IAAM marks its first month since opening to the public
Charleston, S.C. (WCBD) – Thursday marks one month since the International African American Museum (IAAM) opened to the public.
It’s been a very busy month for the IAAM, officials at the museum said they have been sold out every day since opening. Already they’ve seen visitors from across the United States and the world travel here to experience the museum.
News 2 spoke with the President and CEO of the International African American Museum, Dr. Tonya Matthews, who said she’s excited to see the museum so full.
Dr. Matthews said almost everyone she talks to who visit says they love it, and that they’re coming back.
This is translating into tourism growth in the city of Charleston, too. The Director of Sales and Marketing at the Palmetto Hotel told News 2 they already have guests who come through the hotel and are interested in visiting the IAAM.
Dr. Matthews said the future of the museum is exciting.
“It’s just been 30 days and things have been moving so quickly but we’ve been excited, extremely well received. More than 14,000 visitors already and we remain in sold-out status for our tickets,” she said. “But what we’ve also noticed in our visitors, is South Carolina is in the lead, in terms of buying tickets and coming to the museum, so we’re really excited that the home team is seeing themselves in this museum,” said Dr. Matthews.
Dr. Matthews also said with the school year approaching it won’t be long before classes of different ages start to tour the museum.
“Our primary mission is of course education and storytelling, we are what I say formal education adjacent. So we’re looking forward to bringing in school groups and making space for them. We know that we’ll have visitors that want to come and visit all year, but we’re definitely going to be making room for our middle school students and our high school students, and also our college students to come to the museum,” said Dr. Matthews.
Some days of the week the IAAM has availability for walk-ups within the first hour of opening from 10:00 am to 11:00 am.