African-American center to open with Tut replicas

State News

November 23, 2009

Anonymous The Richmond Register Mon Nov 23, 2009, 08:16 AM EST

LOUISVILLE — An exhibit featuring reproductions of the treasures of Egypt’s King Tut has been signed to open the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in western Louisville.

Officials of the foundation sponsoring the Heritage Center hope the exhibit can open as early as February, but they are waiting for the city to turn over to the foundation the renovated trolley barn at 18th Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

The foundation has signed a $25,000 contract with the International Museum Institute of New York — a cost covered by a gift from E.On U.S. — to secure the exhibit for up to six months.

Alberto Acosta, curator of the museum institute in Syracuse, said his organization’s Tut exhibit is designed for cities “that can’t afford original exhibitions but can bring in reproductions.” He said the exhibit in Louisville has been secured for a special total cost of $25,000. He would not discuss the charge for other sites, but said the group tried to make the exhibit affordable for the heritage center.

“We are more than happy to be the inaugural exhibit in such a prestigious museum setting. (The Tut exhibit) should bring in a lot of people from all over the vicinity,” Acosta said.

Christie McCravy, the chairwoman of the center’s foundation board, said the Tut exhibit could be shown for less than six months, but will depend on the public response. She said the $25,000 is not refundable.

In the last decade about $23 million in public and private funds has been spent on developing the center. The city owns the property and recently used primarily federal money to complete the renovation.

City spokesman Chris Poynter said the city intends to turn over the old trolley barn complex to the foundation by year’s end, after a final inspection of the renovation by the Federal Highway Administration. A recent audit of the center project ordered by the highway administration found sloppy money management and accounting but no criminal wrongdoing.

The Heritage Center foundation needs to raise an additional $5 million to open the center as a museum. That includes, McCravy said, about $2.5 million owed to contractors and Fifth Third Bank, $1.5 million for interior furnishings and finishes, and $1 million to finish developing permanent exhibits that will focus on the accomplishments and history of Kentucky and Louisville minorities.

She said she hopes the foundation can take advantage of federal tax credits and get an interim loan to cover the needed $5 million. The loan would then be paid off with private money that is raised. On the best schedule, the museum operation would begin in 2011, she said.

Until the museum is ready, the foundation wants to have activity in the complex, renting it for special functions and rotating traveling exhibits, with the King Tut exhibit as the inaugural event.

McCravy said the Tut exhibit should help establish the African-American project as a cultural center. She noted that Egypt is part of Africa and that the exhibit will be consistent with the museum’s mission to focus on African American heritage and history. King Tut “is definitely not about Kentuckians, but (the exhibit) should shed light on early Africa.”

She said the hoped-for February opening of the exhibit would help promote Black History Month. While the Tut exhibit is expected to draw people to the center, it is not envisioned as a major revenue maker, with the adult admission likely to be around $5, she said.

Tut was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who ruled from 1333 to 1324 BC.

The Tut exhibit features about 125 replicas of pharaohs’ sacred and personal possessions, including a chariot, golden shrines, beds, thrones, jewelry, a funerary mask, sandals, a mummy case and various other replicated artifacts from the period surrounding Tutankhamun’s reign.

Acosta said the exhibit does include three ancient necklaces that date to “around the time” Tut was king. The exhibit also describes the historic discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 and the life and times of Tut, known as Egypt’s boy king.

Acosta owns the exhibit called “Tutankhamun: Wonderful things from the Pharaoh’s Tomb.” He said the company owns other traveling exhibits, including ones focusing on human origins, on Grecian urns, and on dinosaurs.

“I spent decades putting these exhibits together,” he said.

He said the Heritage Foundation will be responsible for the security, details of which McCravy indicated haven’t been worked out. She said the foundation probably will ask the city to help provide security for the exhibit. Poynter said the city is willing to discuss helping with the cost.

Chris Whelan, the spokeswoman for E.On U.S., said the parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric has pledged $75,000 to the heritage center foundation over three years, with the first $25,000 going to secure the Tut exhibit. She said the company considers the money a good investment because the exhibit has proved popular in other cities and the foundation is “a great organization.”

Acosta said his organization’s exhibit is one of two traveling Tut exhibits that feature reproductions.

In the last 10 years Acosta said his company’s Tut exhibit has been displayed at museums, colleges, science centers and other locations in more than 20 U.S. cities, including Birmingham, Ala., Bozeman, Mont., Columbia, S.C., El Paso, Texas, Oklahoma City, Peoria, Ill., Shreveport, La., and Fort Myers, Tallahassee and Sarasota, Fla.

Eric Lizee, a spokesman for the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, where the exhibit was shown for about six months three years ago, said more than 100,000 people saw the Tut display. He said there were often lines.

McCravy said the heritage center foundation plans at least three or four subsequent traveling exhibits after Tut, perhaps including one focusing of black jockeys.

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