Two of our favorite things, Black Panther and The Blacksonian, are joining forces!
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) announced on Thursday, June 21, the museum had acquired pieces from the film, "including the hero costume worn by actor Chadwick Boseman; a shooting script signed by Ryan Coogler (co-writer; director), Kevin Feige (producer; president of Marvel Studios), Nate Moore (executive producer) and Joe Robert Cole (co-writer; producer); two pages of spec script; and 24 high-resolution production photographs."
With this news coming on the heels of an exclusive Oprah exhibit, the Blacksonian keeps getting better and better!
The objects are set to be displayed during the iconic museum's inaugural Smithsonian African American Film Festival (SAAFF), occurring October 24-27.
We are all the way here for this!
It looks like the NMAAHC has had this in the works for a while now and sees this acquisition as laying the foundation for the museum's future.
"First of all, part of the museum's job is to collect today for tomorrow, so that there are things — like we’ve collected Black Lives Matter artifacts, we've collected things in Ferguson, things in Baltimore — and some of those are on display in the museum," said NMAAHC director Lonnie Bunch in a 2017 interview with DCist. "Some maybe won't be in display until a curator 30, 40 or 50 years from now wants to use it. Our goal is to make sure that it never happens, like it used to happen early in my career — there were exhibits I wanted to do, stories I wanted to tell, and museums didn’t have those collections. I wanted to make sure that future curators wouldn't have that problem."
And just in case you're worried about whether you'll be able to make it to the festival, the museum also announced it is considering a permanent Black Panther display. We're going to have to show up and show out at the festival, and on social media and make sure the Blacksonian knows how much this means to us!
