolina State Museum and other museums in the area multiple times per year. Around this time, I also started my journey in music education, taking general music classes in elementary school and joining band on euphonium in sixth grade, just two years after my first museum visit. Even though music and museums were formative parts of my life, both in education and beyond, I never thought of how they were related until much later in my educational career. As my love for museums increased over many years, I became obsessed with visiting the many museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. My first visit to D.C. happened in 2013 while attending the United States Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Workshop, the first major conference I attended related to euphonium playing and low brass education. While at the conference, I had one free day to explore D.C. and the Smithsonian, where I visited 11 SI museums in 10 hours. From seeing dresses worn by every first lady, to a dotted pumpkin sculpted by Yayoi Kusama, to Amelia Earhart’s plane, I had never realized the depth and breadth of history and culture that could be discovered within museum walls. My third formative experience, and the event that led to the creation of this document, was my first visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2017 during my first year as a practicing music teacher. A towering building at the backdrop of the Washington Monument, NMAAHC was a modern behemoth that attempted to encapsulate the monumental challenges and achievements of African 5 Americans, from pre-enslavement to the present day, and with galleries dedicated to sports, visual art, film, music, and community. Although I saw musical objects in other SI museums on prior visits, I had never encountered an exhibition in any museum solely dedicated to music. I was able to view artifacts of musical artists I knew and loved, like Missy Elliott and Luther Vandross, and of musicians I was learning about for the first time, like enslaved flutist Tom Wiggins Greene, and Alton Adams, the first Black bandmaster of the United States Navy. After visiting the exhibit, I immediately began incorporating lessons on the musicians and items on display into my classrooms. I sincerely believed that my students of all ages needed to know this exhibit existed and that the contributions found therein were monumental to music history. Bridging Experiences I only connected the various threads of influence that music and museums had on my development as a student, educator, and researcher once I viewed these three transformative experiences through the lens of being an emerging music education and museum education scholar. In the first experience, I developed a love for music education and museums separately but concurrently, never thinking they were interrelated. During my first visit to D.C., I attended a music educational workshop and the SI museums for the first time, entrenching my obsession with music and museums but continuing to view them as individual entities. Finally, on my first visit to NMAAHC, I began bridging the gaps between music and museums, incorporating my educational experiences into my classrooms and teaching lessons on items from NMAAHC and beyond. As I progressed in my doctoral studies in music education, I began exploring the possibilities of bridging museum education and music education, ultimately completing a 6 concurrent graduate certificate in museum studies and material culture that greatly informed this document. In scouring the literature of both fields, I identified a gap in the research literature on how various manifestations of music teaching and learning can occur in museum spaces. Visiting NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads for the first time was the encounter that first led me to link music education and museums, and due to its unique positioning within SI and museums more broadly, it unfolded as an appropriate and vital location to conduct research for these studies. Positionality as Researcher Alongside outlining my journey to this research through essential experiences, I must also detail my positionality as a researcher. Scholars from the fields of music education (Bennett et al., 2022; Hess, 2018; Kallio, 2021) and museum education (Cruickshanks & van der Vaart, 2019; Kletchka, 2021; Ng et al., 2017) have written on the importance of positionality in education research. In locating and voicing my identity, I strive to use my positionality as a tool for listening (Kallio, 2021), in which I “listen in order to locate ignorance. The term ‘ignorance’ here is employed not to denote stupidity, inferiority, or a lack of capacity for knowing but rather a refusal of the hierarchy of knowledge: a refusal of authority” (p. 62). My identity and experiences represent only one manifestation of knowledge, and each participant in the contained studies have their own complex and vast identities and knowledge. Although I am in a position of power and privilege as a researcher, I acknowledge that the findings in this document are one interpretation of the many individual experiences that make up this research. An essential step in breaking down the ever-present hierarchies between researcher and participant(s) is detailing my identity and how it influences the research process. I identify as a white, queer, disabled, non-binary male music and museum educator and researcher residing in a middle-class household. Through my research, I focus on issues of social justice, 7 marginalization, race, disability, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer/intersex/asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) studies in music education, along with a focus on intersections between music education and museum education related to the issues previously listed. My understanding of these issues and my overall worldview is shaped by my childhood experiences in a lower- middle-class household in a rural, majority-white Southern low-income school district, my time teaching in the same rural district where I attended school, my intersectional queer and disabled identities, and other related life experiences. As this document focuses on a museum and exhibition dedicated to African American history and culture, I attempt to decenter myself, especially my whiteness, by centering the individuals who created and those who visit this space. I have not personally experienced much of the marginalization discussed by others in these studies, and my identity and interactions with various participants inform my perception and analysis of data. As a white person, I acknowledge that whiteness and institutional racism have historically served as the primary marginalizing force that impacts non-white identity groups, especially those who identify as, or have been identified as, Black. In the first study, I used direct quotes from recorded interviews as much as possible to craft the narrative inquiry. I also relay information directly from survey participants in the second study. Additionally, I attempted to include as many works by racial and gender- minoritized scholars as possible when conducting literature reviews for each study. To conclude, this document and the contained studies are only one framing of the background, results, and discussion of the problems I am attempting to address, and these are all impacted by my positionality as an individual and as a researcher. 