Mabel Wilson - Other Monumentalities - Race, Style and National Architecture

Wilson's presentation will compare the design of the original Smithsonian Institution (1855) by architect James Renwick and the new National African American Museum of History and Culture (2016) by architect David Adjaye. Wilson considers how emerging ideas of racial difference influenced the original Smithsonian’s mission and subsequent expression of a national style, an American style of architecture. Her presentation will also ask if and how Adjaye’s design for the new museum critically challenges and complicates the readings of identity, race, and culture implicit in how the U.S. was represented and imagined through the Smithsonian’s original mission and structure.