IP Stanback Museum & Planetarium's Student Friends of the Museum Co-Chair Davion Petty is in China!

Way to go, Davion!

Smithsonian Visitors

The IP Stanback Museum and Planetarium was honored to have three curators from the Smithsonian Institution's new museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, visit June 25.

From the official Smithsonian press release:

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established in 2003 by an Act of Congress. Although it does not have a building yet, the museum is collecting artifacts; conducting seminars and symposia, including a recent two-day program on Black Power; gathering African American oral histories for StoryCorps, a joint program with National Public Radio and the Library of Congress; and creating traveling exhibitions such as “Let Your Motto Be Resistance.” In addition, the museum has its own gallery in the National Museum of American History, which currently is exhibiting 'The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise."

David Adjaye will be the lead designer for the Museum, set to open to the public in 2015. He designed the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is to be located on the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

Pictured: Paul Gardullo, Museum Curator, Jacquelyn Days Serwer, Chief Curator, IP Stanback Museum Director Ellen Zisholtz, and Michele Gates Moresi, Curator of Collections.

A Visit From the Cape Master

Danny Ray, the former emcee for James Brown and the Famous Flames, visited the Stanback June 25 and toured the James Brown: Preserving the Legacy exhibition.

Ray performed the well known cape routine, usually during the song Please, Please, Please, where he would come out and drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage. Brown would then come back on stage and perform an encore. This was repeated several times in succession.

Pictured at top: Danny Ray with some of James Brown's jackets and hats.

Bottom left, from right to left: IP Stanback Museum & Planetarium Director Ellen Zisholtz, Danny Ray, and Collections and Exhibitions Manager Darryl Murphy.

1940's SCSU Alum Visit

Marketing Executive Allen McKellar, a 1940's graduate of South Carolina State University, visited the IP Stanback Museum and Planetarium Wednesday, June 24. Mr. McKellar, a former business associate of James Brown, toured the exhibition, taking special note of the photographs showing himself and Mr. Brown at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated.

Pictured here are, standing left to right, IP Stanback Museum & Planetarium Collections and Exhibitions Manager Darryl Murphy, Director Ellen Zisholtz, Allen McKellar, Museum Program Manager Ingrid Owens, and seated Mrs. Ernestine McKellar.

Welcome Freshmen!

The Stanback has been host to some very large crowds lately.

It is estimated that about 1500 people have toured our current exhibition James Brown: Preserving the Legacy, as well as Planetarium shows . . . just in the month of June!

Pictured is Collections and Exhibitions Manager Darryl Murphy conducting a tour to some South Carolina State University incoming Freshmen.