8 Identification of the Problem Imagine two unique individuals who decide to attend the same temporary exhibit on the history of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The first individual is an elementary general music teacher in New York City public schools who is only visiting this museum to see the music exhibit, and the second individual is a retired non-profit administrator who is a museum member and will include other exhibitions beyond the music exhibit in their visit. The music teacher believes their students will benefit from touring this exhibit and experiencing the objects on display in person, so they contact a museum educator after the visit to inquire if a field trip would be possible. The retired administrator enjoys the exhibit, especially when they see a 1930s Conn trombone like the one their father played when they were a child. While the administrator has no formal music training and will likely not revisit the exhibition, they learned something new about several different instruments during their experience. These two contrasting visitors, with varying backgrounds and motivations, were influenced by the music education processes at play within the museum and exhibition space. One individual will continue this cycle of music teaching and learning with their students, while the other will depart the museum with an informal and culturally relevant educational experience that involved their personal history with music. Although both visitors interact with music teaching and learning in starkly different ways, their unique visits demonstrate the potential for music education pedagogy to function in many ways within these untapped areas of study. In this document, I contend that museums, specifically NMAAHC, can provide spaces conducive to music teaching and learning, as noted in the preceding anecdote. In the following section, I identify several congruent themes between music education and museum education pedagogy, provide an overview of music and music education in museums, situate Musical 9 Crossroads as an example of museum counter-storytelling, and note the gaps in music and museum education literature addressed by this document. Parallel Trends in Music and Museum Education In the last 40 years, museums and similar cultural institutions have shifted their priorities from artifact and collections research to providing educational experiences for visitors (Tišliar, 2017). This development of an educational focus has broadened into the field of museum education and museum pedagogy (Tišliar, 2017), which is rooted in informal learning (Carliner, 2013), culturally relevant educational experiences (Evans, 2013), research-practitioner partnerships (Jipson & Sobel, 2016), and object-based learning (Bunce, 2016; Schultz, 2018). Concurrently, music education researchers have adopted similar pedagogies of informal music learning (Green, 2017), culturally relevant music education (McKoy & Lind, 2016), and music education research partnerships (Austin, 2019). These developments in the literature are detailed in subsequent chapters. I position museum staff, museum visitors, and practicing music educators as vital members of the varying stages of music teaching and learning at NMAAHC. Thus, these three studies broadly examine Musical Crossroads and its use of informal learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the potential for researcher-practitioner partnerships at the intersection of music and museum education. Music (Education) in Museums Alongside the parallel developments in music education and museum education, it is also pertinent to provide an overview of the current state of music and music education in the United States (US). As mentioned, prominent museums and cultural institutions are dedicated solely to music throughout the US. Some examples include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, 10 Ohio; the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California; the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri; the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota; and the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee. Several prominent museums in the US and internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum in London, also contain extensive instrument and musical object collections. Although the most outward-facing components of these institutions are their exhibitions and displays, they also offer abundant educational programming for children, adults, and educators. For example, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (n.d.) provides “free lesson plans, artifact images and materials, videos, playlists and writing prompts all designed by education staff” (n.p.) and onsite programs for school field trips. Similarly, the Musical Instrument Museum (n.d.), which has a collection of over 15,000 instruments, “offers free professional development sessions at the museum for prekindergarten through high school classroom teachers, arts and homeschool educators, and curriculum specialists” (n.p.), including sessions on incorporating science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in music classrooms. Each museum listed previously has similar educational programming, including field trips, tours, online resources for educators and parents, and professional development sessions for practicing music educators. Finally, SI itself has an expansive music collection. The SI music division website (n.d.) states, “the Smithsonian’s combined musical resources constitute the world’s largest museum of music. Music is an integral part of the Smithsonian’s connective tissue, spanning a remarkable number and diversity of collections, programs, and exhibitions” (n.p.). Included in the SI’s music programming and resources, especially on the SI Folkways website, are free online lesson plans 11 for music teachers, interactive games for students, and dozens of videos and audio recordings from the SI’s music collection. Several scholars have also researched various functions music can have in museum spaces, mainly from the fields of musicology and museum curation. Various authors have examined the curation and collections of popular music museums (Baker et al., 2016; Fairchild, 2017; Leonard, 2010), while others have inquired how individuals experience and interpret sound and music in museum spaces (Bailey et al., 2019; Everrett, 2019; Gibson & Connell, 2007; Kannenberg, 2019; Schulze, 2019; Wiens & Visscher, 2019). Despite this growing body of literature connecting the physical presence of music in museum spaces, no identifiable studies examine the music educational experiences found in museums. As Musical Crossroads is the only permanent music exhibition in the “world’s largest museum, education, and research complex” (Smithsonian Institution, n.d., n.p.), utilizing this site aids in establishing this unique positioning within music and museum education literature. Object Sounds: Musical Crossroads as Counter-Story Aside from studying Musical Crossroads' pedagogical aspects, I contend that the exhibit serves as a counter-narrative to traditional museum spaces. Since NMAAHC is an institution dedicated to African American history and culture, and Musical Crossroads is the only music- specific permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution museums, acknowledging its unique position in SI and museums more broadly is essential. A core tenet of critical race theory (CRT) is counter-storytelling. In educational research, this tenet “offers space to conduct and present research grounded in the experiences and knowledge of people of color…stories can be used as theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tools to challenge racism” (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002, p. 23). In music education, counter-storytelling has been used in professional learning 12 communities (Lewis, 2022), to provide autoethnographic accounts of racism and marginalization (Goings, 2015), and to critique resilience in music education (Hess, 2019). Museum education scholars have used counter-storytelling as public pedagogy in community arts programs (Quayle et al., 2016), to promote social justice through autobiographic opportunities for museum visitors (Huhn & Anderson, 2021), and to challenge whiteness in heritage institutions (Griem & Allen, 2022). To link the three individual studies, I posit that Musical Crossroads is an exhibit grounded in counter-storytelling in that it offers a space for visitors to develop “new perspectives in the way African American music is perceived” (Reece, 2016, n.p.) and can offer opportunities for music education, specifically regarding African American music, through informal learning and cultural relevancy. Although other museums in the Smithsonian Institution present exhibitions and artifacts related to both music and African American history and culture, this specific space dedicated to African American music is a stark contrast to the dominant colonial and white male-centered