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Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives moving to new, larger home

Artifacts at GRAAMA
Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives
/
graama.org/support
Artifacts at GRAAMA

The founder of the GRAAMA shares more details of the planned move to a space 15 times bigger than the current site

For several of the last eight years, the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives has been bursting at the seams on Monroe Center.

“Our space here doesn't give us very much room to show our collection. Matter of fact, we probably have 90% of our collection still in storage.”

Now founder George Bayard says the museum will have space and opportunity after a move to a new building at 41 Sheldon Street SE.

Proposed new site of the GRAAMA at 41 Sheldon Street SE, Grand Rapids
Source: GRAAMA
Proposed new site of the GRAAMA at 41 Sheldon Street SE, Grand Rapids

“It’s going from a 2000 square-foot building to a 30,000 square-foot building.”

The site has previously been home to Compass College of Film, an
ArtPrize hub and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

It offers more space for exhibits and events, room for a new research center, gift shop, possible recording studio, and more.

“Because it has a 170-seat auditorium, we've already been approached by choirs, by churches, by acting groups that want to come in and actually lease out the space before we’ve even written one check. It has its own café in there and somebody's already approached us to put a brewery in there, so we were looking at all options.”

Bayard says the museum is finalizing the contract to purchase the building and raising funds to complete the vision.

There will be some renovations needed but he hopes to begin moving in by the end of the year.

“We probably could start to have people come through in Black History Month in February and that's when we're shooting for.”

For those wanting to contribute, Bayard suggests signing up for a membership on the GRAAMA website.

Staff would also like volunteers to help sort and pack materials for the move in the coming months,

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