Levine Museum of the New South’s latest exhibit, Lumbee Indians: A People and a Place, explores Lumbee people and culture in portraiture.

Curated by Nancy Strickland Fields, Director of UNC Pembroke’s Museum of the Southeast American Indian, this visual narrative of the Lumbee tells a history and experience of family and home, land and water, faith, and memory.

#HomeCLT is an exhibit series rooted in the stories of Charlotte’s neighborhoods. #HomeCLT aims to show the city in the words of its diverse residents, to reveal the unexpected, to prompt reflection and dialogue, and to inspire civic participation as Charlotte strives to build a more equitable future.

The first iteration of #HomeCLT includes the stories of the Eastland Mall, Enderly Park, Hidden Valley, Dilworth, and Sedgefield neighborhoods. Through an Augmented Reality app developed by Dr. Ming-Chun Lee of UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts and Architecture, visitors will “see” the demographic changes in these neighborhoods occur over time as visuals and graphics are projected on their phones and other devices.

The exhibit includes a video recording booth where visitors can tell their own stories of the neighborhoods they have shaped and that have shaped them. It also features work by Charlotte photographer, Alvin C. Jacobs, Jr., and videographer, David Butler, and is made possible by generous support from lead sponsor, Crescent Communities.

It Happened Here builds on the Equal Justice Initiative’s research into the history of lynching across America, situating Mecklenburg County’s two recorded lynchings and the local effort to memorialize the victims within the national conversation.

The exhibit also features “AN OUTRAGE,” a documentary filmed on location at lynching sites in six states and bolstered by the memories and perspectives of descendants, community activists, and scholars.

Levine Museum of the New South goes to Brooklyn, adding this rich historic neighborhood to its current exhibit #HomeCLT: People. Places. Promises – a multilayered exhibit that explores Charlotte’s neighborhoods as they’ve grown and changed over time through Augmented Reality experiences that bring the stories alive.

Brooklyn: Once a City Within a City, explores the rise and demise of Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood, once the most thriving and vibrant Black community in the Carolinas.

Brooklyn gives voice to the memories of former residents and community members. The exhibit encourages reflection about a place that provided opportunities and sanctuary for African Americans and explores the consequences of urban renewal and what a community may lose in the name of progress and growth. Visitors will also learn about the politics that further segregated the city and deepened the economic opportunity gap that Charlotte continues to struggle with today.

Learn more about Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood, on foot, with an immersive GPS-based experience.

The international exhibition, Anne Frank: A History for Today, tells the story of Anne Frank against the background of the Holocaust and World War II. The exhibit traces Anne’s family history, their experience in hiding during the war, and the legacy Anne left behind through her diary. Local students trained as docents will facilitate conversations about the lessons of this history and what they mean for us today.

Anne Frank: A History for Today is a partnership between Levine Museum of the New South and the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center’s Pop-Up History initiative. The exhibit was developed by the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina.

Including more than 1,000 artifacts, images, video clips, music, and oral histories, Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers: Reinventing Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont in the New South uses Charlotte and its 13 surrounding counties as a case study to illustrate the profound changes in the South since the Civil War.

Visitors tour many different “environments” within the exhibit for learning experiences about:

• Life in a one-room tenant farmer’s house
• Seed cotton
• Machines on the floor of the cotton mill
• Life in a mill house
• Good Samaritans Hospital Chapel, one of the first African American hospitals in the South
• Main street with stores
• Personal accounts from local sit-in leaders at a lunch counter

 

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Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth. profiles revolutionary men—including Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, W.E.B Du Bois, and Kendrick Lamar—whose journeys have altered the history and culture of the country. While these men made their mark in a variety of disciplines—politics, sports, science, entertainment, business, religion, and more—all understood the value of asserting their own agency by owning their own stories. The achievements of the men are woven within the legacy and traditions of the African American journey—achievements of excellence despite society’s barriers.

Twenty-five contemporary artists were invited to reflect and celebrate the significance of these ground-breaking individuals through their own creative vision. These works of art serve as counterpoint to the sumptuously backlit photographs and inspiring quotes and together honor the truth of the African American experience in history and today.

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture and Levine Museum of the New South are proud to collaborate and bring the dynamic exhibition Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., created by the Smithsonian, to our Charlotte community.

Men of Change was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and made possible through the generous support of the Ford Motor Company Fund.

Free admission to the Men of Change Exhibition at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture and Levine Museum of the New South was made possible by generous support from Wells Fargo.

Making Their Mark highlights men and women – including Catawba Chief Haigler, Julius Chambers, Romare Bearden, and Dr. Annie Alexander – who have influenced the growth of Charlotte’s communities, institutions, and physical spaces throughout its rich history.

Explore the stories of Catawba warriors, civil rights activists, educators, artists, leaders in healthcare and more. These individuals came from different backgrounds and lived through different times, yet collectively, their legacies shape Charlotte’s identity.

Dive into archival photographs, collection items from Levine Museum, archived PBS Trail of History episodes, original sculptures by Trail of History artists, and interpretive panels highlighting key turning points in Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s history.