history often found in museum spaces (Kohl & Halter, 2017), specifically in music exhibitions (Leonard, 2007). I title this dissertation “Object Sounds” because of this counter-storytelling aspect, in that the objects on display tell unique stories and that the exhibit itself objects to typical museum narratives. In these studies, I examined how the counter-storytelling in Musical Crossroads affects the decisions and experiences of museum staff, visitors, and music educators. Purpose, Research Questions, and Rationale The purpose of these studies was to examine the utilization of and experiences with music teaching and learning at NMAAHC through the perspectives of museum educators and curators, museum visitors, and music educators. These various stakeholder experiences are 13 essential to crafting a comprehensive overview of music education at and through Musical Crossroads. Each of the studies in this document examines music teaching and learning from increasingly zoomed-in viewpoints, beginning broadly with the crafting of the exhibition, to the current visitor experience, and ending with practicing music educators implementing Musical Crossroads and SI materials in their classrooms. In this section, I provide a brief explanation and research questions for each study that will be expanded upon in subsequent chapters, along with a closing rationale for the studies collectively. Study 1 In the first study, I completed a narrative inquiry that employed oral history interviews of several critical NMAAHC staff members that illustrates the creation of Musical Crossroads. By combining oral histories of museum educators, curators, and designers, I articulate the collaborative design process and development of experiential and educational objectives for the Musical Crossroads exhibition. This study is framed through the concepts of informal learning and culturally relevant pedagogy. The following research questions guided this study: 1. What were the educational, professional, and musical backgrounds of individuals who developed Musical Crossroads? 2. What are the main themes present in Musical Crossroads? a. What is the layout of the exhibit? 3. What was the curation and collection process for Musical Crossroads? 4. What tensions arose between stakeholders in the Musical Crossroads development process? 5. What is the role of education in Musical Crossroads? 14 Study 2 The second study is a survey of museum visitors that I conducted over the course of four months on-site at NMAAHC. In crafting the survey instrument, I incorporated items from previous SI surveys on temporary musical exhibitions along with items based on the educational and experiential goals of Musical Crossroads set forth by museum staff in Study 1. Survey results demonstrate if NMAAHC visitors are meeting the expectations of museum staff and how they are experiencing music teaching and learning within the Musical Crossroads space. Similar to Study 1, this study is framed through the concepts of informal learning and culturally relevant pedagogy, along with the theory of object-based learning. These research questions guided my inquiry: 1. What are the demographics of Musical Crossroads visitors? a. Are demographics associated with how visitors experience the exhibit? 2. What forms of music learning are museum visitors experiencing in Musical Crossroads? 3. Are museum visitors meeting the educational and experiential goals set forth by NMAAHC staff? Why or why not? Study 3 In the final study, I completed a multiple case study with elements of qualitative intervention and program evaluation with three US music teachers. Each participant teaches a different grade level and classroom type (i.e. band, general music, choir, etc.). This study began with the researcher providing a one-hour training session on using SI Learning Labs, a free program that allows educators to create lesson plans and classroom activities using SI’s digitized collections. Participants then created two lessons on African American musical cultures based on items found in Musical Crossroads, with the materials used and focus of the lesson entirely 15 decided on by study participants. I conducted individual interviews with each participant before and after each lesson taught. The goal of this study was to determine music teachers’ perceptions of and experiences with museum-created educational resources to aid in teaching African American musical history and culture. Additionally, this study sought to provide an initial evaluation of Learning Labs in the context of music education as an impetus for expanded SI educational materials and initiatives for music teachers. Like Studies 1 and 2, this study utilized culturally relevant pedagogy and object-based learning as a foundational framework. I employed the following research questions for this final study: 1. What are the experiences of music teachers who use SI Learning Labs in their classrooms? 2. How do music teachers who teach various specialties and grade levels incorporate NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads materials in their classrooms? 3. How do music teachers perceive and practice culturally relevant pedagogy and object- based learning while using SLL? Rationale As explained in the identification of the problem, there is a gap in research literature exploring the connections between music education and museum education pedagogy. These three studies provide an initial step forward in addressing this gap while also examining the music and museum education connection through various stakeholder perspectives. Additionally, NMAAHC serves as an appropriate site to conduct this research due to its unique positioning as a museum and cultural institution. NMAAHC holds one of the largest collections of museums dedicated to African American history and culture in the US and is one of the most visited museums in the SI system (NMAAHC, n.d.). As stated previously, NMAAHC is also the only 16 museum in SI that contains a permanent exhibition dedicated to music, making it an appropriate site to begin this research on music and museum education. Alongside this research addressing critical gaps in music and museum education literature, these studies also provide critical findings that can improve NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads programming moving forward. In a justification letter to the SI institutional review board (IRB), Dr. Dwandalyn Reece, the lead curator of Musical Crossroads and music curator for NMAAHC, explains these benefits. She writes: This research project, which bridges the divide between music education and museum education, is important work and will provide information on both how well the exhibition is accomplishing its stated goals in expanding musical and cultural literacy on the topic and what visitors themselves are drawing from the exhibition’s content and design. The results of this project, in addition to supporting Mr. Folk’s dissertation research, will inform the decisions made by NMAAHC curators when considering new objects and story-telling devices to use in the permanent display. (Reece, 2023a, n.p.) In designing these studies, it was imperative that the research addressed the gap in music and museum literature while also benefiting NMAAHC and the future development of music education at Musical Crossroads. Theoretical Framework The previously outlined intersections between informal learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and researcher-practitioner partnerships in music education and museum education research present a unique space for expanding both fields and improving the music learning experiences of museum visitors and other stakeholders. In an initial framework for studying these connections between music teaching and learning in museum spaces (see Figure 1.1), I 17 situate these ties between music and museum pedagogy using the three main themes. In creating this framework, I establish an initial agenda for music education and/or museum education researchers to reference, primarily through establishing research-practitioner partnerships (RPP) and examining how research on music teaching and learning in institutions inform museum practices. This framework serves