Saturday, August 24, from 9am to 12pm the Greenbelt Museum partnered with the Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center (PGAAMCC) to host a Community Treasure Chest event at the Greenbelt Community Center. PGAAMCC created this series of events as a way to preserve the local histories of families, individuals, and communities and to celebrate African American history across the county.

 

Participants were asked to bring their family treasures including, but not limited to, things like photos, instruments, dolls, and mementos to be included in a Pop Up Museum, a temporary exhibition created by the people who show up to participate. PGAAMCC asks: what are your ordinary miracles? How did your family come to settle here? What treasures did they leave? Are you a Washingtonian who moved out of the District? Are you from another part of the state, country, or planet? Are you a native Prince Georgian?

 

In addition to the Pop Up Museum, PGAAMCC had other activities, including creative artmaking about your migration story and also collected oral histories at an oral history station.

 

“It’s an honor that PGAAMCC asked the Greenbelt Museum to host one of their Community Treasure Chest events” said Megan Searing Young, museum director. “We’ve been working diligently to collect more local African American history since we established the Archive of the African American Experience in Greenbelt in 2012. This history is incredibly important especially since Greenbelt began as a segregated community. We’re really excited to see what people bring and to hear their memories.” 

 

This event was FREE and open to the public. For more information about the Community Chest event, please visit the Museum’s website at https://www.greenbeltmuseum.org/communitychest or www.pgaamcc.org/community.