ADKX Campus with Event tents Adirondack Experience Receives Historic $2M in State Funding to Support Creation of Major New Exhibition The African American Experience in the Adirondacks Opening in 2027
Blue Mountain Lake, NY—The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), has received $2M in funding from New York State in support of a new $3M permanent exhibition, the African American Experience in the Adirondacks. The new funding will be in addition to $750,000 ADKX has already raised. Opening on July 4, 2027, the exhibition will help celebrate the abolition of slavery in New York State.
Planning for the exhibition is already underway. Charles Clark III is serving as Project Curator and will be leading a public collecting initiative to identify documents, photographs, and artifacts in private hands that can help tell the story of the Adirondacks’ Black communities. A scholarly advisory committee of experts in African American history has been assembled and includes: Amy Godine (Independent Historian), Dr. Clarence Jefferson Hall (Queensborough Community College), Dr. Melissane Shrems (St. Lawrence University), Dr. Gretchen Sorin (SUNY Oneonta), and Dr. Connor Williams (Great Camp Sagamore). Together, they will shape the content of the 2,200-square-foot exhibition that will be the most comprehensive exploration of the stories of African Americans in the region that any museum in the North Country has ever undertaken. The exhibition will explore the lives of prominent African Americans who have called the North Country their home as well as everyday people: the miners, loggers, hospitality workers, and others who helped build the local economy. As is the case with all of ADKX’s exhibition, the African American Experience in the Adirondacks will include interactive features to engage 21st century audiences. Related school programming for regional schools will also be developed to complement the new exhibition.
“We are very grateful to have had the support of the state legislature – especially Senator Jeremy Cooney, Assemblymember Michaelle C. Solanges, and The New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus – for this important project,” said ADKX Executive Director David Kahn. “Creating this exhibition will help us realize our goal to tell the stories of all Adirondackers. We also anticipate that the exhibition will help draw African American heritage tourists to the region.”
The opening of this exhibition represents another major step forward in ADKX’s on-going initiative to reexamine and expand the narratives that have shaped common understandings of the Adirondacks and to shed new light on the experiences of diverse communities in the region. This initiative began in earnest with the opening of a major permanent exhibition on the Mohawk and Abenaki communities, Une nature sauvage et peuplée, in 2017.
The African American Experience in the Adirondacks is one of a number of major permanent exhibitions ADKX is planning to introduce in the future. Other projects will focus on Adirondack forests as well as the hotel and resort industry.
À propos de l'Expérience Adirondack, le musée du lac Blue Mountain
Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, shares the history and culture of the Adirondack region through interactive exhibits, hands-on activities, and culturally rich collections in more than 24 historic and contemporary buildings on a 121-acre campus in the heart of the Adirondacks. The ADKX offers a broad range of programs and activities including special and permanent exhibitions, the 19,000-square-foot La vie dans les Adirondacks interactive exhibition and new Artistes et inspiration dans la nature, nature trail hikes, and boating on Minnow Pond. ADKX offers daily activities with artists-in-residence, workshops, lectures, nature walks, family and educational programs, and signature events like the Rustic Fair, FallFest, and the Adirondack Art Festival. The museum is supported in part with donations from the general public, with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. For additional information, call 518-352-7311 or visit www.theADKX.org.
Media Contact:
Tara Murphy
Director of Marketing and Communications
tmurphy@theadkx.org
O: (518) 352-7311 ext. 182
Charles Clark III
Project Curator
O: (518) 352-7311 ext. 187
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