as a foundation for each of the three studies, with each study relying on varying combinations of the primary concepts. Study 1 examines informal learning and culturally relevant pedagogy, Study 2 utilizes informal learning and culturally relevant pedagogy, and Study 3 includes elements from informal learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and RPP. I present detailed literature reviews on these topics with an imagined narrative in each study chapter. I discuss informal learning in Chapter 3 (Study 1), culturally relevant pedagogy in Chapter 5, and RPP in Chapter 6. Figure 1.1 An Initial Music/Museum Education Research Framework 18 A Music/Museum Education Research “Exhibit” The intersections between informal learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and RPP in music education and museum education research present a unique space for expanding both fields and improving the music educational experiences of museum visitors and other stakeholders. In an initial framework for studying music teaching and learning in museum spaces (see Figure 1.2), I situate these connections between music and museum pedagogy through an exhibit diagram. In the figure, music education and museum education researchers interact with common pedagogies by using different pathways, as visitors in a museum would experience an exhibit. The music education researcher first visits music education pedagogy, then informal learning, museum education pedagogy, culturally relevant pedagogy, and finally, RPP. The museum education researcher has a different trajectory but still experiences all the connections present in the exhibit. In creating this framework, I establish an initial agenda for music education and/or museum education researchers to reference, including the studies in this document, primarily through establishing RPP and examining how research on music teaching and learning in institutions can inform museum education practices. Figure 1.2 A Music Education and Museum Education Exhibit for Researchers 19 Many more elements connect music and museum pedagogy besides informal learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and RPP. However, these aspects of both fields have a substantial foundation in the literature and therefore serve as the roots of this framework. Outside of the studies in this document, future scholars can employ this framework and should especially pay close attention to the cyclical nature between research and practice in studying music teaching and learning in museum spaces, in which jointly negotiated partnerships between researchers and practitioners are mutually beneficial in expanding theoretical, methodological, and practical knowledge of both fields. 20 Scope and Limitations The studies contained in this document are limited specifically to NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads, and to the time the studies were conducted. In the first study, I was only able to report the findings of museum staff members who were willing and able to participate. Some NMAAHC staff members who were involved in the development of Musical Crossroads no longer work at NMAAHC or were unavailable to participate, therefore, the narrative inquiry does not include every perspective of museum staff. For the survey study, I am only able to relay the experiences provided by those who willingly participated in the survey and who were able to visit NMAAHC in person. While some issues of museum accessibility are outlined in Chapter 2, a long-form examination of accessibility and exclusion for marginalized populations at NMAAHC and Musical Crossroads is beyond the scope of this document. Finally, the multiple case study is only representative of the three participants’ unique experiences. While I made several efforts to support the validity and reliability of these studies, each study has limitations, which are explained in greater detail in their respective chapters. 21 Chapter 2: Contextualizing the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African American History and Culture This is the place to understand how protest and love of country don’t merely coexist but inform each other; how men can proudly win the gold for their country but still insist on raising a black-gloved fist. Here’s the America where the razor-sharp uniform of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff belongs alongside the cape of the Godfather of Soul. We have shown the world that we can float like butterflies and sting like bees; that we can rocket into space like Mae Jemison, steal home like Jackie, rock like Jimi, stir the pot like Richard Pryor; or we can be sick and tired of being sick and tired, like Fannie Lou Hamer, and still Rock Steady like Aretha Franklin. And that's what this museum explains -- the fact that our stories have shaped every corner of our culture. The struggles for freedom that took place made our Constitution a real and living document, tested and shaped and deepened and made more profound its meaning for all people. (Obama, 2016) This excerpt, taken from former President Barack Obama’s speech at the official dedication of the National Museum of African American History (NMAAHC) on September 24th, 2016, succinctly illustrates the breadth and significance of this unique and essential cultural institution. Obama drew parallels between distinct figures in African American history and culture like Colin Powell, James Brown, Muhammad Ali, Mae Jemison, Jackie Robinson, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Pryor, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Aretha Franklin. Even before the museum was open to the public, connections were established between important historical and cultural figures that would remain a crucial focus in NMAAHC’s mission. 22 The purpose of this chapter is to provide a broad contextual framing of the Smithsonian Institution (SI) and NMAAHC in relation to the three studies I conducted. As noted in Obama’s (2016) speech, this museum is a place where African American history and culture work in tandem. Although the studies focus specifically on music education in Musical Crossroads, situating the exhibit within the larger frame of SI and NMAAHC is crucial in establishing its role and importance in the museum. This chapter includes a broad history of the SI, details regarding the fight to establish NMAAHC, NMAAHC’s organization and layout, the external and internal design of NMAAHC, the museum’s staff structure and collaborative processes, how education functions within the museum, and other pertinent information. To develop this overview, I consulted primary and secondary source documents, including official records of and texts published by the Smithsonian Institution and NMAAHC. I scrutinize the information provided in this chapter further in Chapters 3 and 4, specifically regarding the development of Musical Crossroads. A Castle on the Mall: Smithsonian Past and Present The Smithsonian Institution (SI) has remained a beacon of progress, innovation, and history for almost 200 years (Post, 2013). In the following sections, I broadly trace the history of the SI from its inception to the present, establishing its importance and unique positioning as a national institution in the US capital. This framing of SI is also pertinent in proceeding segments that contextualize NMAAHC’s place within SI. From Smithson to Smithsonian James Smithson (1765–1829) was a British chemist and mineralogist and the sole founding donor of the SI. Upon becoming deceased in 1829, his will proclaimed that his estate should “found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment 23 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men” (Smithson, 1829, n.p.), despite Smithson never visiting Washington, D.C. during his life (where he is now entombed in the vestibule of the Smithsonian Castle). After two decades of debate in the US House of Representatives following Smithson’s death, in which members of congress proposed various uses for Smithson’s estate, including a university, a national library, and a publishing house, the SI was formed as a “suitable building with rooms for…natural history objects, a library, and an art gallery…all objects of art and natural history belonging to the United States should be transferred to and held within the Smithsonian” (H.R. Con. Res. 5, 1846). Several key dates in the SI’s history followed this resolution, including the building of the Smithsonian Castle (1855) (see Figure 2.1), the SI being designated as the “National Museum of the United States” (1857), and the openings of the National Zoological Park (1891), Natural History Museum (1910), Freer Gallery of Art (1923), and National Museum of American History (1964). Figure 2.1 Smithsonian Castle After Snowfall in 1903 24 Note. Photograph of Smithsonian Castle from 1903 by an unknown photographer. Reprinted from Historic Pictures of the Smithsonian, by Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 2023 from https://siarchives.si.edu/history/historic-pictures-smithsonian/smithsonian-institution- building-castle. