{"id":17190,"date":"2020-06-17T23:59:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T03:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=17190"},"modified":"2020-06-26T18:29:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T22:29:07","slug":"national-black-doll-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/06\/17\/national-black-doll-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"National Black Doll Museum Closing, &#8216;On The Move&#8217; Due To Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Do not despair we are &#8216;On The MOVE,'&#8221; the National Black Doll Museum said in announcing that it is closing its storefront galleries in Mansfield due to the challenges of coronavirus and looking for a new site, the institution announced yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The building doesn&#8217;t meet the basic guidelines to keep you healthy,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NationalBlackDollMuseum\/posts\/3203361456417412\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">museum said on facebook<\/a>. \u201cIn addition 80 percent of our revenue is derived from groups, tours, and schools all of which has cancelled for 2020. Therefore we have forgone our lease and a new tenant will occupy the space as of Aug. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mansfield.wickedlocal.com\/news\/20200617\/black-doll-museum-in-mansfield-closing-its-doors-due-to-coronavirus-losses-hopes-to-relocate\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Mansfield News reported<\/a>: \u201cIn early June the owner of the building announced his intention to raise the rent and do work in the building, forcing [museum co-founder Debra] Britt to make the tough decision to vacate by June 30. The space has already been leased by a new business. \u2018l wasn\u2019t prepared to go. I cried for a week. So much of what we built up is gone. How do we keep up those connections?\u2019 Britt asked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-2ioIU0chdg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The museum was founded by Britt and her sister Felicia Walker. On Facebook, they quote the early 20th century Black nationalist Marcus Garvey: &#8220;Mothers! Give your children dolls that look like them to play with and cuddle. They will learn as they grow older to love and care for their own children and not neglect them.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The museum aims to preserve representations of African Americans in dolls\u2014and through the dolls tell Black history. It began with the sisters\u2019 personal collections, then became a traveling exhibit, before they moved the collection into a storefront at 288 North Main St. in 2012. They filled a main gallery and surrounding rooms with Black Barbies; African dolls; Black Cabbage Patch Kids, dolls depicting Black historical figures, musicians, politicians,  Jackie Robinson other athletes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With a heavy heavy and broken heart we have closed our doors for all on-site programming including workshops, tours exhibit openings and our Annual fundraiser tea,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NationalBlackDollMuseum\/photos\/a.336420186444901\/2986130558140504\/?type=3&#038;theater\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the museum announced on Facebook<\/a> on March 21. &#8220;The coronavirus and National Emergency is a real threat and we must all do our best to take care of each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/9e09ba29976d\/national-black-doll-museum-on-the-move?fbclid=IwAR1mhOnRJVJFeQ01WxzU3pWBwY4OIIJUU0ZYZfbMLwXA6SBIyJGgeYfUFtc\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an email shared with museum members<\/a> reads, \u201cWe have been hoping for some time to move to a bigger site, and the COVID-closure has given us the moment to make this move. The forthcoming change in our building is only one of many changes we\u2019re undertaking to become a bigger, better, more impactful museum. But, rest assured: our mission will not change!  We will still exist to nurture self-esteem, promote diversity, and celebrate the art and history of Black dolls. We will continue to tell Black history through the eyes of a doll collector.  We will exist to be a \u2018place for all people\u2019 where important discussions can take place and community can grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>All content copyright by Greg Cook or its original creators.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Do not despair we are &#8216;On The MOVE,&#8217;&#8221; the National Black Doll Museum said in announcing that it is closing its storefront galleries in Mansfield due to the challenges of coronavirus and looking for a new site, the institution announced yesterday. &#8220;The building doesn&#8217;t meet the basic guidelines to keep you healthy,\u201d the museum said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[786],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17190"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17201,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17190\/revisions\/17201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}