FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MALI
Pro bono Assistant sought for innovative project in interactive website design and cutting edge exhibition design for US based non-profit and leading West African Museum.
The Friends of the National Museum of Mali, a tax-exempt, charitable institution, seeks a highly creative and motivated interactive web designer and innovative museum exhibition designer to build its website and provide further services. A potential of site residency in Mali is a possibility but unrelated to the service of the web design.
Description of Purpose and Project Description
The Friends of the National Museum of Mali is organized to provide support for the training, education, exhibition, collections and other programs of the National Museum of Mali and to promote, document and preserve Mali’s rich cultural and artistic heritage for future Primarily through its interactive website and the use of innovative technology, the Friends intend to develop in the United States and globally an appreciation for and understanding of the rich archeological, anthropological, cultural and artistic tradition of Mali, raise money for director identified projects and assist in the acquisition and repatriation to the museum’s collection of works of art and antiquities pertaining to the cultural artistic heritage, primarily those illegally and clandestinely exported from Mali.
The Friends of the National Museum of Mali is the first “Friends” group for an African Museum. The museum is one of the most outstanding, if not the most outstanding museum of the African continent. The crisis that Mali has undergone in the past few years has threatened the very nation to its core and threatened its cultural and artistic heritage.
As Dr. Samuel Sidibe, the museum’s long-term director, has observed, “the Jihadists, by destroying mausoleums, by forbidding traditional cultural practices, like the artistic and musical traditions, have as an omen the destruction of Malian culture and denial of a rich history that includes respect for diversity and the vibrant tradition of its ethnic groups.” We want to have the website up and running when Dr. Samuel Sidibe is here in March, as an invited guest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The projects which the Friends intend to fund are in the early stages of development, collectively the outreach and education projects, are aimed at making cultural heritage and patrimony a central part of reconstruction and development for the country. With the use of interactive technology and web design to provide further support for the National Museum of Mali’s countrywide programs and museum initiatives, this rich cultural heritage can become a catalyst for education and development and a model for other African nations.
Barbara Hoffman
artlaw@hoffmanlaw.org