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. Legal History The SI is a “trust instrumentality” of the US government, allowing the organization to carry out Smithson’s final wishes. Congress created a Smithsonian Board of Regents (H.R. Con. Res. 5, 1846) to complete these duties, which currently consists of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, the Vice President, three members of the US Senate and three members of the US House of Representatives, and nine citizen members appointed by the US Congress. As a federal establishment, the SI is uniquely positioned. It is not an executive branch agency and does not have regulatory powers except over its own buildings and grounds. However, it is part of the federal government and free from state and local regulation. Unlike most federal agencies, the SI can accept gifts and generate revenue outside federal appropriations (SI Office of the General Counsel, n.d.). Funding for the SI comes from federal appropriations, donations, and investments. The museums and divisions of SI have been created through various means, including acts of Congress and decisions of the SI Board of Regents. However, the museums and divisions have “no separate, independent legal status: they are all part of the same legal ‘whole,’ the Smithsonian Institution” (SI Office of the General Counsel, n.d., n.p.). Governance and Organization The SI is led by a Secretary of the Smithsonian, considered its chief executive officer. The first SI Secretary, established in the 1846 legislation, was Joseph Henry, who formulated an initial organization of the SI, developed scientific research laboratories, and oversaw the 25 construction of initial museum buildings (SI Archives, n.d.). Lonnie G. Bunch III is, as of this writing, the current SI Secretary and the first Black individual to serve in this role. Along with the SI Secretary are the aforementioned Board of Regents, who are tasked with electing a secretary, evaluating the secretary’s performance, reviewing SI’s strategic plan, approving SI budgets, and working with the US Congress on budgetary and human resource concerns. Museums and Research Centers The SI is considered the “largest museum and research complex in the world” (SI, n.d.) and comprises 19 museums and the National Zoo, located in Washington, D.C., Maryland, New York City, and Virginia. The current museums that make up the SI include: • Smithsonian Institution Building, “The Castle” (Washington, D.C., opened 1855) • National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C., opened 1858) • Arts and Industries Building (Washington, D.C., opened 1881) • National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (Washington D.C., opened 1889) • Cooper Hewitt – Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, NY opened 1897) • Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., opened 1923) • National Air and Space Museum (Washington, D.C., opened 1946) • National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C., opened 1964) • National Museum of American History (Washington, D.C., opened 1964) • Anacostia Community Museum (Washington, D.C., opened 1967) • Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C., opened 1968) • National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C., opened 1968) • Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C., opened 1972) • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C., opened 1974) 26 • Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Washington, D.C., opened 1987) • National Postal Museum (Washington, D.C., opened 1993) • National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center (New York, NY opened 1994) • National Air and Space Museum Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center (Chantilly, VA, opened 2003) • National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C., opened 2004) • National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C., opened 2016) Additionally, the US Congress passed resolutions to form the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum (H.R. Con. Res. 1980, 2019) and the National Museum of the American Latino (H.R. Con. Res. 2420, 2019). These museums are currently in the fundraising and collection stages and are both at least 10 years from opening (American Women’s History Museum, 2023, n.p.). Alongside its museums, the SI has nine research centers across the US utilized to advance scholarly work in the arts, sciences, and other areas. Currently, the SI research centers include: • Smithsonian Libraries (Washington, D.C.; Suitland, MD; Edgewater, MD; Landover, MD; New York, NY; Panama City, Republic of Panamá; founded 1846) • Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA; Mt. Hopkins, AZ; Mauna Kea, HI; founded 1890) • Smithsonian Institution Archives (Washington, D.C., founded 1891) • Archives of American Art (Washington, D.C., founded 1954) • Museum Conservation Institute (Suitland, MD, founded 1963) (see figure 2.2) 27 • Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (Edgewater, MD, founded 1965) • Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce (Fort Pierce, FL, founded 1971) • Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (Front Royal, VA, founded 1975) • Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama City, Republic of Panamá) Figure 2.2 Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute in Suitland, Maryland Note. Undated photograph of Museum Conservation Institute, which holds the majority of SI collections, by Jeff Tinsley. Reprinted from Museum Conservation Institute, by Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 2023 from https://siarchives.si.edu/history/museum-conservation- institute. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. 28 “Who Owns America’s Past?” Controversy at The Smithsonian Despite its position as an internationally renowned cultural and educational institution, the SI has faced many controversies since its inception. Due to the long and troubled road related to NMAAHC’s creation as detailed below, it is important to highlight some of these past issues to dispel the notion that the SI is an unimpeachable institution with no problematic components in its storied history. The SI has especially had many controversies surrounding its treatment of racially minoritized individuals and artifacts/specimens from marginalized cultures, which serves as a precursor to the challenges faced by NMAAHC in its early stages. The proceeding sections detail some prominent examples of these past (and present) controversies. Confronting Difficult Moments The SI has frequently had to wrestle with how to display difficult events in America’s history, partially due to contradictions in the mission of the institution. Archibald (2014) writes: Many museums struggle with articulating their purpose, but the Smithsonian is particularly burdened by a mandate fraught with contradictions. It is expected to be all things to all people: a museum “of the people” and yet a place for elite scholarship; a museum that honors the free-minded pursuit of culture and yet doesn’t offend mainstream mores; a museum that serves the interests of Congress and is yet historically objective; a museum that selects, curates, and filters, but is all-inclusive; a museum that represents living culture and is yet a repository of objects; and finally, a museum at the vanguard of