“I’m worried about the strong partisanship in the United States right now”, Secretary Lonnie Bunch commented during a compelling conversation with Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at this year’s Annual Humanities Horizons event.
In a wide-ranging discussion, the Head of the Smithsonian touched on the challenging political climate in the United States and why museums are more important than ever in helping to support educators with the issues they are facing. A historian of the 19th century, Secretary Bunch described a museum as “the biggest classroom” which at its best, creates conversation between people.
As the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, Bunch spoke of how he rose through the ranks of the renowned institution and now oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centres and several education units and centres. One of the joys of being in charge is that you realise that the “Smithsonian is the glue that helps hold the nation together”, he explained. It’s a place where art, history and science all come together “to help people find understanding, find clarity, and maybe find a little hope.”
Secretary Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He spoke of the momentous efforts he led to fundraise for the museum, and the “challenge of doing something that nobody believes you can do.” The museum has now welcomed more than 8 million visitors since its opening and has compiled a collection of 40,000 objects. In his speech at its official opening in 2016, President Barack Obama said that a museum “reminds us that routine discrimination and Jim Crow aren't ancient history, it's just a blink in the eye of history. It was just yesterday.”
Six weeks after President Obama spoke at the dedication of the new museum, a new president was elected and the pendulum of history had swung yet again, said Secretary Bunch. His experience across three presidential administrations is detailed in his book A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama and Trump.
Secretary Bunch added “no one knew how eight years later we’d be in such a partisan time but it means the museum is even more important.” “The challenge of the Smithsonian is really the challenge that we see today in America,” he said, “to understand the importance of scholarship and expertise, and understand the importance of making that expertise available.”
Throughout a fascinating conversation, Secretary Bunch touched on questions of colonial legacies, and spoke of his work in South Africa and the impact that the Smithsonian has had globally. He said the African American museum was a “beacon” to allow people all over the world to tell difficult stories about their histories and “illuminate all the dark corners of a people’s experience.”
For him, the museum is a not a platform to talk about race but about “possibility”.
“We’re not building a museum, we’re building an institution that matters”, said Secretary Bunch as he went on to speak about the transformative power of cultural institutions. These places have a fundamental responsibility to “take the risk to change a nation” or face the alternative of being “really wonderful places of nostalgia”.
“Nostalgia is something you do on a Saturday afternoon, but transformation is the rest of your life.”
The Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture was established by the Trinity Long Room Hub in 2013 to provide a significant contribution to reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and Humanities. Previous speakers have included Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor Homi K. Bhabha and Professor Anthea Butler.
During his visit to Ireland, Senator Lonnie Bunch also spoke on RTÉ's Culture File about discovering his Irish heritage and the ambivalent feelings associated with his ancestry.