historiography and museum practice, yet governed by stakeholders with contempt for academic trends. The Smithsonian’s tortured bureaucratic maneuverings magnify the awkward fit between intellectual inquiry and American pragmatism; to some degree, the Smithsonian spells the fate of culture in mainstream America. (n.p.) 29 With so many contradictions at the heart of the SI’s purpose as a cultural and educational institution, curators and other staff are impossibly tasked with displaying and interpreting history, science, and culture that appeases all stakeholders. A prominent example of this impossible mission occurred in the 1990’s with a proposed exhibit on the Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum. The Enola Gay, which dropped the first and only atomic bombs in warfare on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, was to be the subject of a display that questioned the reasoning in the US resorting to atomic weapons in WWII. The exhibition would have displayed the fuselage of the plane alongside graphic photos of its victims instead of being shown as a technological marvel that aided in a heroic mission. WWII veterans expressed immense outrage at the proposed exhibit, and the Republican- controlled Congress threatened to pull SI funding, causing the exhibit to be cancelled (Post, 2013). This example illustrates the conflict present in the SI’s institutional mission of accurately portraying historical events while not angering potential detractors, especially those who provide funding. Similar events have occurred throughout the history of the SI. In 1966, National Museum of American History (NAMH) curator Peter West acquired a railroad-flat “slum dwelling” (Archibald, 2014, n.p.). He wanted to put this dwelling in an exhibit on population growth, highlighting poverty in America during the 19th century. There was widespread derision on this decision both within the Smithsonian and from the broader public. A letter to the Washington Post following the exhibit announcement asked if the SI should also “overlook the brothel, the abattoir, or the privy? How about a hanging, or better, a lynching?” (Archibald, 2014, n.p.). In this instance, instead of articulating why displaying a slum was important, the SI fired West, cancelled the exhibit, and hired Daniel Boorstin as the new NMAH director. Boorstin (1968) 30 infamously noted in his first speech as director that under his leadership, the museum would not take part in “self-flagellation” (n.p.). Other exhibits that proved controversial and experienced threat of cancellation included an exhibition on same-sex intimacy titled “Hide/Seek” at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010 (Ulaby, 2011) and a gallery titled “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States” at the NAMH in 2022 (National Museum of the American Latino, 2023). These events highlight the SI’s ongoing struggle to balance its multifaceted mission while contending with unique financial and governing structures, an issue that is prominent in the creation of NMAAHC detailed in proceeding sections. The Racial Brain Collection Additionally, the SI, like many museums and cultural institutions, has a troubled history in its handling and displaying of racially minoritized communities and cultures. While these practices are well-documented in the research literature (Henderson & Kaeppler, 2016; Nichols, 2014), I detail a recent controversy surrounding the SI’s “racial brain collection” (Dungca & Healy, 2023). In August 2023, the Washington Post published an article detailing a collection of 268 brains of Black and Indigenous individuals removed upon death in the early 1900s at the request of Ales Hrdlicka, a then curator at SI. Dungca and Healy (2023) write: The remains are the unreconciled legacy of a grisly practice in which bodies and organs were taken from graveyards, battlefields, morgues and hospitals in more than 80 countries. The decades-long effort was financed and encouraged by the taxpayer- subsidized institution. The collection, which was mostly amassed by the early 1940s, has long been hidden from view…The vast majority of the remains appear to have been gathered without consent from the individuals or their families, by researchers preying on people who were hospitalized, poor, or lacked immediate relatives to identify or bury 31 them. In other cases, collectors, anthropologists and scientists dug up burial grounds and looted graves. (n.p.) The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), which holds the racial brain collection, has only repatriated four brains in the almost 100 years since the collection began. This is partially due to an SI policy that requires individuals with a legal right or personal interest to make a formal request for repatriation. To begin addressing this racist and unethical collection, current SI Secretary Lonnie Bunch, III, (2023) issued an apology and formed a new Human Remains Task Force housed at SI. Bunch stated, “what was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families and their communities, and I look forward to the conversations this initiative will generate in helping us perform our cutting-edge research in a manner that is ripe with scholarship and conforms to the highest ethical standard” (n.p.). At the time of this document, the SI has released no further updates on repatriation of the brains or any other human remains in their collection. The cases written about in the preceding sections, primarily the controversies of the Enola Gay exhibit and the racial brain collection, demonstrate the past and present realities of the SI’s mission and practices. While a full history of issues at the SI is beyond the scope of this document, the complex does have many accomplishments and is still a worthy site to conduct research. However, the SI is not infallible and has a future of continuing to reckon with its problematic past. 32 Conclusion Due to its museum, research centers, and collections, which include over 150 million objects and specimens, the SI is a uniquely situated institution in the museum field. The SI Collections division states that SI holdings are an “astonishing record of American and international artistic, historical, cultural, and scientific achievement…include works of art, historical artifacts, living animals and plants, images, archives, libraries, audio and visual media, and digital assets. In terms of sheer numbers, Smithsonian collections have a scope and depth that no other institution in the world can match” (SI Collections, n.d., n.p.). Similar to the SIs status as a government entity, several countries contain government-operated museums, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and England, UK. Some museums and cultural institutions in the US have overwhelming individual collections, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Despite these large individual institutions, no museum in the US outside of SI is under the purview of or organized by the federal government, making the SI a unique case for study within the context of this document. This contextualization of the SI is critical for the proceeding sections on NMAAHC’s history. Building a Beacon: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture Unique in its own right within the SI, NMAAHC faced over 100 years of struggle, pushback, and argument before taking its place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The following segment of this chapter details the long fight for NMAAHC, how the museum was designed externally and internally, the museum’s physical organization and layout, and how NMAAHC provides educational opportunities for visitors and educators. 33 Missing Memorials Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, individuals began advocating for institutions and landmarks that memorialized the contributions of African Americans as none existed at that time (Wilson, 2016). Organizations like the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) dedicated memorial plaques to Black soldiers at important Civil War battle sites, and the annual pilgrimage to these sites eventually led to the establishment of Memorial Day as a national holiday. Simultaneously proud of their service but excluded from prominent Civil War memorials, Black Americans, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass, campaigned for national and local monuments honoring African American soldiers. Douglass (ca. the late 1800s) writes, “I am more than pleased with the patriotic purpose to erect…a monument in honor of the colored soldier who, under great discouragements, at the moment of the national peril, volunteered to go to the front and fight for their country” (n.p.). Following these unanswered cries for a national monument, the GAR and related organizations established the National Association for the Erection of a Monument at the National Capital in Honor of the Negro Soldiers and Sailors Who Fought in the Wars of Our Country in 1916, which was later shortened to the National Memorial Association. The first bill to establish a national museum and monument dedicated to African American history was introduced by Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer in 1916 (H.R. Res. 18721), 100 years before the opening of NMAAHC. Several successive bills were introduced in the proceeding years to establish a national museum, including in 1928 (H.R. Con. Res. 60, A Bill Authorizing the Memorial Building in Commemoration of the Negro’s Contribution to the Achievements of America) and 1968 (A Bill to Establish a National Commission on Negro History and Culture). Congressman James W. Taylor (1928) wrote in his resolution that the “memorial would take the shape of a brick public 34 building rather than a towering shaft or useless pile of stone” (n.p.), entrenching the idea of a museum dedicated to African Americans and not just a monument. Several prominent African American history and culture museums emerged throughout the 20th century, including the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio (1987); the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1968); the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee (1920); and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1976). Despite these institutions’ creation and the establishment of the African American Museums Association (AAMA), which lobbied for a national museum for decades, bills proposing a national African American history and culture museum in Washington, D.C., continued to fail. Signed Into Law In 1988, Congressman John Lewis sponsored the National African American Heritage Museum and Memorial Act, with Lewis becoming the museum’s most public and fierce spokesperson (Bogues & Bunch, 2015). Following, in 1989, Lewis introduced a revised bill that stipulated the museum would be included in the SI. During the years when Lewis and others attempted to establish the museum, SI featured exhibits related to African American history and culture in its museums, including “Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration 1915-1940” (National Museum of American History, 1987-2006). Beginning in 1988, John Lewis reintroduced the National African American Heritage Museum and Memorial Act in every congressional session to no avail due to detractors from House of Representatives Republicans and Democrats. Various congresspeople pushed against Lewis’s proposals for reasons of financial hurdles, space on the National Mall, and perceived lack of rationale for the museum. Finally, in 2001 and 2003, respectively, Congress passed the National Museum of African American History and Culture Plan for Action Presidential 35 Commission Act (2001), establishing a presidential commission to study the possibility of founding NMAAHC, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act (2003), which established the museum as part of the SI. The two acts were consequently signed into law by former President George W. Bush. In the following years, NMAAHC Director Lonnie G. Bunch, III and other museum staff had the monumental task of raising millions of dollars in funding, securing a site for the museum to be approved by Congress, designing the museum, and building a collection. NMAAHC officially broke ground on February 22nd, 2012, and the museum opened to the public on September 24th, 2016, over 100 years after the creation of the National Memorial Association. Beginning with the Past: Designing NMAAHC’s Exterior In 2007, SI selected Max Bond and Philip G. Frelon, who had collectively designed the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, and San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, to develop an organizational plan for NMAAHC (Wilson, 2016). Core programming and design teams also met with scholars from Yale, Brown, Columbia, and Howard Universities for input on museum content and scope. Additionally, six architecture firms were selected to submit proposals for the museum, with Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, a collaboration between Max Bond, Philip G. Frelon, David Adjaye, and SmithGroup, eventually winning the bid (see Figure 2.3). The NMAAHC architects conclusively “believed that the building should participate in the storytelling and should have a hand in expressing the mission and vision of the institution” (Wilson, 2016, p. 62). 36 Figure 2.3 Architectural Sketch of NMAAHC Note. Artist rendering of NMAAHC created by David Adjaye of Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup from 2010. Reprinted from Design for National Museum of African American History and Culture, by Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 2023 from https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_12690. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. The Porch, the Corona, and Celebration Various aspects of African American history and cultures influenced the architects and designers of NMAAHC, including shotgun houses of the South, Yoruban art and architecture, antebellum cast-iron metalwork, and the “ring shout” of African American dance. Wilson (2016) writes, “for more than three hundred years, these unique sites and architectural features served 37 as…visual reminders of spaces where African Americans shared the bonds of family, community, and citizenship…support the Museum’s mission to ‘bridge a gap in our national memory’” (p. 74). Complementing the unique positioning of NMAAHC as a counter-narrative to traditional museums in Chapter 1, architect David Adjaye, comparing NMAAHC to other SI museums, states, “Black scenography of architectural space can play a counter to the classical, traditional way of making space and offer really creative alternatives” (Wilson, 2016, p. 74). It is important to note that the content, scope, and galleries of NMAAHC present a counter-narrative to other SI museums and that the building itself also serves this purpose, especially considering its place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. As mentioned, three fundamental design aspects of the museum architecture are Yoruban columns, shotgun house porches, and the “ring shout” motion in African American dance. The three-tiered metallic portion on NMAAHC’s exterior, dubbed the “corona” by museum architects, features 3,600 bronze-colored cast-aluminum panels (see Figure 2.4), which draw inspiration from antebellum-era metallurgy. The trapezoidal structure of NMAAHC, seen in the artist rendering from Figure 2.3, was inspired by the sculptures of Olowe of Ise, an early 20th- century Yoruban artist whose work was used as columns to support porches of shrine houses (Wilson, 2016). The motion of the three tiers upwards to the sky is also meant to evoke the “ring shout,” a ceremony or ritual in African American culture where an individual or group throws their hands up in celebration. Finally, the outside entrance to the museum evokes a porch, a typical covered outdoor space featured in shotgun houses of the US South. The NMAAHC porch, which measures 200 feet long and extends 44 feet from the corona (see Figure 2.5), serves as a transition space from the museum’s exterior and the central interior hall and welcoming space. These fundamental elements of NMAAHC’s exterior reflect the museum’s mission of 38 creating a space, both inside and out, that reflects the rich past and future of African American history and culture. Figure 2.4 Corona Panel Designed for NMAAHC Note. Bronze-colored aluminum-cast panel that make up the NMAAHC corona structure from 2013. Reprinted from Corona panel designed for NMAAHC, by National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2023 from https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2016.41.3. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. 39 Figure 2.5 The Porch at NMAAHC Note. Photograph of the porch on the exterior of NMAAHC from 2016. Reprinted from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2023 from https://twitter.com/NMAAHC/status/776788315391557633. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. Inside NMAAHC: Museum Organization and Layout Complementing its impressive and culturally significant exterior, the inside of NMAAHC is also critical to examine from a design and organizational standpoint. NMAAHC is over 400,000 square feet large and consists of 10 stories, with five stories located underground and five stories aboveground (Wilson, 2016). When visitors arrive at the museum, they enter through 40 the Heritage Hall, a “meeting space” (Adjaye, 2016, n.p.), which then leads downstairs to the history galleries or upstairs to the culture galleries (see Figure 2.6). In the following sections, I briefly describe each history and culture gallery and its importance in the museum. Figure 2.6 National Museum of African American History and Culture Floor Map Note. Illustrated floor map for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Reprinted from Museum Maps, by National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2023 from https://nmaahc.si.edu/visit/museum-maps. Copyright Smithsonian Institution. History Galleries The NMAAHC history galleries comprise the museum's bottom three floors, each representing a different historical period. Visitors first enter the “Slavery and Freedom” gallery on level C3 (see Figure 2.1 throughout), which encompasses the era between the early 15th century and 1875 and contains items like Harriet Tubman’s shawl, Nat Turner’s bible, and Frederick Douglass’s cane (NMAAHC, n.d., n.p.). While heavily emphasizing the horrors of 41 enslavement, the exhibit space also includes objects related to community building and cultural development among African Americans during this period. The second history gallery on level C2 is titled “Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: Era of Segregation 1876-1968” and “explores the years after the end of Reconstruction, examining how the nation struggled to define the status of African Americans” (Wilson, 2016, p. 120). This gallery includes objects related to significant individuals who were influential in the advancement of civil rights, like Rosa Parks’s dress, Thurgood Marshall’s glasses and watch, and Emmett Till’s casket. Additionally, the gallery features significant items related to African American culture, including a pew from the Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and bricks from several prominent historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Finally, visitors ascend to the last history gallery, located on level C1 and titled “A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond,” which “explores contemporary Black life through stories about the social, economic, political, and cultural experiences of African Americans during the years from the death of Martin Luther King Jr. to the second election of Barack Obama” (NMAAHC, n.d., n.p.). This gallery contains the most artifacts related to African American culture of the three galleries, including objects like Oprah Winfrey’s couch, publications by Sonia Sanchez and Alice Walker, and the keyboard used by Sly Stone. The NMAAHC history galleries present a broad timeline of African American history from pre-enslavement to the present day, interweaving significant historical and cultural artifacts to craft a narrative of struggle, perseverance, hope, and monumental achievement. Again, the interplay between history and culture through every facet of history and culture galleries is crucial in tracing the museum’s experiential goals for visitors. 42 Culture and Community Galleries The culture and community galleries at NMAAHC are housed on the top two floors of the museum and are organized by theme instead of chronologically like the history galleries. In the community gallery on floor L3, exhibits include “Making a Way Out of No Way,” highlighting education, medicine, women’s history, and businesses, and “Double Victory: The African American Military Experience,” focusing on military history. The community gallery also hosts the “Sports: Leveling the Playing Field” exhibit, which contains significant artifacts and narratives related to sports as a catalyst for social change. Floor L4 hosts the NMAAHC culture gallery, which includes four distinct spaces: “Taking the Stage,” “Musical Crossroads,” “Visual Art and the American Experience,” and “Cultural Expressions.” “Taking the Stage” contains television, film, comedy, dance, and theatre items, while “Visual Art and the American Experience” includes rotating visual artworks from prominent and emerging Black artists. “Cultural Expressions” showcases various contributions African American artists have made to fashion, design, and other cultural realms. Musical Crossroads is detailed extensively in Chapter 4 and is the largest of the three exhibits; it contains important objects from historic and modern musicians along with interactive digital spaces. Education at NMAAHC Although I examine educational programming related to Musical Crossroads extensively in Chapter 4, it is beneficial to provide a brief layout of NMAAHC’s educational initiatives in this broader contextualization chapter. NMAAHC offers extensive educational resources for educators, students, parents, and adults. NMAAHC hosts multi- and single-day professional development sessions for educators and provides free resources and lesson plans through Smithsonian Learning Lab (see Chapter 6). NMAAHC also hosts reading challenges, National 43 History Day events, and gallery guides for student visitors aged 3rd-12th grade. Further examination of NMAAHC’s educational outreach is provided in Chapters 3 and 4 of this document. Conclusion This overview of the museum’s exterior, the interior layout, how the galleries are organized, and the interrelation between history and culture are vital in establishing Musical Crossroads as a significant component of NMAAHC and a site conducive to music teaching and learning as shown in the three contained studies. 44 Chapter 3: “If It Can Tell a Story” - The Past, Present, and Future of Musical Crossroads - Part I Introduction and Overview of the Chapter Curating and developing an exhibit at any museum or cultural institution requires collaboration and coordination between curators, educators, designers, and various other museum staff members (Obrist, 2014; Pegno & Ferrar, 2017; Villeneuve, 2019; Villeneuve & Love, 2017). Related to the Smithsonian Institution (SI), researchers have focused on the experiential and educational factors associated with the curation of various exhibits and programming, including fossil halls (Marsh, 2019), computer technology (Foti, 2018), photography (Haberstitch, 1985), and the SI Folklife Festival (Cadaval et al., 2016). Additionally, museum scholars have completed work specifically centered on the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), including NMAAHC’s digitization practices (Coyle, 2018), the curation of Black Lives Matter collections at NMAAHC (Salahu-Din, 2019), and the museum’s educational initiatives (Cross, 2017; Flanagan, 2017; Hindley & Edwards, 2017). Separately from research on museum curation and education at SI and NMAAHC, authors have built connections between music and museums, especially related to popular music curation (Baker et al., 2016; Fairchild, 2017; Leonard, 2007, 2010; Wiens & de Visscher, 2019). The purpose of this study (Study 1) was to examine the development of the Musical Crossroads exhibit at NMAAHC through narrative inquiry. By completing oral history interviews with several museum staff members, including exhibition curators and research assistants, I traced the evolution of Musical Crossroads’ creation, the collections process, museum department collaboration,